Week 8 - Fun vs. Adulting

It was a harried week but only because I was so busy the prior weekend that I was totally unprepared for the week. As in I didn't even fold my clean underwear – just threw them into the drawer in a wad. That kind of unprepared. Cereal for dinner unprepared. Forgetting to wear a pin twice! It all lead to being pretty darn cranky by the end of the week but my weekend without commitments turned things around.

Cindy was off on Monday and I missed having her at work. I like the 50/50 split so without Cindy, the testosterone levels were out of balance. So I ran to Joann's at lunch and bought some fabric. I'm not buying yarn but I got some cool sheep fabric. 2 months so far on my cold sheeping, btw. 10 more to go. Anyway…. Since it was a holiday and the library was closed, we were knitting at the Vets' Club, which is where we met when the library was closed after the flood. It's not open on Mondays but we leave cash for any booze we drink and I brought pizza. Andrea brought puppy chow (muddy buddies for east coasters – you know, the choc/PB chex stuff) and Erica brought delish caramel desserts in individual cups. We didn't have to stop at 8:00 (when the library closes) so it was a late night. But fun. I kind of miss knitting at the club.

On Tuesday, I picked up fish and chips for supper from the On the Hook food truck that was parked in Wahoo. I'd had it once before and wasn't impressed so decided to try it again. Nope. Done with that. After eating my expensive and lackluster fish, I sat on my butt like a lump all night and went to bed early. Alas, this didn't go very far towards recharging my energy but it did feel good while I was vegging.

The rest of the work week was uneventful but included more overpriced food, both lunches – one at a professional development lunch ($14 for a baked potato with cheese whiz, no drink and no dessert!) and a bad choice at Red Fox that was $14 plus tip for a chicken sandwich and onion chips. At least that tasted good. I swam Wednesday (for only 25 minutes after being held up at work) and again on Friday, when I was the only student. But it had we exercised, showered and ready for the weekend, which is why I like to swim on Fridays. Yay!

I had 4 major goals for the weekend – catch up on all my chores, prepare for the sale in Omaha on the 29^th, cook up a storm and find some time between all that for quality sitting/knitting time. I'm happy to say I got it all done.

I thoroughly enjoyed knitting in the sun all morning on Saturday. I forced myself to get up and dressed before lunch then started on the fridge, which was a disaster area. I made a batch of Israeli salad, which made a dent in some of the produce, and then threw lots more produce into the compost pile. It was another unseasonably warm day but the ground was super saturated so yard work was out of the question. I opened some windows and puttered the day away, making a decent dent in my to do list. When I stopped for the day, I made squash pasta and enjoyed it with some tree buck chuck (cheap wine from Trader Joe's), which killed any thoughts of post supper productivity. But I kicked into high gear on Sunday, finishing my chores and completely cleaning out the fridge. I then went down to my craft room and pulled more fabric for the Omaha sale. I had hoped to do some sorting into totes but didn't get to that. Oh well. As soon as I came upstairs, I started cooking.

I had promised to make tetrazzini for my friend Natasha, who just had back surgery, so that was first up on the list. I made 2 small casseroles (for Anne and me) and one big one for Natasha. That done, I decided to make some mulled apple cider jelly. I didn't have enough sugar for the official sure-gel recipe so found something that used less sugar on the web. I'm not sure it set but I can always use it in recipes if it's too runny to spread. I have lots of frozen fruit in the freezer so need to get busy making more jam. Maybe in March.

So a weekend at home getting things done was just what I needed to improve my mood. I'm all for chucking responsibilities in favor of having fun but this week proved there's a price to pay for too much fun. I don't know if it's an age thing or what but I'm getting to the point of not being able to go full out all weekend and then function during the week. Time to do some adulting and make sure I'm prepped for the week before I hit the hay on Sunday. Wish me luck.

Week 7 - Not Catching Up

It was another busy week. Go figure. There wasn't enough time to recharge and get everything done so guess what I chose?

The week started with dropping off my car before work on Monday. I was excited to get it fixed and hopefully never need body work again. There's nothing like starting the week with a disrupted morning but I got my butt out of the house early and was at the shop at 7:45, where I was picked up by Enterprise. Picking up my rental took no time at all and I was at work by 8:20, which is only 5 minutes off my usual time. Nice. 

