I don’t know what to say.
My daughter sobbed into my shoulder last night and I didn’t know what to say.
I will stand in front of my students today and I won’t know what to say.
I don’t know what to say.
My daughter sobbed into my shoulder last night and I didn’t know what to say.
I will stand in front of my students today and I won’t know what to say.
As this is the third election in my lifetime that has filled me with dread, I wonder if there will ever be a time when this day does not make me sick to my stomach with anxiety. It really sucks.
But at least, after today, it will be over. They moved San Francisco’s mayoral election to the presidential election year, and this year my district had to elect a new Supervisor, so the amount of paperwork we’ve been receiving and TEXT MESSAGES I’ve been getting, has been astronomical. We also had several state and local measures to vote on. Our ballot was FOUR DOUBLE SIDED PAGES LONG! It took forever to go through it all last night.
But we did and my husband brought my ballot in this morning. I’m thankful that after today, it will be over.
I really hope the results are not devastating.
It’s weird to have other things to say today. But I guess I do?
The 14yo’s transition to high school has been rougher than I expected. She has ADHD and she has really struggled to keep track of assignments and get so much homework done in the late hours of the day when her medicine has worn off. Helping her manage her workload is a new job that my husband and I are struggling with. It makes me tired.
My husband has been home for several days and is still totally tired and out of it. This also makes me tired.
I had six students out in one class yesterday and five in another class. I spend SO MUCH TIME trying to help students get caught up when they are out. Yet another thing that makes me tired.
Blerg.
I think I’m just feeling really overwhelmed right now. I just had a conversation with my husband about seeing my sister on Saturday and I started sobbing. Clearly I am not handling all this anxiety with grace.
I need to figure out a strategy for managing NaBloPoMo too. I want to comment more (WAY MORE), but I’m struggling with it on my phone. I want to experiment with a couple different strategies, but so far I’ve had time to try out zero. I want to think this week is just crazy but every week will end up being crazy, especially once my sister is in town (she comes Thursday). I will figure it out eventually, but thank you for your patience as I do so.
And here are cats!
This weekend was busy. I really appreciated falling back and getting the extra hour on Sunday
I did my regular Saturday morning chores, and prepped for my dad to take the 11yo to swimming. They left at 10:30 and I walked out the door soon after. I taught Teens, then went to Sparring, Forms, and High Belt at the dojo. I was there from 11am to 3pm.
Back at home my kids were done with the lunch my dad got them on his way back from swim. I cleaned up a bit, then took a quick shower before grabbing sandwiches for myself and my husband and heading to the airport to pick him up. He had been traveling for 28 hours and was super out of it.
I ran down to the Day of the Dead celebrations after I dropped off my husband. It was cold and I was alone, so I didn’t stay long.
That evening was pretty chill. My daughter and I watched Interstellar, which she loved. I haven’t seen it in ages and really enjoyed it. It was nice to hang out with her.
So much to do Sunday. While I knew on Friday we were falling back this weekend, I totally forgot about it on Saturday. So when I woke up on Sunday I kind of freaked out, feeling like I had slept in too much, and was confused when my phone said it was just 8am. Then I remembered and was very happy for the extra hour.
Sunday was a busy day. I took my daughter and her friend up to my favorite park and they walked the circuit once while I ran it twice. It was a beautiful day and I was so happy to be outside. Back at home, I helped my son with his martial arts form for about 45 minutes, then did a 30 minute Dale Duro class on Peloton. After I showered I made pumpkin pancakes, both for dinner and for my son’s lunches. After family dinner, I took the 14yo’s friend home, then we hit up Grocery Outlet to buy milk and a couple other things. We ran into the 14yo’s old friend and her mom and talked to them for a while. At home again the kids made their lunches, then we watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec, before going to bed. I try hard to take advantage of this time change to get to bed earlier, at least for a couple weeks.
MONDAY: Rest after Fri-Sunday workouts
TUESDAY: Dale Duro 30 min Upper Body Strength
WEDNESDAY: Rest (this was the first day I was sick with the 11yo’s cold and I didn’t feel great)
THURSDAY: Dale Duro 30 min Full Body Strength (I can’t believe I did this at 10:30pm on Halloween night, with a cold!)
