Hints and Guesses

Once or twice a year, about this time, I make Peach and Blueberry Shortcakes.  Our oven isn’t working, so I’m headed over to a friend’s house to do most of the work. I might take a picture, but nothing I can write can communicate how absolutely wonderful these are. You’ll have to try them for yourself.

Oh dear. It’s been a week since I last blogged. Where did the time go?

• I’ve written morning pages most days. Not Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and not yet today. But I’m getting there.
• I’ve walked an hour most days. Not Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and I planned not to today because I’m running errands, which always gives me a healthy number of steps. As a side note, I’ve stopped getting drowsy in the afternoon, which is likely a result of both the exercise and the adequate sleep I’m getting.
• I’ve showered nearly every day.
• I’ve had no interviews, but I’ve applied for two jobs this week. Which is a miracle, because while I’ve gotten most other things done this week, looking for a job has been a particularly difficult mental exercise. I’m interested in both of these positions, but one more than the other.
• See above for blogging status.
• I’ve mostly eaten well, except for last night, and I am paying for it today. It wasn’t that the food was bad--there was just too much of it.
• The reduced email and feed reading schedule has become a no-brainer. I won’t bore you with future updates.

In addition to these things, I’ve been doing these:

• For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been deep cleaning the kitchen and our primary bathroom, a bit every day. I smell like bleach.
• I’m also tackling the garage, one box per day. What we’re not keeping goes on Freecycle or may eventually be donated to a local charity--I can’t be bothered to have a garage sale. By the time I’m done, I might be able to park in the garage.
• And I’m finally deep cleaning my car, again a bit every day.
• I decided to stop going to bed late and getting up after 8. I’m now going to bed around 10 and setting the alarm for 6. I haven’t yet adjusted to this time change: although I have no problem falling asleep at 10, I’m having some difficulty getting up at 6. When I go back to work, I’ll probably get up at 5 (like I used to), so I don’t want the transition back to that schedule to be too difficult. In fact, if I’m off long enough, I’ll probably start transitioning to 5 before then.
• Have you seen Dead Like Me?
• I spent yesterday afternoon setting up this blog in Windows Live Writer, which took me longer than the average person because I couldn’t figure out what a "remote posting URL" was. I don’t know if I like WLW yet, but I might let you know later.

• Morning pages—check
• Hour-long walk—check
• Shower—check
• Had an interview at a staffing agency today.
• Blogging—check
• Eating well—did pretty well, except for some rather excellent carrot cake (yes, I had another piece. Thank goodness it’s all gone now.).
• Limited email and feed reading—check

• Morning pages—check
• Hour-long walk—check
• Shower—check
• The #1 job I wanted to apply for is no longer available. Good thing I’ve started on plan B. Have an interview at another staffing agency tomorrow.
• Blogging—check
• Eating well—did pretty well, except for some rather excellent carrot cake
• Limited email and feed reading—check

Being the only otherwise-unoccupied competent family person, today I was designated to be the companion for the eight-year-old younger brother of my two stepsons (and no matter how awkwardly constructed this sentence is, I have no intention of rewriting it). He’s a great kid, or it would have been a bother.

He watched television while I worked around the house all morning. Then we went to the lake, where I thought I might write the morning pages, but this eight-year-old has more confidence in his swimming skills than I do, so we swam together. He got tired of swimming, so we went to the playground. He finally got tired of the playground and wanted to walk to the end of the pier, so we did. We sat for a while at the end of the pier where he pretended to fish with some fishing line he found.

We wrapped up the day at Kilwin’s (because it was his last day of freedom before school begins tomorrow, and if you’re going to eat ice cream it might as well be the good stuff).

“Is there anything else you’d like to do today before you go back to school tomorrow?” I asked.

“Finish this ice cream,” he said.

And so we did.

• I wrote morning pages.
• I walked for an hour.
• I took a shower.
• I applied for one job and worked on the cover letter for another.
• Here I am, blogging about it. You should be grateful that I don’t have cats.
• I ate pretty well. Could probably have eaten less.
• I kept to my limited email and feed reader schedule.
• I beat my sister at Scrabble a couple of times. The last one was a come-from-behind nail biter.

Being jobless isn’t half bad, except for the no-money-coming-in part. Tomorrow will be three weeks since the first time I ever got fired, and I still don’t have a job.

There’s no doubt that any one of you looking at all I’ve accomplished over the last three weeks wouldn’t wait to roll your eyes before kicking me in the butt. I’d kick my butt too, if I were you. Since I am not, I have decided to create some ambition for myself this week, and I’m going to tell you all about it so that you can ask me about it later.

Here goes:

• Write morning pages. Every morning. First thing in the morning.
• Walk. One hour. Every morning after morning pages.
• Take a shower. Pretend I’m going to work.
• Look for that one job. The timing for the one I’d like isn’t working out, but I’ve made contact. Apply for those other jobs that aren’t exactly the one I’d like but will do for now.
• Blog about what I’ve done. Here. Every day.
• Eat well. Some. Not a lot. My body tells me it would like to keep all incoming calories. It can have them, but it will be getting fewer of them.
• Stay on my current limited email and feed reader schedule. Once every four hours. Five minutes with new feeds.

That’s all the ambition I can manufacture at the moment. I could add to the list, but then it would all seem impossibly hard.