I had a Nissan Sentra that was oddly longer on the outside but smaller inside than my Honda. I took Darla to lunch on Tuesday for her birthday and the longer front end threw me and I bumped into a hard snowbank while parking. I thought I saw a tiny ding in the front bumper but wasn't sure and worried about having to pay out another claim. But when I picked up my car Thursday after work, I immediately got the email from Enterprise closing out my rental with no mention of it. Whew! And it felt great to have my car back, shiny and good as new.

The Wine and Dine, an annual fundraiser for the library, was Friday night and I was in charge of door prizes. I had six at my house and needed to get them to the library Thursday night so Denise could take them to the country club Friday afternoon. I had planned to get them ready Thursday before work but couldn't fall asleep with that on my mind so got up Wednesday after failing to fall asleep and got them prepped that night. I didn't feel worried about them but must have been subconsciously. Lame!

Friday morning was another disruptive one. We were having a team retreat at Innovation Campus to work on our department promise, an icky term for our mission statement. It took some doing to get there by 8:00 (yeah, I know this shouldn't be a problem but being an 8:15 person, it is) but I made it. We slammed out our "promise" and then went directly to the State of the University speech and lunch, which was also on Innovation Campus so oh so convenient. When we got back to campus, the afternoon seemed endless. 

I had planned to go directly to the Wine & Dine after work but I spilled on my sweater so ran home to change and got to the country club just in time for the social hour. The food was good and I had fun, getting home later than I'd thought I would. Saturday was going to be another busy day.

I started the day going to the library to prep the deposit for the Wine & Dine and getting it to the bank before 10:00, when I was meeting Lori at Mocha C's for coffee. Lori was in town for her hair appointment and we were meeting before it because Andrea and I had spinning that afternoon. A bunch of the Monday Night Knitters came so we enjoyed lunch after Lori left. Andrea and I headed to spinning at 1:00.

Spinning was fun and our normal post-spinning route is Goodwill then Aldi but Andrea'd heard of a new place at spinning so we headed to the Estate Dispersal Store. It's only open one weekend each month and has estate stuff from people who have moved into senior housing. It was enormous, well organized and clean. It was more than thrift shop prices but less than antique shops and we had a ball. We found yarn, kitchen stuff, knitting books and various other stuff. My favorite thing was a set of melmac trays, mugs and silverware. Yes, even the silverware was melmac. Score! We closed the place down then hit Goodwill (didn't find much), Aldi (got a few things) then HyVee. I didn't get home until almost 8:00, when I had cheese and crackers and a beer for supper. It was a long but fun day.

I had a 9:30 phone date with Carolyn on Sunday and then talked to my sister Ginny until Lori popped in after church to pick up her seeds. Good thing I'd started laundry at 7:30 and had 2 of the 3 loads hung on the line before my socializing started. I hung the last load on the line (it was pushing 60 degrees by then) and then picked up Burger King and headed to Andrea's to sort the stuff we'd bought Saturday, which had all ended up on one ticket so we needed to figure out who owed what. Once we went through the bags, we discovered a hanging circular needle holder with hundreds of dollars worth of circular needles in it. It was overwhelming and we decided that Andrea would keep it together and I could borrow any of them whenever I need them.

My plan for the afternoon was to make turkey tetrazzini to take to my friend Natasha, who is just home from surgery. But when I went to the freezer for what I thought was a container of cooked turkey, it ended up being roasted fennel so I was thwarted. I took out 2 packages of thighs to thaw and now will be making it Tuesday night instead. Clearly it's time to organize the freezer. And the clear out of the fridge that I'd planned never happened. I chose to knit and blog instead of being productive. Oh well. I thawed some meatballs to make a meatball sub for dinner and would take more for lunches this week. Not the greatest plan but I'll live. Clearly my diet is off the rails too. Whatever! There's always hope for getting my act together next week. : )

Week 6 - Dreaming of Retirement

So after having coming off a super crappy week, I was ready for a better one. My wish was granted.

Are you wondering about that title? Well, 2 of my friends have recently given their notice and are retiring. Rene made the decision to retire at 63.5 and pay COBRA for 18 months until she qualifies for Medicare. She's going part-time in April and will officially retire in early June. Anne met with her retirement people and decided to do the same. Despite it being 3.5 years out, she already told her supervisor. Now I only just turned 59 and like my job but it's all got me thinking.