FRIDAY: 20 min climb ride (Tunde, 5/26/24) then 15 min core (Samuela, 10/26/24)
SATURDAY: Sparring + Forms + High Belt at dojo
SUNDAY: 5 mile run, then Dale Duro 30 min glutes and legs
Well helloooo there! It’s day number 3 of NaBloPoMo 20204 and I’m finally getting around to introducing myself. My (blog) name is Noemi. I’ve been blogging in this space for about 10 years (aak! I missed my 10 year anniversary here in September! ALL THE FACE PALMS! (but totally not surprising)). I started blogging at a different site in 2008, and was a big part of the ALI (adoption, loss, infertility) community for many years. I had many close blogging friends during that time, and traveled to meet some of them. That blogging community saved me during some really difficult years, and I was saddened when it eventually became undone by the passage of time.
I blogged in what felt at times like a vacuum for some long years before finding San’s NaBloPoMo last year and participating. I found so many new blogs to read and this past year has felt like a kind of blogging renaissance for me (of my god if you could have seen how to I tried to spell renaissance right then! HA!) I am so thankful to have found this community of bloggers and am thrilled to be participating in NaBloPoMo again this year.
So what else to tell you about me and this space…
I keep my identity here on lock down. At least I try hard to. I don’t post pictures of myself or my family. I’m a teacher and I don’t want students to find this space. I’m not on ANY social media and I want to stay anonymous here. I hope that remains the case, but I wonder sometimes if I give away too many clues. I suppose I’m not as worried about someone who reads this blog figuring out who I am, I’m more worried about people who know me “in real life” finding it.
I was born in Singapore and lived in Hong Kong for seven years (six of them formative). I was back in the Bay Area for most of middle school and all of high school. I studied Linguistics at UC Berkeley and eventually went to SF State to get my teaching credential. I moved to San Francisco the same summer I got a job teaching Spanish in the same district on the peninsula that I attended as a kid (where my mom was still teaching). 21 years later I am still in that position. I never considered teaching Spanish (it is not my native language), but I love it and am forever grateful that I fell into what ended up being the perfect teaching position for me.
I still live in San Francisco, with my husband (who was born and raised here and still lives here as an adult – a unicorn!) and two kids. My 14-year-old is a freshman in highschool and my 11-year-old is in 5th grade at a Spanish Immersion elementary school. They both go to public schools in San Francisco.
It can be hard to live in such an expensive city, especially when you’re living on public school teacher and civil servant salaries. We try hard to take advantage of living here. My husband works for the city and always knows what’s happening in different neighborhoods. We go to events and visit museums. We try out new restaurants and see live music. We take public transit as a family, so our kids can get around by themselves. We are really trying to LIVE with kids in this city, and I appreciate that because it can be really hard to stay here with children.
What else to say about me. I’m an active person who loves to exercise. I run, bike, strength train, and practice martial arts. Martial arts is actually a really big part of my life right now, and I think I’ll dedicate another post to that because it’s not something you read about on most people’s blogs! But I do love moving my body, and have run a marathon and ridden several centuries and I swam competitively when I was young. I’m also 44 and learning that my body needs more attention than it once did. I injured my knee last February and have been dealing with lower back pain for a couple years now. I recently saw someone and learned a lot about my posture and what I need to do stand and sit in ways that doesn’t put pressure on my back. I should probably write another post just about that too.
I’m managing other things about getting older too – like perimenopause, which I’m experiencing early because of having diminished ovarian reserve. I’m quite a few years in and not loving it (shocker!)
So what do I write about here? Daily life. Trying to stay organized even though my ADHD brain struggles mightily with executive functioning. Raising kids in a big, expensive city. Crazy projects around the house that I take on myself (sometimes to save money, sometimes because I’m incredibly stubborn). Marriage and all the highs and lows that come with sharing your life with another imperfect person who is trying their best. Friendship, and all the ways I struggle to show up for others in the ways I want to. The myriad ways my body is failing me, and the work I make it do anyway… My cats! I have two of them, and I honestly don’t write about them enough. Their faces will definitely grace these “pages” this month.
Actually, maybe that is a perfect way to end this imperfect (re) introduction, with pictures of my cats. And of the beautiful city I live in (taken on my run this morning).
