The Answer is "No."
The question was, "Do you ever stay home?"
For a change, the question wasn't coming from Shorty with a guilt inducing tone. It was coming from Tkay while we were sitting on her patio on a Sunday night in Tucson. Our pal, Mark Mulligan, had just performed his first CD release party and Tkay, Russ and I were hanging by the fire.
The date was November 26th and since then I believe there have only been 4 days where I didn't have to do something after work or I stayed home on a weekend day. Four days out of nearly one month. That's a crazy pace.
I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to scheduling down time. I never leave enough open slots to allow for last minute things and leave some 'me' time. The holidays just make it more complicated and this year, things are just not getting done or aren't being done to the degree of years' past.
Christmas Cards: they got done, horribly late but done.
Christmas Tree and Decs: no chance. Even Shorty gave up on asking me about the tree this year. If it were just putting it up, I might have made it happen but the thought of having to take it down...ugh. Couldn't face it.
Christmas Shopping: condensed and less of it. For the past couple years, I've taken my Mom out for an afternoon of clothes shopping so she can try things on and get what she wants. This year, I got the bulk of her clothes gifts in a speed shopping trip between work and getting my hair done. I figure we can have a post-Christmas exchange trip if they don't work out.
Sugar Daddy did the bulk of his shopping on his own this year. I usually get more involved in picking out stuff for his family and pseudo-niece and nephews but this year we could only put together one post-work trip to Mervyn's and Barnes and Noble and a couple of work lunch break trips to Costco and Bookstar. I still managed to spend a good chunk of his money, though.
Cooking: more frequent but less content. I only get my organic veggies every other week now and I've actually been using them pretty well. The one good thing I've done for myself is not doing any fast food dinners. No matter how late it is, I've resisted the easy out. However, the menus have consisted of pretty much one dish. It could be squash, greens, cow or chicken but it's only one item. OK, that's probably not very healthy but at least I'm mixing it up.
Christmas baking really didn't happen. I backed two batches of cupcakes for work but I didn't do any rolled out cookies or bread this year. Despite Sugar Daddy suggesting it a few times.
Reading: what's that? The last book I finished was a re-read of Angela's Ashes for our November book club. I checked out a business read from the library and kept it for weeks, unfinished, before I finally gave up and took it back. It was overdue and I'm thinking the fine's going to run into the double digits.
Blogging and Emailing: not so much being done here. I'm trying to catch up on reading my usual blogs late at night before going to bed. I'm also doing a lot of emailing then. The Babes have adjusted to my schedule - they send me an email before they go to bed and know that there will be a reply when they get up in the morning. Mike Finnegan and I have had a couple of IM sessions around midnight, too, so the lesson to be learned is that if you want to engage me in an online conversation, try it after 11 PM.
Club Stuff: trying not to let anything slide. We had our Holiday Party last Saturday and a couple of us had a PF Chang's Marathon planning meeting that morning so it was a busy day. The newsletter is due out next week and I haven't even started it. At least the elections for next year are over so we can start planning for 2007.
TV: thank God for the winter scheduling break! If all of my usual shows had new episodes going on, my DVR would be full. Fortunately, most of them are on breaks until January.
Work: the only place I'm not shortcutting. We just bought another company and I'm on the integration team so there's lots of meetings, data analysis and programming changes to be detailed out. It's been incredibly busy. I'm trying to not let it be all-consuming, though. Sugar Daddy and I spend a lot more of our lunch hour (which is usually less than an hour) talking about work than we usually do and I'm trying to limit working late to just one night a week (albeit a pretty late night).
Sleep: I vaguely recall the concept. The good news is my insomnia induced habit of waking up at 2 AM for an hour or so is gone. The bad news is that I'm not going to bed until after midnight so I think I'm just too exhausted to wake up at 2.
Fortunately, I'm used to constantly racing and I can tell when I'm about to crash. The song, Who Needs Sleep, by The Bare Naked Ladies is constantly streaming in my head. (I've got that in common with The Rogue Historian.)
Who needs sleep?
(well you're never gonna get it)
Who needs sleep?
(tell me what's that for)
Who needs sleep?
(be happy with what you're getting
There's a guy who's been awake since the Second World War)
The warning of an impending crash is when the music changes to an old Buffett tune, Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season.
And now I must confess, I could use some rest
I can't run at this pace very long
Yes it's quite insane, I think it hurts my brain
But it cleans me out and then I can go on
When that becomes the background noise in my head, I know it's time to take a break. It's only happened twice in the past month and I heeded the warning both times.
The first time was the day that Mark had his second CD release party. I worked registration at a golf tournament that morning and had Doona's cocktail party that night. Mark's show was in the afternoon and, much as I wanted to be there, I crashed instead. A three hour nap was just the ticket that day.
The second time was last Sunday. I'd gotten home from the club Holiday party at 3 AM, slept until 11, putzed around then napped during the Cardinal's game and pretty much didn't leave my couch the entire day. It was just what the doctor would have ordered if I'd consulted one.
That was the recharge I needed so I'm good to go for another few weeks.
Added a few minutes later...
I was proofreading the posted version of this post and it occurred to me that maybe my pace isn't all that excessively unusual. For those folks with kids and all their school and group activities, having 4 days open in a month is probably a huge luxury.