I met with my retirement guy and he assured me that I'll do fine. If the market tanks, my money will run out when I'm in my 90's. If it does OK, I'll have money still in my 90's. 90's! What are the chances I'll live that long? But I digress... He also mentioned something about my break even year being when I'm 81. From what I understand, it means that whether I start collecting social security at 62 (nope), 65 or the 70 they always recommend, I break even at 81. So you get more per month if you wait until you're 70 to collect but it takes until you're 81 to make up for the 8 years you didn't collect. Does that make sense? I think that's the deal. I had always thought I'd wait until 70 but won't I need more money when I'm younger and still travelling? I will get more info when I meet with him next month to transfer my Roth IRA to Fidelity from Horace Mann, which I'm dropping like a hot potato as soon as my car is back from the body shop. So lots of thinking about retirement.

Which continued on Thursday. The only thing on my calendar for Thursday was lunch with Dodie, which I always look forward to. So when Dodie messaged me that she was calling in sick, I got inspired. Now I don't take mental health days. I blame my manager from Valueland who instilled in his mostly student workforce that if you could fog a mirror, you got your butt to work. I can count on one hand the times I've called in when I wasn't sick in the 22 years I've been at UNL but I called in Thursday. I absolutely enjoyed sitting in the sun knitting the morning away but my mind was a whirl with thinking about retirement. While I do like my job and the people I work with, if I can get past the guilt to call in when I'm not sick, maybe I will feel like retirement is worth it when I'm 63.5. I guess only time will tell but it's absolutely on my mind.

I was supposed to be on a 600/900 week and did OK at the start of the week but got worse and worse as the week wore on. I tried to fast on Saturday and not eat until supper but caved mid-afternoon and ended up eating way too much once I started. I'm finding it really hard to stick to rotating but am not happy about my weight. Hmmm.... gotta find something that works.

I was inside all day Saturday, which was enabled by the bank run I did for the Friends of the Library on Thursday afternoon. The sun was shining and I sat in my happy spot knitting all morning on Saturday and only managed to pick up the kitchen and do the pots and pans in the afternoon. Otherwise I was in full on veg mode.

Sunday I was meeting Helen at The Ponderosa in Weston for my birthday breakfast. Helen works 7 on 7 off and so couldn't get together on my birthday weekend. I'd been wanting to go to this restaurant for awhile, enticed by Facebook posts of yummy looking food. Well, the breakfast was not only not special, I'd have to say it was below average. Oh well. From there we went back to my house and Helen and I had a lovely afternoon of knitting and chatting, which doesn't happen very often with our busy lives. She was there until almost dinner time and I only had time for a single load of laundry before caving and ordering a pizza for supper, which I enjoyed with my favorite vanilla blond beer and a DQ peanut butter sundae for dessert. So much for my diet. 

So it was a much better week than the previous one (darn good thing!) and I had lots of recharge time. I'll take it. And I'm sure the retirement thoughts, which I talked about over lunch with Layton on Friday, will be a recurring theme. Let me know if you have any wisdom to offer on the subject. Please.

Week 5 - Miserable Work Week

It was not a good week. Work week that is. It was overscheduled and stressful and BAD. It was all redeemed by the weekend, when it was all birthday celebrations, all weekend.

So the problem with the work week was that we had webinar software training from noon-3:00 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in a week where I was already teaching my 3 regular classes. They are normally 2:00-4:30 so had to be rescheduled for 3:00-5:00. So I had to set up my classroom before noon, got no lunch and then went from noon-5:00 with no break and full on concentration. I didn't have a class to teach on Wednesday but we had interviews for a student worker scheduled before and after the webinar. Add to this that I woke up at 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning so went into this hellish schedule exhausted. And with no lunch breaks for 3 days, I had to add all the errands I normally run over lunch to do after work. This led to getting home even later, eating badly and getting crankier with each passing day. Not good.

I had a mini meltdown Thursday near the end of the webinar and ended up walking outside for 20 minutes with no coat on in 20 degree weather in an attempt to calm down before teaching. Did I mention that the weather was miserable too? Cold and dreary all week. OMG! Then when I got back to my desk for a few minutes before I had to teach, Darla sent me flowers for my birthday. Now the worst thing for me to take when I'm upset is people being nice to me. The flowers were gorgeous and it made me want to cry. I splashed cold water on my face to ward that off and made it through my class. The last thing was book club at 7:00 and then I was free. I was thrilled to be done with everything.