Thanks for stopping by. I’m looking forward to posting every day and to commenting a lot more than usual! Let’s do this!
At 11 and 14, my kids still like to participate in Halloween, although the ways they do are changing. They both wore costumes to school. The 11yo wore his Deadpool body suit to school – without the swords and mask – and the 14yo dressed like a random video game character and everyone thought she was supposed to be Velma. I dressed as a Minion because that is what our staff voted for as our theme. The 11yo wore his Fall Guys hot dog out to Trick-or-Treat, but ended up being super annoyed by it.
The school day was long because Thursdays are always long and Thursdays with kids in costumes are longer.
I made sure my kids ate dinner early and by 6pm we were out of the house. The 14yo went to her friend’s house, where she thought they would go Trick-or-Treating, but they ended up staying in and she had big feelings about that. She was okay not going this year, but is not okay with never going again. It’s hard to grow up.
I went out with the 11yo and his friends. We went to a neighborhood that is close by, but that we’ve never been to on Halloween. It ended up being a great spot, and I’m sad we never went there before.
We passed by one house with over 100 beautifully carved pumpkins. Evidently 45 of them are fresh and the rest are foam and reused every year.
The 11yo’s party ended at 9pm and we were home by 9:30pm. I picked up the 14yo at 10pm and grabbed milk at the store on the way over there. I had to wait for the 14yo to shower (she takes forever) so I got a little workout in at 10:30. It was nuts but it worked. I was asleep by midnight.
Today is Day of the Dead and I was able to check out the festivities in the Mission after I picked up my husband from the airport. It was crowded and I was cold so I didn’t stay long, but I appreciated seeing some of it.
Ah! I’m so torn. Today is Nov 1, which is the first day of the month and the first day of NaBloPoMo, which I am enthusiastically participating in (sign up with San if you want to too!). I think I shall push my reintroduction post a couple days, because I want to spend today looking at some “Must-dos” for November.
As you may know, I read Kendra Adachi’s The Plan recently, and have been trying to create an organizational system that works for my ADHD raddled brain. Reading her book, I was made aware – AGAIN! – that my biggest problem is trying to take on too much. One of her recommendations is to look at the month ahead and write down a list of “Must-dos” and “Hope-tos”. Then, and this is maybe the most important part for me, she recommends breaking them down into their component parts, so you really see what each “task” requires. Most of the time one “task” is really a many step project.
November is a busy month for me this year because my sister is in town (she usually comes in January). A couple things happen every November (making the calendar and putting up the tree), and some are specific to this November (cleaning up the downstairs because of my sister in town AND I’m hosting book club on 12/1). So here are my five Must-dos, with a bonus Hope-tos at the bottom.
Now that I have these lists written out, I will put events (when my sister is in town) on the calendar and tasks in the three priority bullet points for each week of the month. Hopefully then I’ll stay on top of these important projects and not end up having to do the whole calendar during the Thanksgiving break.
I’m realizing right now that this might be the most boring post ever! And I putting it up to start NaBloPoMo! A harbinger for what’s to come?! 🤣🤦♀️
I’ll check in at the end of the month to let you know how all these projects/tasks worked out. They all have to happen, so I know they will, I just want them to happen more intentionally. Maybe what I really hope to do is realize how much I’ve already committed to and make decisions about what else to commit to accordingly (a couple Hope-to tasks originally were on my Must-do list but I moved them over after seeing the entire list and being more honest with myself about what really had to happen and what I wanted to happen.
Happy Halloween! I meant to post this yesterday but it didn’t happen. Par for the course around here lately. {I do plan on participating in NaBloPoMo this year, though my recent track record would suggest I will struggle to post daily.}
Blerg. I try to keep it pretty positive here, but sometimes you just need to get out the gripes and grumbles, you know? And now is one of those times.
I lost a bag with some running clothes and my (very expensive) pair of Shokx open ear headphones. I remember I threw it all in a TJs bag and brought it into my room one day when I hoped to run after work. But I didn’t end up running and that bag went… who knows where! I haven’t run in ages so I didn’t realize it was gone until I went last weekend. At first I thought I just misplaced the headphones, but then I went looking for that particular running shirt and couldn’t find it either and remembered THE BAG. I have spent hours looking for THE BAG to no avail. I would look all over at home, then assume it was at school. Then I’d look all over school and assume it was at home. I was still in this endless cycle of increasing frustration when I went looking for a blue tutu I swore was at school (I have a bunch of different colored tutus for class video skits), but that was gone too! So I added a blue tutu to my “it’s at school, no it’s at home” cycle and thoroughly lost my mind.
