Preparations Galore

Darcy had a new bathroom put in this week. Rather than have him take time off work, I attempted to work at home with varying success due to the interruptions.

Recap of SWIM goals 1-7 November
*Begin each weekday morning with dissertation intro writing to re-establish the writing habit and draft at least 2000 words by Friday.
*Adapt my daily morning pages to something more akin to late afternoon/early evening journaling
     These didn't work for me at all. My brain is not firing fast enough when I wake up, especially now that it's still dark at 6 a.m. I need to be sharp and awake for this kind of conceptual writing, and waiting until the end of the day to journal didn't work either. 2k words only happened in the form of transcribing notes I had taken as preparation for this section while in the States.
*Complete and mail out the two job/postdoc applications due
      Managed one.
*Complete and mail AAH conference abstract
     Check, and managed one other as well.
*Begin tailoring interview presentation
     Only mentally. Does that count?
*Return to my regular M-W-F-Sun Yogademia posting schedule
*Comment on all my SWIMmers and their blogs!
*Practice yoga for at least an hour 3-4 times this week
*Run twice
     Not even close on any of these. One yoga, one run, no comments or posts.

So what the heck did I do this week? Major rewrite of my dissertation abstract and the attendant posting on the website, some other conference abstracts, dealt with the final details required to put the first issue of the journal I co-edit to bed, began charting a major new class that needed at least a plan on paper in preparation for my upcoming interview, tidied other class plan and syllabi, sorted some ideas and sources for my intro, and spent a bunch of time dealing with the bathroom. 

Reward: Artist Date to see An Education at the independent cinema with a glass of wine.
Even though I didn't really meet my goals for the week, I did take myself to see An Education, minus the wine. Excellent all around: story, cast, acting, visuals, soundtrack. Definitely a must-see for this group.

SWIM Goals Nov. 9-15
*1 hour writing intro & 30 min revising cross-cultural paper every weekday
*Monday: fully check chapter sample & course plans to submit for interview; presentation
*Tuesday: Afternoon - S---- postdoc letter and app
*Wednesday: Revise postdoc plan for C---- and O----; presentation
*Thursday: Afternoon: presentation and interview prep
*Friday: R--- letter and app; presentation and interview prep
*Saturday: any final tidying in preparation for interview and presentation

Reward: Sunday trip to London with Darcy for Christmas shopping; cinnamon buns at Nordic Bakery, Melody Gardot show at Southbank Center

I'm back! I'm back!

Cripes, it's been six weeks since I posted here. That's absurd. The past six weeks have been absurd, especially this last week. There's a rambling post up at the Locker Room about all this, and how it's seriously messing with me.

So, HELLO!!!!!!!  I have missed all of you so much! If there was ever a group of ladies I would love to have over for tea or a glass of wine on a regular basis, you are it. I would have loved to swing through each of your cities while I was traveling in the States just to meet you for an hour in a café somewhere.  Your good company and sage advice would have been so welcome.

Hello and welcome especially to Sara Rose - I'm sorry I haven't been around to welcome you before this, but I was working 18-hour days while in the States, hopping on a train or airplane to a new city every few days, and then on a computer-free week with my family and my guy. I'm still catching up on posts, but I'll be back in the regular comment-posting saddle starting today!
 
I'm just going to jump right into this week's goals, because I put the most important crazy background noise buzzing inside my head up in the Locker Room. 

SWIM goals 1-7 November
*Begin each weekday morning with dissertation intro writing to re-establish the writing habit and draft at least 2000 words by Friday
*Adapt my daily morning pages to something more akin to late afternoon/early evening journaling
*Complete and mail out the two job/postdoc applications due
*Complete and mail AAH conference abstract
*Begin tailoring interview presentation
*Return to my regular M-W-F-Sun Yogademia posting schedule
*Comment on all my SWIMmers and their blogs!
*Practice yoga for at least an hour 3-4 times this week
*Run twice

Reward: Artist Date to see An Education at the independent cinema with a glass of wine

Where'd I go???

Gosh, sorry its been so long, all.  Happy Halloween all, first off.  I hope this weekend is so much fun for all of us.  How have you all been?  I feel so bad that I've basically been out of commission for so long.  To be truthful, I sort of lost track of everything so now it's time to get recharged and restarted, huh?  Ok.

So.  What happened?  I got h1n1 of all things.  It seems I've had this 3 month stretch of nonstop sickness, so my immune system must just really be exhausted.  Anyways, I got h1n1 and I *thought* I would get over it relatively quickly.  In fact, I seemed to be on the mend two weeks ago and life was going on in a merry little way. Suddenly, two Fridays ago, I woke up and was so.much.worse.  I mean, could barely move, felt like I was dying worse.  Nolan had to go into work that morning and I was here struggling to even deal with anything.  Anyways.  Nolan came home from work early and I got up to go to the bathroom to cough up a lung.

Next thing I know, I'm in the ER with Nolan and my friend Jordan (she's a nurse) and she tells me "You passed out.  Nolan and I brought you here and I think you've got pneumonia."  I spent the next 5 hours fading in and out of dozing during tests and lab work (luckily, the dr gave me morphine so I'd just sleep.  The results?  "Walking pneumonia", aka all the symptoms of it but not the actual virus or infection.  Apparently h1n1 can either mimic the symptoms of pneumonia or develop into it.  Thankfully, it was just mimicking the symptoms. 