My birthday was Saturday so I had to bring treats to work on Friday (I HATE that, btw) so had to get up and bake Friday morning. I made banana bread and rice krispi squares, which were a fall back when I didn't have the chex I needed to make my fave nutty buddies (puppy chow here in the Midwest). So with all that activity and getting everything packed and into the car, I forgot my gym bag, which I didn't realize until I got to work. The problem with that was the reservations for my birthday dinner with Anne and Rene were at 6:30 because I was supposed to be swimming after work. Rene had specifically asked for the later time because she was taking the afternoon off. I was  close to tears when this happened but it ended up working out. Rene had taken Wednesday afternoon instead so we were all happy with changing the reservation to 5:30. Done. Cindy gave me a beautiful piece of pottery with sheep on top then I had a nice lunch with Layton. I came back to find a piece of Guinness chocolate cake that one of the accountants had bought me after hearing about my crappy week at a meeting that morning. The cake was delicious and was the start of a much better mood. Dinner that night was lovely. It was my favorite restaurant and after delicious Brussels sprouts that we shared, I had pasta with a cream sauce and a glass of white wine (my fave combo) and then we split a many layered piece of chocolate cake. It was a lovely end to a less than stellar week.

Saturday morning was sheer heaven. After 5 days with zero sunshine, the sun was blazing and I spent the entire morning sitting in my chair basking in the sun while streaming and knitting. I didn't get up to shower and dress until 12:30 because Andrea was picking me up at 1:00 for my birthday lunch in Omaha.

We were meeting Lori at Blackstone Meatball for lunch then having ice cream at Coneflower Creamery next door. Lori was already seated when we arrived and there was a huge trash bag with a bow on it next to the table. Andrea brought in a big packing box too. Not only were there presents but they were huge! After ordering our meatball sliders and onion rings, I opened my gifts. The big bag had the most fun furniture ever! Not your typical present from a friend but Lori knew I was looking for a small diameter round table for next to my recliner and found this rococo masterpiece will antiquing. I love it! And Andrea gave me a fun knitting bag and a teapot shaped egg basket, which I'll fill with sock yarn, of course. Lunch was delish, as was the ice cream. We split up from there and after quick stops at Aldi and Trader Joe's, Andrea and I headed back to Wahoo. It had been a lovely day.

I started Sunday the same way – same nightie, same chair, same sunshine. Glorious! And everyone who hadn't talked to me on my birthday called on Sunday and Lorri (different Lori from Saturday – 2 R's) stopped after church. After another happy morning, I got dressed and headed outside in a t-shirt. It was 59 degrees! The snow was melting so the ground was a soggy mess but I still managed to putter on my deck and driveway (all signs of Christmas are now put away) before going inside for tea and lemon loaf cake, which was my birthday treat from Starbuck's. I was starting a rotation the next day so finished the day with a tuna melt and doritos. There'd be none of that for the next 3 weeks.

So the wonderful weekend, including the bonus warmth, ended my icky week on a high note. I have wonderful friends and a great life. I'll keep enjoying it for the last year in my 50's. When did that happen?

Week 4 - Some Midweek Inspiration

Monday started with another sunny morning basking in the sun. Nothing wrong with that! And when I lost the sun, I powered through my to do list then went to knitting at the library. I'd call that a wonderful start to the week.

We had miserable weather all week – snow then rain then frozen slush. Then more of the same. Winter in Nebraska so I shouldn't complain but it was bad enough that Dodie cancelled our lunch culture on Thursday. That did give me time to hit Aldi though so I got that off my list but no quilt museum. Oh well.

The highlight of the week was a Martin Luther King celebration on campus that featured Ruby Bridges. Now I'll admit that the name didn't mean anything to me (my bad) but I was thrilled to learn she was the little girl who first integrated New Orleans schools in the 60's. You know, the one in the little white dress in the Normal Rockwell painting. She was a wonderful speaker and I thoroughly enjoyed the event. I try to take advantage of things like this since I work at a university but I could clearly do more. Time to intentionally incorporate more culture.

I had emailed the swimming coordinator early in the week about reinstituting the swimming only pass, which we'd had for years when we swam in Mabel Lee but when we moved to the official Rec Center, it went away. Or so we'd been told. But after professing ignorance of what I was asking about, the coordinator rebutted and said they had figured out how to do it last August. Since she had never told any of us about it, we'd all been paying $45/month just to swim when we could have been paying $75 for the entire semester. I sent her a pissed off email and she tried to blame the marketing people. So not their fault! Why do so many people have problems accepting responsibility for things? At least now I can cancel my membership and pay less. I figure I'm out nearly $100 because of her lack of communication. Grrrr….