At one point I realized I was as mad about the time I was wasting as I was about the lost items, and I finally just let it go.
Except, when I look for something for long enough I just get in that mindset and every time I walk into a room I look around wondering, could it be hiding in here? It’s truly driving me crazy. I HATE losing things. I’ve lost so many things in my life. I hope when I die I get to sit in a room and watch a slide show of where everything I lost ended up going, complete with a flimsy tripod holding the projector screen.
Another thing driving us crazy is our academic calendar. They moved our January PD (professional development) to Nov 1st, which means we have one less instructional day in our first trimester. I do get to visit our feeder high school that day, which I’m VERY excited about, but that day off is making it hard to finish everything I need to comfortably in the first trimester.
My next gripe is actually about the regular calendar because Thanksgiving week being the last week of November is making me crazy. Because it’s so late, we end our first trimester a week before the break, and have one week of the second trimester right before the week off. This is soooo annoying for so many reasons (assessments that count for Tri1, need to happen in Tri1, which means will be starting new material and then leaving for a week long break. Blerg.) But my grievances don’t stop there! The late Thanksgiving Break means we only have 3 weeks of instruction in December, except it’s not even a full three weeks because we have Friday 12/20 off and that Thursday is a short day?! Why?! Again, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have an assessment when we come back from a two week break – somethings really should get done before we leave for such a long time. And when we come back from that break we’ll have TWO FULL WEEKS before MLKJr day off on 1/20. UUUUGH.
I really do not appreciate our academic calendar this year. It’s making the part of me that loves to make things fit nicely into the time provided want to tear her hair out.
Update: I planned out November and December for my 1A class and I feel a lot better about it.
Many of my classes have been watching Coco this week, as a culmination of our Day of the Dead unit, and I’ve been trying to use that time to put barcodes on all the books in my 1A and 1B libraries. I finally figured out how to generate the barcodes, but didn’t realize until it was too late that they printed in a totally random order. It took forever to locate each one. The good news is, I think I know how to avoid it happening for my 1B library. Fingers crossed!!!
Speaking of work gripes, I have so many kids this year who are missing so much school. I have 11 students who have missed 7+ days already this school year! I probably spend a third of my time posting digital copies of work for missing students (which they don’t do), or responding to their emails, or scoring and inputting their work weeks after we did it. I obviously don’t want students here sick, but none of these students are out for that many days because they are really so sick they need to stay home each time. School avoidance is real and it’s a massive time suck for teachers. Massive. (A few of these students are missing school for travel sports, which I will not speak my mind on because my views might not be popular.)
My final grumble is that I got my son’s cold. It’s not a bad one, but I don’t feel great. And today I’ve sneezed a thousand times I swear! I’m not sure what is going on, but my nose just itches constantly and I’m sneezing like crazy. It’s driving me nuts!
Tonight my daughter will be out with her friends and I’ll be taking my son out with his friend group. I’m exhausted and just want to stay home, but my husband is still in Dubai so I’m on tonight. Blerg. Maybe next week will be better…? I can’t believe tomorrow is November.
This was going to be a Five on Friday post and then a Six on Saturday post and now I’m barely getting it up on Sunday night. Blerg. I need to find better ways to prioritize blogging.
In the meantime, there are seven things making me smile today (and yesterday and Friday).
My daughter and husband got me a Brat shirt at the Charli XCX concert. I cut it and I love it and I got a ton of compliments on it on Friday. Yay!
Son was invited to a birthday party on Friday afternoon. He was picked up from school and wasn’t home until 8:30pm. It also happened to be one of the few Fridays that the staff from my school got together for happy hour. I usually can’t go to these events, but this Friday I could! And it was lovely and I’m so glad it worked out timing wise.
