dear isobel

So after I got sick on Spring Break, I’ve noticed a really odd change in my sleeping habits and my overall energy levels. I’m tired allll the time, even though I tend to get at least six hours of sleep, if not more a night. And this morning, I slept through my alarm, through my parents getting ready for work and didn’t wake up until about 10:30 AM. This is really unsettling since I should have been up at 7:30 and I missed two classes! Last night, I was driving home from a night class and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I blasted the radio really loud and opened the windows, but it was a creepy experience.

I don’t feel sick otherwise now — though the normal allergy related sore throat in the morning pisses me off, so I have to go with the idea that this is lifestyle and diet related. I don’t get enough exercise — I already knew this — and because I’m usually running from class to class, I eat like a five year old. And I drink too much soda.

I can’t let this screw up my life — I’m six weeks from graduation and I just know that life next fall will be even more extreme, so I have to get it together. So my plan is this:

1. I’m going to cut down on the soda I drink. I usually drink a few Dr. Pepper’s a day, but I know it’s too much. I won’t cut it out entirely because I’ve learned from experience that when you deny yourself something you want, you just end up binging. So I’ll limit myself to one a day, and then try to slowly phase it out.
2. I’m going to stop getting my usual sandwich at Wawa. I’ve known it’s not good for me, but I just didn’t have the energy to deal with it. Now I have to. I’m going to start eating Yogurt, oranges and the other stuff I used to eat at lunch when I worked at Comcast.
3. And the most important thing — I’m going to make room in my schedule for 15-30 minutes of exercise a day. I’ve been reading online that it boosts energy and I know I don’t get enough walking to and from classes and the parking lot.

So during the month of April, I’m going to try these things out and see if maybe when we hit May, I’m not sleeping through classes anymore.

So I caught the flu on Wednesday and have spent the majority of my spring break in bed, coughing, hacking and generally in a cranky mood. Yay me. So almost half of the stuff I wanted to get done this week didn’t even get looked at. Figures.

However, I’m not going to get too annoyed over it. I’ve got a great deal done after all. I organized the bottom of my TV stand, freeing up room for tons of stuff that kept making the move from my bed during the day to my desk chair at night. I don’t have to do that now. I also cleared up a of space on my DVR. I’m still at 30% but most of the GH/OLTL are ripped to my computer now. I just have to screencap them, zip them and upload, so at least there’s that.

My desk didn’t get entirely organized but it’s not really that bad so I should be able to tackle that easily when I feel better. I finished my laundry and as long as I do last week’s tomorrow, I’ll stay on top of it. I didn’t get nearly enough done on my fan sites, but I did finish scanning and sorting all my magazine scans. Those should all be uploaded tomorrow with any luck if I can find enough time to start today.

I didn’t really dig into any of my writing. Amber sent back Daughters beta’d but I haven’t posted it. I hope to schedule in more writing over the next few weeks. I did manage to go to Philly and come up with some nice genealogical discoveries. I didn’t manage to scan anything though.

So Spring break wasn’t a total bust, but I wish I hadn’t gotten sick. Blah.

OFFLINE
1. Clear DVR of nonrecording material. (Two episodes of Reaper and one of Bones)
2. Clean DVR of General Hospital episodes.
3. Grocery shopping

ONLINE
1. Scan March magazines
2. Sort magazine scans
3. Clean up GH Feb screencaps so they can be upoaded overnight.

GENEALOGY
1. Check prices at Philly archives and subway fares.
2. Refine list of research targets.

WRITING
1. Shadows chapter
2. If Shadows chapter is completed and time is left, Tangle Chapter.

SCHOOL
1. China Assignment

Stuff I did today that wasn’t on the list was pay all my bills, pick up an extra binder for my genealogy research and finally clear off the stack of notebooks that I kept moving from my bed to my desk depending on what time of day it was.

OFFLINE
1. Record all leftover GH and OLTL episodes and then rip them to computer.
– I cleared seven episode of OLTL. I have six episodes of GH to take care of tomorrow.
2. Organize metal shelves and bottom TV shelf.
3. Work on clearing last of February material from DVR.
– Still not completely done. I have six hours left. I’m going to move this to Monday and/or Tuesday, depending on what time I get home from Philly.

ONLINE
1. CG Media Archives design
2. Scan Feb SID issues
– Tackling this in about an hour.
3. Move Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Julia Quinn and Catherine Anderson fanlistings to new collective.

GENEALOGY
1. List priority research targets
2. Check info in research binder and make sure completely accurate

WRITING
1. Tangle
– shifting this to later in the week. Just didn’t manage to get there.

SCHOOL
1. Pick topics for commemorative speech and final informative speech.

OFFLINE
1. Sort laundry
2. Do laundry and put away
– I am somewhat cheating on this, heh, as the very last load of laundry is now in the dryer, which is 9/10s of the battle, right?
3. Clean out bottom shelf on TV stand
– I just wasn’t able to work this in because my laundry was blocking my way. This is being shifted tomorrow.
From Thursday: 4. Clean out Feb material from DVR
– I made a lot of progress with this. I cleaned out five and a half hours, there are six hours left which I should be able to finish up tomorrow or maybe Sunday. Hard to tell since I have to clear off GH and OLTL at the same time.

ONLINE
1. Scan Feb SOW & SOD
2. GH Video Thumbnails for Feb
– opening PS to do this now, will be completed in about an hour.
3. Prepare GH Feb videos for uploading overnight
4. Lisa Kleypas fanlisting

GENEALOGY
1. Organize and divide research binders into one for home and one for portable use.

WRITING
1. Editing plans for Mad World for 10 more chapters

SCHOOL
1. Check Rugters financial info

I’ll be back later tonight to update the status.

STATUS UPDATE: Operation Get Ass in Gear is proceeding nicely. I may not be finishing every single thing on my lists, but I’m getting to about 95% of it, which means stuff is getting done and that’s always more important.