The weather didn't cooperate Saturday morning but I'll admit that I got lots more done because I didn't spend all morning enjoying the sun. I went into my bedroom and started slogging through clothes. I had intended to just get my closet under control but that lead to bureau drawers and before you know it, I had gone through both dressers too. My donate pile was huge and I no longer had stacks of clothes that don't fit getting in my way. The only thing left to go was shoes but I could live with that. I went to bed early and enjoyed reading in my toasty bed. Not such a bad way to end a gloomy, cold Saturday.

The sun did cooperate Sunday and since it was going to be above freezing, I got up periodically to do many loads of laundry so I could hang them out while the sun shined. I had sheets, sweater and jeans on the line before noon. I can't say they dried before dark so I had to finish them up in the dyer. They didn't have the lovely outdoor scent on my sheets but at least I tried.

I moved at a snail's pace all day and did manage to get my chores done but not the cooking I'd planned. It was the last day of my rotation and I'd eaten very little all weekend but still didn't break 10 pounds. Oh well. And since I was determined to have pie at knitting during my week off, I was making lemon sponge pies at 9:00 Sunday night – one for knitting and one for Donna to thank her for the lemons she brought me from California. It was a nice way to end a short work week.

Week 3 - New Workout Option

The students were back so that meant swimming was too. I still am not loving  the pool (understatement alert! I have to fight the cranky every time I swim) and so have been considering other options. Back when I had to join the gym for real (when we moved to the main pool, the swim only pass went out the door), I had thought I'd recumbent bike a couple of mornings a week before work. Well, that never happened so I wondered about getting a bike for home. What did I find at Goodwill on Tuesday but a recumbent bike! After giving it some thought, I went back to buy it on Wednesday and with my UNL ID it was only $8.57. Score! I was even able to get it into the house myself the next night (post cleaning lady). Now to actually use it. I tried for a few minutes and could feel my real knee so stopped. I need to get over that and do half an hour and see if I live to tell. If it works, I could be biking and knitting while watching TV. I'll keep you posted.

It was a 1200 week and I did OK. Tuesday night was Rene's birthday dinner and she picked Cheddar's - blech! I got the lowest calorie thing on the menu - a 6 ounce petite sirloin with 2 sides. It was fine but there was so much sodium in everything, especially the mushrooms, that I could feel my body bloating. Anyway, I made it through the week with a few cheats but not off the rails. I'd be going into another 600/900 week with hopes of being down 10+ pounds at the end of the rotation. Wish me luck.

Winter had come in with a vengeance and they were predicting a miserable day Friday. Only when I was complaining about it in the elevator did it dawn on me that I could take it off and have a 4 day weekend, which worked great because Layton had already said he'd be out of town and so couldn't do lunch on Friday. I went straight to my desk and put in a vacation request. Yay!

Friday was indeed miserable so after enjoying a relaxing morning, I headed to the craft room to start sorting fabric. I'd signed up to have a table at the Thrifty Artist's Garage Sale in Omaha on February 29th so it was time to start slogging. I was down there for 3+ hours and made it through all the baskets of fabric, leaving just a few tote bags for Saturday. 

I could have kept going but needed to get outside and start shoveling. The snow had stopped but the temp was due to plummet overnight so I needed to get my driveway cleared. When I went outside, I could see that my sidewalk was done and found my neighbor's son headed my way with his snowblower. I asked if he wanted to do more and he did (he's autistic so communication is challenging) so I told him I'd pay him $10 to do my driveway, which just left me doing a few paths - to the front step, from the driveway to the sliding door and to the compost pile. Despite only being out there for ~15 minutes, I sure managed to work up a sweat. I was done for the day. It was time to sit and knit.

As forecast, bitter cold had come in the wee hours so I woke Saturday to bright sun but below zero windchill. That lead to my favorite winter activity - sitting in my chair, drinking coffee, knitting and streaming with the sun beaming in on me. Heaven! After enjoying every minute until the sun was no longer hitting me, I got through the 5 tote bags of fabric I'd brought upstairs and spent the rest of the afternoon puttering upstairs. I find that it's nearly impossible to do stuff after dark, which means I have to maximize the daylight hours on the weekends. Am I the only one with this problem? 

Sunday is usually chore day but I had Monday off too so didn't power through them like usual. There was more streaming/knitting/drinking coffee in the sun so nothing wrong with that. Four day weekends rock!