Somehow I managed to work out on Friday after happy hour. I did a 15 minute hill climb and then the final 30 min (full body) class of week 1 of Dale Duro. Saturday I went to sparring and then stayed for forms and high belt class. Sparring was intense, and so was forms – I was sweating bullets and so tired. Today I went for a short run (first time in forever) and then did the first class of the second week of Dale Duro (legs and glutes). I’m pleased with the ending to this week’s worth of workouts.
I usually spend 30-60 minutes writing a lesson plan when I teach the Teens class at the dojo, but this week I just went for it. It was targets, which are easier to manage without a plan, but I was still proud of myself. I’m trying to sign up to teach more Teens classes, so I need to start feeling more confident about teaching without a written lesson plan. This was a good start!
I thought of a new way to do something at school and it solves several long standing problems. I am stoked! I should have time this week while my students are watching Coco to make it happen too. Speaking of school, I went to Office Depot on Wednesday to get cardstock for my book bingo boards and they didn’t really have a good set of colors, so I ordered a pack on Amazon. The colors are perfect, and there are 64 sheets of each color, which means I will have exactly enough for next year too! This pack has 50% more cardstock for $4 less than at Office Depot. Woot!
I got my book club book done literally minutes before we met. I really liked it! And I enjoyed talking about it at book club. (Mostly I loved hanging out with adult friends at book club – I was there for three hours!) I also finished Liane Moriarty’s newest book Here One Moment and ended up really liking it. I will admit the middle third was rough for me (just so much thinking about death, which can get to me), but I loved how it all came together at the end. I listened to the first third at x1 and the middle third at x1.5 then x1.75!), but ended it at x1.25. I listen to Liane Moriarty’s books because I LOVE the narrator, Caroline Lee. This book has another narrator as well and I really liked her too! It’s hard to hold one’s own next to Caroline Lee so props to Geraldine Hakewill.
My husband left for a work conference in Dubai today. He’s been working through BIG feelings about it and I’m relieved he is finally on his way so I do not have to help him manage those big feelings anymore. I hope the conference goes well, and that the kids and I survive Halloween on our own.
Speaking of Halloween, Son’s Deadpool costume came earlier than expected today and it actually fits him okay. He’s not sure he’s going to wear it, but it’s nice to have options. We may keep it for next year if he doesn’t want to wear it this year. (He has never seen any Deadpool movies, but he does read some of the comics on Marvel Unlimited (they are less R-rated.)
Oh wow, what a week. What a weekend! I’m so, so glad it’s over.
Friday I was pretty zonked because I couldn’t fall asleep until 2am on Thursday. I took my son to the dojo, but came home to work out while he was there. I did half my workout, then went to get him, and finished up when we got home. I also got pupusa’s for dinner by the dojo (a church sells them on the street on Fridays and they are soooo good and so reasonably priced).
Our daughter was at a sleep over Friday, so we had more opportunity to watch something, but we were both zonked so we didn’t really. I was bummed about that, but it was probably the right choice.
Saturday morning I got up way later than I intended – at 9:30! I never sleep in that late. I guess I needed the sleep after the fiasco that was Thursday night. I cleaned the house and wrapped birthday presents while my husband took our son to swimming. When they got back my husband and I walked to the SFUSD enrollment fair to learn more about a few middle schools were considering for our son next year. By the time we got back it was 30 minutes until grandparents arrived for our son’s family birthday. I will say, the house looked really good when they all got there. I was pleased.
The timing was weird on the family because of the enrollment fair in the morning and our daughter’s Homecoming dance in the evening. Even though we got together between meals, we ordered these amazing flatbread pizzas from my friend’s restaurant, and my in-laws were kind enough to pick them up for us. We all snacked on them while the almost 11-year-old (his actual birthday is Tuesday) opened his presents. Then we had cake, and everyone was gone about 1.5 hours after they got there. I very much appreciated that.
After spending about 45 minutes in the backyard working on my next martial arts form, I helped my daughter get ready for Homecoming. A little before 7pm I took her over to the dance. She looked lovely, and even though she’s been managing some friend drama that reared its ugly head at the dance, she had a good time.
My husband picked her up around 10pm and she was up super late after she got home, so again we didn’t watch anything. Oh well.