So, I've spent a week and a half resting, medicating, and slowly working on writing projects.  I still have a wicked cough and lots of sinus congestion but each day I'm seemingly getting better.  I really need to commit myself to restoring good health.  I always sort of just get myself back to functioning but not actually doing "really" good, health wise.  I need to do that.  I need to focus on eating well, getting good sleep, taking my vitamins, meditating, and exercising so I can be strong and healthy but most of all productive.

Got any tips for me?  Honestly, I'd love and appreciate any and all advice or suggestions.  Isn't it kind of the chronic American lifestyle of just slugging through things but not really making the effort to make sure our wellness is a top priority? We're all so busy that we just run ourselves ragged but don't stop to take the time to make sure we can actually handle everything we're doing.

So.  On to writing.  I backed off of my blog to focus on doing a few things to get paid.  In my last BIG blog, I wrote about deciding to just take the jump and commit to being a full time writer.  I'm still finding my sea legs doing this but I'm so much happier than I was trying to apply myself to a job that wasn't going anywhere.  The trouble comes in just learning to balance working from home with being a mom and a wife.  So much easier said than done.  But I've found a few ways to focus myself, one of which being . . . .

NaNoWriMo!!!!  That's right.  Go to nanowrimo.org and sign up to spend a month writing a 175 page novel.  The goal is quantity, not quality for your writing.  You spend a month writing furiously to produce a verrrrrry rough draft of a novel.  The purpose?  Get your creative juices flowing, get yourself trained to spend significant parts of your day really writing, and also to not shoot yourself in the foot by constantly self-editing.  Sometimes writers block comes from the fact that we're always trying to make what we're writing "perfect" when really we just need to get it all out first, THEN edit.

I've been working on notes for a story for about a month now, so I'm going to use that as my NaNoWriMo project.  I'm really excited to just apply myself to this and I'm really hoping that its going to help me overcome some of my own personal hurdles with writing.  More on those later.

I got hired on by The Examiner and I'm writing 3-4 articles a week!!!  Hurray!!!  I also got a few freelance book review projects starting up, and am working slowly on developing two new blogs- one for my book birthday project and one devoted to political commentary that I'm doing with 4 other writers.  When those are up and running, I'll let you know!

For this weeks goals, I'm going to try to keep it simpler.  I need to really devote myself to the rhythm of meeting my daily nanowrimo word count so I don't fall behind and I get a running start.  I need to get back to regular posts on my blog, articles and pieces for The Examiner and other jobs, and development on the other blogs.  That sounds so overwhelming! Argh!  We'll see how I do.

My other goal is to get back on track with Weight Watchers.  Two weeks of being sick really got me unfocused, but since health and wellness is a priority . . .well time to pay the piper.  Anyways, have a wickedly fun little evening!  Talk to you all soon!

xoxo-
Sara Rose

Drriftwood: Week 7 Goals

Hi all,

Hope everybody's doing great!

I've been busy, but decided I just have to post this week.

Week 5 (and 6) Update:

This week's goals (Oct 5-Oct 11)

Academic

1. When I get feedback on my paper, hopefully this week, work on it. Haven't gotten feedback yet.

Creative

1. Write a few scent related blog posts. Wrote 1. 1 more in the drafts.

2. Everyday, for atleast one hour before sleeping, either do WPs or read a book. Did this for a few days. Must make a more conscious effort.

3. WPs - atleast 10 mins 3 times a week. and half an hour on Sat, Sun. 1.5 hours - Not much. Though I did write some free form food related stuff

4. Morning Pages for work related stuff Again not really..:(

Week 7 goals (Week 19th - 25th)

Academic:

1. Work on a document/proposal explaining my experiment with pilot results/plots and rationale. This has to be more detailed than my previous one

2. Work on programming the new version of my experiment

3. Reading for a class I am sitting in. - 3 Chapters

Creative

1. Do some research for a short trip, I'll be making soon. Will post details in the locker room soon

2. Finish a post waiting in my drafts section

3. Finish reading Middlemarch/resume reading. I started this book ages ago (I am talking years..lol). Was loving it, but life caught up and I stopped reading it. Each time I begin at the beginning and then again stop reading for some reason or the other. This time I am going to finish it..lol. It is such a lovely book

4. Work on my novel a bit- have been neglecting it.

Have a great week everyone!

Tomato: Behind!!

Hi friends!! I know i'm uber behind here, and yes I totally failed all the goals i posted last time. Eek! Am hoping to catch up on life in the next week or two so please be patient with moi. :)

xoxo!!!

Update Later, Read My Post

Hi all!

I'll writ, update, and comment later today or tomorrow.  But I wrote an important blog over at the chatterbox about a major life decision to focus solely on writing, and would love you to check it out.

http://chatterboxsara.blogspot.com/2009/10/little-secrets.html

xoxo


Sara Rose

Vienna again: Quick update

Marking while listening good music is always better! I am actually enjoying it now or at least I'm more relaxed about it. Ay, life!
How is your creative week going?