Still too much life in my life...

[wildeabandon]

Even without considering that I mostly aim to work a four day week in order to have time for church stuff and study, having worked thirteen of the last nine days would seem a bit excessive. I"m expecting to do another twelve to thirteen days in the next nine*, and then I will get an actual weekend, during which I plan to do absolutely nothing at all. Then just a normal five day week, and then I'm on holiday.

I am slightly surprised at how much productivity I'm managing to maintain, and how unmiserable I am. Although I know that I wouldn't be able to sustain this for an extended period, it's reassuring to realise that as long as I've got specific and concrete external deadlines (and, let's be clear, ADHD drugs which are basically magic) I can still get extraordinary amounts done in a burst if I really put my mind to it. Of course, I couldn't do it without Robert and Ramesh picking up a fair amount of my household slack, and being relaxed about me cooking by telephone, or making very simple dishes more often than I usually would.

Waking up this morning was a bit of a struggle, but I did at least remember to look out the window at about the right time and enjoy the sunrise, which makes a considerable compensation.

*I can count. I have two clients at the moment, and on some days I am doing half a day for one of them, then a full day for the other. And in one exhausting case, a full day for both.

Comments

[mtbc]

It may be helping that church stuff study is the right thing for you. (-: Good luck with all this and do feel okay about the simpler cooking, many simple dishes are very enjoyable!

[wildeabandon]

Heh. I'm not sure that doing the serving/reading rota, and planning the agenda for the next PCC, and wrangling plumbers and builders to fix the things going wrong with the church building are exactly my deepest vocation, but someone has to do them. And perhaps being the person who does the things that need to be done so that other people's church and worship life can continue (relatively) smoothly is part of that vocation. And you're definitely right that the study is, and that that makes it easier to do.

You're right that simple food can be very good. I think my concern is less that the food I make isn't good, and more that limiting myself to dishes that I can make in, say, 45 minutes and ideally less, means that we're getting rather less variation than usual. Even delicious food can become boring if you have it too often.

[mtbc]

That's a fair point. Of some foods, I can have a whole lot of them before they start to wear thin, but there's sure a fair bit of personal variation on that point. At least people will understand that you're genuinely busy and deserve a bit of downtime too!

[juliet]

Heh, I have taken advantage of the rest of my household being away this week to make roast Mediterranean veg in large quantity once & then eat it 4 times in a row (twice as pasta sauce, twice as pasta bake, for which I did go to the trouble of making a vegan cheese-ish sauce topping). I am still enjoying it today but am alarmed to realise that unlike when I was at college and ate exactly the same pasta sauce daily for 2 years, 4 days in a row might now be my limit :(

[mtbc]

Yeah, 2 years, I can bear the same cuisine and kind of dish, but not the very same dish! Even 4 days in a row might be pushing it.

[sfred]

Wow! I'm glad you're not miserable, and I'm glad you have a holiday soonish.

[andrewducker]

I'm glad you're doing well with it. I hope you enjoy the holiday.

Will you be able to bring things under control and get your church stuff day back?

[wildeabandon]

Thank you. And yes. After my holiday I'll have a week or two of fairly normal 5 days/week 9-5, then possibly another week or two of Too Much Work (although probably not quite as bad as this), and then I can wind down for Christmas. By then I should have finished the work for my second client, and I'm going to give myself at least a couple of months in the New Year of only 3 days/week. (Which will have been more than paid for this quarter)

[emperor]

That is definitely Too Much Work!

[wildeabandon]

It really is... Sometimes I wonder whether the philosophy in my icon is actually the best one to live by. But it will at least pay for quite a lot of kitchen :)

[juliet]

That is a lot! I am glad it’s going OK for you for now, and also glad that you have an actual weekend coming up in the near future.

[the_elyan]

That is indeed a lot of life, and hope it becomes manageable before it becomes unmanageable, if you see what I mean.
I have just started a new job, and am consequently suffering from massive mental indigestion at the moment.

[wildeabandon]

Thank you. I think it will. We've made a lot of progress today, so if we don't get any nasty surprises cropping up, I might even be able to have most of Sunday off... We'll see.

[barakta]

I hope your time off comes soon and you survive the time coming up to it.

[hairyears]

Glad to hear you've set boundaries and an exit plan: there are workplaces, and entire industries, where you can be sucked into a life of 80—hour weeks.

Ask me how I know, sometime.