Sunday I was up at a reasonable hour (8:30am). I worked out, as did my husband, and by 1pm we were out the door. Our son wanted Krispy Kreme donuts instead of cupcakes, so we stopped there before heading to Dave & Busters. I did not realize there would be a 49ers game right when I booked the party, or that Dave & Busters is such a popular place to watch football. It was totally nuts there, and I was very thankful the birthday room was separate from the main area.
Most of the invitees had a soccer game until 2:15pm that day, so we knew they would be late. Luckily two friends came on time and my son headed out to play games with them. The rest of the crew was there by 2:45. They ate, and played the games, and enjoyed donuts right before we lost the table at 4pm. We had extended the party to 4:30 for the soccer players, since the game cards worked all day, and that timing ended up being perfect. They were pretty much done by then, and ready to go home. They enjoyed their goodie bags and had a great time. It was definitely a success, and even though I blanched at the final bill, I was soooo grateful that we had it there and whole party required so little planning on our parts.
We hit up Spirit Halloween on the way home, because I’ve been worried my son’s Deadpool costume would not arrive in time for Halloween. He found a Fall Guys hotdog costume the he LOVES, so now I can let go of that anxiety, and I’m so grateful for that. He seriously wanted to wear it all afternoon.
We got In-n-Out on the way home, which my husband and daughter ate very quickly, because by 6:30pm we were back in the car and I was dropping them off a couple blocks from the Chase Center to see Charli XCX. I really wanted to go to this show, and was going to for a bit (my husband offered me his ticket), but it was clear my daughter wanted my husband to go, as was originally the plan, so I conceded (and her relieved response suggested that was the right move). I’ve definitely felt pangs of jealousy this evening, as I did all the start-of-week and end-of-day chores while they enjoy the show, but I’m also wiped so it’s probably for the best.
I’ve finished the two main parts of The Plan and spent some time at Dave & Busters today doing a brain dump and trying to plan November, which will be a tricky month because my sister is coming to town. I only get to see her once a year (she lives in London), so I have to take advantage of her being here, which can be stressful since the rest of my life has to happen too. We have a complicated relationship and hanging out with her is not always joyous so… I don’t know. It’s just a little fraught. And I’m trying to be more intentional by naming what is important and identifying how I feel about it, what has worked well when she’s in town and what has caused stress. Maybe I can actually figure out how to enjoy her being here, instead of mostly dreading it before she comes, feeling stressed out when she’s hear, and then regretting choices I made after she leaves. Blerg. We shall see.
And now a little rundown of my workouts this week, because I want to keep track of that moving forward, as it’s been such a point of contention between my husband and I.
M: This was the day I attempted my first bike bootcamp, and realized I couldn’t cast to our old screen and still hear on my AirPods. After burning crazy time trying to make it all work, I gave up and did a 30 minute Intervals and Arms class with Tunde.
Tu: Forms, Sparring Concepts (Ground Grappling class), then Sparring at the dojo.
W: Rest day (I mostly picked up the house).
Th: The new monitor (with speakers!) came right when I got home from school, and I was able to set it up and do a 45 minute bike boot camp (w/ Jess Sims)! It was awesome. The only hard part is I can’t pause the class when it’s casting, and I realized that I pause the class a lot! This is ultimately a good thing, as I’ll be more efficient with my workout time if I can’t pause the classes, but it’s going to take some getting used to.
F: 20 min hill climb (w/ Robin Arzón) + Dale Duro class 1 (glutes and legs). The hill climb was super hard – I was sweating bullets by the end and totally out of breath. It was my first cycling class (no bootcamp) and I really liked it. I’m very excited to explore more 15-30 minute classes like that before I do strength training. I also started my first Peloton program, called Dale Duro (w/ Camila Ramón), which is three weeks long and entirely in Spanish. I really like it, and I’m pumped to try a program and see if it feels more comprehensive than just throwing stuff together myself.
Sa: Rest, but I did spend 45 minutes in the backyard working on my form.
Su: 15 min Groove ride with Camila Ramón, then Dale Duro class 2 (upper body).
