Small Rewards

I had an insanely busy weekend, an event Sunday night and last night and today I am just exhausted but have to work and plan for Thursday. So, I decided I was going to catch up on my blog reading as a reward for doing the really boring task I have to do today (proofing a gigantic spreadsheet). I am going to read one blog post in my reader after every column. We'll see how long my eyes hold up.

What rewards do you give yourself to help you push through when you're tired and the tasks are tedious?

12 hours of meetings anyone??

Our "retreat" (we'll save the debating of whether a meeting in a conference room in the office down the street from our main office counts as a retreat), began today. We met for 4 hours today and we'll meet all day tomorrow.

So far it's been a good process. I really hope we're able to follow the work plans we laid out today for the rest of the year. If we can, I think this will alleviate many of the stressors we currently contend with. We can plan for our major projects, but it's in our contract that we'll take care of these other tasks that can appear at any time without notice, and most of them include a very tight deadline (i.e., "in 2 hours", "by the end of the day", when it came in at 2pm). As you can see those are very hard to plan for, but I think that having a solid plan for the things we know we have to produce will help us handle these other tasks with less stress and anxiety. Sorry to be so vague, it's hard to elaborate without spoiling my anonymity.

Tomorrow is mostly going to be a focus on quality control, which is necessary but could possibly be the most boring way to spend 8 hours, ever! I do look forward to the catered breakfast, lunch and cookies! Wish me luck for not falling asleep at the conference table.

Thanksgiving Menu Planning

Here is my Thanksgiving Menu so far: anything I'm missing?

Turkey
Stuffing
Stuffing with cranberry, walnuts and cheese
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
Corn
Squash
Dinner Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Chocolate Cream Pie
Pumpkin and Apple bread
Apple pie
Pumpkin Pie

Any favorite recipes that you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them.

Time to grow up

Apparently, to my DH grown up = new, matching furniture. So, today he and I went to the furniture and bought a new couch and dining room set. Here is the couch.
The funny part is that although it's a sectional, it might just be too big for our living room so the chaise may have to be separated. He's always wanted a sectional and I thought this was really pretty so be it.

And here is our dining room table/chairs and server (I already have a china cabinet, much to DH's dismay I refused to buy the "matching one").

We bought 2 extra chairs so we'll be able to seat 8.

We also bought a new 8X10 area rug for under the table.

So, aren't you impressed with how grown up we are?

The best part is that we are picking it up next Saturday and not telling any of our friends/family that we bought the furniture. So when they come for Thanksgiving, it will all be here! I can't wait to see the look on their faces when all of our old furniture is gone. How fun.

RBOC: I'm cranky

This is a list of the things I'm cranky about right now.

• NFL football is for Sundays, not for Thursdays before Thanksgiving, it's just not right.
• The contractors doing some work here at my office took up 4 parking spots in our tiny parking lot, with 1 friggen van.
• I can feel a cold coming on... now is not a good time!
• I am hosting* Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people (in 2 weeks!!), the plumber hasn't shown up in 2 weeks and my dining room is torn apart.
• I forgot to bring my oatmeal for breakfast this AM and had to stop to buy something or I wouldn't have had anything to eat.

Now that I've vented, maybe I can get some work done.

* Edited, it used to say hosing which I found funny but couldn't leave there.

Holiday

Today is Veteran's Day!!

Technically ANJ is closed for today but I will be working all day to build up comp time for the day after Thanksgiving. Since I am actually working from home I decided today is a good one for a little work/life balance so here is the plan.

8:00-8:15pm- eat oatmeal
8:30-9:30- go for walk/run (I don't run regularly anymore so I need to intersperse)
9:30-10:00- shower
10:00-5:00- work, work, work. (with lunch thrown in there somewhere)
dinner
watch House

I'm really trying to work exercise into my daily routine so I need to take advantage of these days when they come along. Plus, I realized that I barely know my new neighborhood (and I've lived here for 1.5 months now!!) other than my routes to work and to the grocery store. Walking/running will help me to get the layout a little better.

Weekend Working

I did not get together with my WP this weekend, but that doesn't mean I haven't done any work.

I have acquired a new love and appreciation for my lap top. I know the weekend is keen writing time for me given that I have to work on actual ANJ work when I'm at work during the week but I hate the isolated feeling of working when everyone else is relaxing on the weekend. So, to ease some of those feelings I spent yesterday sitting on my couch "watching" college football while revising my dissertation manuscript on my lap top. Sure, I can't do some of the heavier thinking writing/revising that I'd be able to do in the office by myself but I have a fair amount of low level revising to do that is perfectly doable while listening to the game and hanging out with DH and any other friends/family who may be over. I spent a few hours and revised a good amount of the introduction (which really needed it!) and the methods of Study 1.

This morning I am again camped out on my couch. Just finished writing a letter of recommendation for one of my outstanding summer interns and now I'm going to either do some more manuscript revising or do some data stuff for Post Doc project. My NFL team plays at 1pm today so I'll probably work on the data stuff and save the manuscript writing for after the game.

I know that working endlessly is not even close to the ideal work/life balance but I'm getting there. I only work outside of the office when DH is working on the house and I generally do not work after I leave ANJ for the day. Oh, and if I take a weekend day off, I don't feel guilty. See, that's got to count for something right?