For a change, the question wasn't coming from Shorty with a guilt inducing tone. It was coming from Tkay while we were sitting on her patio on a Sunday night in Tucson. Our pal, Mark Mulligan, had just performed his first CD release party and Tkay, Russ and I were hanging by the fire.
The date was November 26th and since then I believe there have only been 4 days where I didn't have to do something after work or I stayed home on a weekend day. Four days out of nearly one month. That's a crazy pace.
I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to scheduling down time. I never leave enough open slots to allow for last minute things and leave some 'me' time. The holidays just make it more complicated and this year, things are just not getting done or aren't being done to the degree of years' past.
Christmas Cards: they got done, horribly late but done.
Christmas Tree and Decs: no chance. Even Shorty gave up on asking me about the tree this year. If it were just putting it up, I might have made it happen but the thought of having to take it down...ugh. Couldn't face it.
Christmas Shopping: condensed and less of it. For the past couple years, I've taken my Mom out for an afternoon of clothes shopping so she can try things on and get what she wants. This year, I got the bulk of her clothes gifts in a speed shopping trip between work and getting my hair done. I figure we can have a post-Christmas exchange trip if they don't work out.
Sugar Daddy did the bulk of his shopping on his own this year. I usually get more involved in picking out stuff for his family and pseudo-niece and nephews but this year we could only put together one post-work trip to Mervyn's and Barnes and Noble and a couple of work lunch break trips to Costco and Bookstar. I still managed to spend a good chunk of his money, though.
Cooking: more frequent but less content. I only get my organic veggies every other week now and I've actually been using them pretty well. The one good thing I've done for myself is not doing any fast food dinners. No matter how late it is, I've resisted the easy out. However, the menus have consisted of pretty much one dish. It could be squash, greens, cow or chicken but it's only one item. OK, that's probably not very healthy but at least I'm mixing it up.
Christmas baking really didn't happen. I backed two batches of cupcakes for work but I didn't do any rolled out cookies or bread this year. Despite Sugar Daddy suggesting it a few times.
Reading: what's that? The last book I finished was a re-read of Angela's Ashes for our November book club. I checked out a business read from the library and kept it for weeks, unfinished, before I finally gave up and took it back. It was overdue and I'm thinking the fine's going to run into the double digits.
Blogging and Emailing: not so much being done here. I'm trying to catch up on reading my usual blogs late at night before going to bed. I'm also doing a lot of emailing then. The Babes have adjusted to my schedule - they send me an email before they go to bed and know that there will be a reply when they get up in the morning. Mike Finnegan and I have had a couple of IM sessions around midnight, too, so the lesson to be learned is that if you want to engage me in an online conversation, try it after 11 PM.
Club Stuff: trying not to let anything slide. We had our Holiday Party last Saturday and a couple of us had a PF Chang's Marathon planning meeting that morning so it was a busy day. The newsletter is due out next week and I haven't even started it. At least the elections for next year are over so we can start planning for 2007.
TV: thank God for the winter scheduling break! If all of my usual shows had new episodes going on, my DVR would be full. Fortunately, most of them are on breaks until January.
Work: the only place I'm not shortcutting. We just bought another company and I'm on the integration team so there's lots of meetings, data analysis and programming changes to be detailed out. It's been incredibly busy. I'm trying to not let it be all-consuming, though. Sugar Daddy and I spend a lot more of our lunch hour (which is usually less than an hour) talking about work than we usually do and I'm trying to limit working late to just one night a week (albeit a pretty late night).
Sleep: I vaguely recall the concept. The good news is my insomnia induced habit of waking up at 2 AM for an hour or so is gone. The bad news is that I'm not going to bed until after midnight so I think I'm just too exhausted to wake up at 2.
Fortunately, I'm used to constantly racing and I can tell when I'm about to crash. The song, Who Needs Sleep, by The Bare Naked Ladies is constantly streaming in my head. (I've got that in common with The Rogue Historian.)
Who needs sleep?
(well you're never gonna get it)
Who needs sleep?
(tell me what's that for)
Who needs sleep?
(be happy with what you're getting
There's a guy who's been awake since the Second World War)
The warning of an impending crash is when the music changes to an old Buffett tune, Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season.
And now I must confess, I could use some rest
I can't run at this pace very long
Yes it's quite insane, I think it hurts my brain
But it cleans me out and then I can go on
When that becomes the background noise in my head, I know it's time to take a break. It's only happened twice in the past month and I heeded the warning both times.
The first time was the day that Mark had his second CD release party. I worked registration at a golf tournament that morning and had Doona's cocktail party that night. Mark's show was in the afternoon and, much as I wanted to be there, I crashed instead. A three hour nap was just the ticket that day.
The second time was last Sunday. I'd gotten home from the club Holiday party at 3 AM, slept until 11, putzed around then napped during the Cardinal's game and pretty much didn't leave my couch the entire day. It was just what the doctor would have ordered if I'd consulted one.
That was the recharge I needed so I'm good to go for another few weeks.
Added a few minutes later...
I was proofreading the posted version of this post and it occurred to me that maybe my pace isn't all that excessively unusual. For those folks with kids and all their school and group activities, having 4 days open in a month is probably a huge luxury.