Reading: I finally finished Marina, which was the final Carlos Ruiz Zafón book I had never read. I don’t think I realized he died in 2020, and I’m sad he won’t be writing any more. I absolutely LOVED La Sombra del Viento (The Shadow of the Wind) and the other books in that series. I also liked his YA trilogy a lot. It was bittersweet to finish the last book of his I’ll ever read. I also basically finished The Plan, and started my book club book, The Dream House. I’ve been listening to Liane Moriarty’s new book Here One Moment, but it’s hard to binge listen to because it’s about death and it bums me out really quickly. I usually listen to her books like crazy and finish them in a couple days, but this one is taking me a while. It’s just not something I always want to put on.
I am so very glad that this weekend is behind me. It was nuts, and we got through it because we planned it all really well, but it was so exhausting. I am so glad it’s over.
We never did actually write out our ideal weeks, but we thought about them enough to have a productive conversation about what we each want and need. My husband unearthed a spreadsheet we used during the pandemic to keep track of when people had to be on Zoom (each person has their own sheet with a column for each day, and that info is aggregated onto one sheet so we can see each person’s day next to the others’s for each day), and we’re using it to see what a week looks like and plan things like who is working out when, who is making dinner for whom, who is eating dinner with whom, and who is away from the house. My husband appreciates knowing where everyone is and when he has time to get stuff done. I appreciate that this forces us to be more intentional about the things that are most important to us. I have not conceded any time at the dojo, but have promised to get my home workouts done before he gets home whenever possible, especially on the nights he’s slotted to workout. We’ll have to see if its enough to make life feel less relentless and more manageable. I’ll keep you all updated.
I got toe cages to add to the clip pedals ($40) so I can decide which ones I want to use (regular tennis shoes on Bootcamp days and clip shoes when I won’t be getting off the bike). I got a new screen with speakers ($80) and a Roku Streaming Stick ($30) so I can cast to the other room when I’m doing bike boot camps, instead of trying to lift weights in the shitty kitchen. All in all I spent $450 on the bike and accoutrements (the screen and Roku were deeply on sale), which is a really good deal. Most used Peloton bikes sell for $600 at the very lowest, and to find one in the city (many of them are much farther away) for $300 was a real steal. I feel very lucky and I’m so excited to use it. The screen is crystal clear (I’ve been recording bike boot camps with Zoom, and the video was always VERY choppy), and it’s so fun to see if my cadence and resistance are staying within range, not to mention my output. It’s much more enjoyable than hacking the cheap bike. Of course, I would never have known I’d be interested in a Peloton bike without hacking the cheap bike, so I guess it was the right place to start. I’m just thankful I was able to transition to the much nicer experience for a reasonable price. Oh and I changed my subscription and paid $240 for a year. I’m pretty happy with that too.
I cleaned the kitchen and hall floors last weekend, and have been clearing away the clutter in the upstairs all week. We have presents at the house (but not wrapped), and a plan to order some finger food for when the grandparents are here (but not actually ordered yet). I’ve confirmed our head count at Dave & Busters and received RSVPs from eight of the nine kids who are invited. I put together the goodie bags this afternoon. Dave & Busters provides food and drinks, so all I need to do is buy cupcakes somewhere this weekend, probably on Sunday morning, before the party.
I got a cheap academic year planner with weekly and monthly layouts that I’m using to keep track of things, and so far it’s been very helpful to have both in one book. I like that it has three main priorities to check off at the top of the week. I wish it also had some check-boxes for each day, but I’m just adding those in myself. My old book had all to-do lists and habit trackers on the left and the whole week on the right, so each day had very little space, and the whole weekend was just one block. The new book has M-W on the left and Th-Su on the right, and Saturday and Sunday get their own spaces! Woot! I’ve also finished the first section of Kendra Adachi’s The Plan and I’m liking the message so far. I’ve just started the strategies section, so we’ll see if there are some concrete suggestions in there to help me. The main idea seems to be boiled down to “do less” and this is a hard message for me to get behind, but one I probably need to embrace. We’ll see if I can actually put that into practice.
Last week was conferences and it was rough. This week has been better. I stayed up late Monday night to get caught up on the most important grading, and even though I was kind of a zombie on Tuesday (after five hours of sleep), it was worth it. I’ve been staying on top of my grading all week, because I know I won’t have much time this weekend. I just have one big project to score for my 1A classes, and I will prioritize that on Sunday. I wrote up a new agreement with my 3rd period and have been consistent with it and it’s definitely helped. Things are actually pretty decent at work right now. Fingers crossed that keeps up…