Tag: work

Balance

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Writing

One of the things I struggle with most is finding a balance in my life.  I’m either too focused on work, school, or whatever and forget to take time for me. 
This week I had a long to-do list for homework I wanted to get through.  It involved three chapters, videos, and labs for science, three books, excerpts and comments, paper, and final project for Prose Stylistics.  In addition to that I had a long list of crocheting I wanted to get done including three graduation gifts which are time consuming. 
For a change, I think I’ve found a balance (temporarily I’m sure).  Yesterday is a perfect example.  I spent four hours working on homework.  I finished (well all except a final read through) of my paper, read the last nine excerpts and wrote comments, and I worked on some comments for science.  This four-hour session was spent at my computer and by the time I was done my legs were bothering me. 
After I was done at the computer I took my science book with the intention of sitting in the recliner and reading.  Instead I watched some TV with Vicki and then took a nap.  After the nap I worked on crocheting a grad gift.  The rest of my day was spent either crocheting or enjoying my down time. 
This morning I am working on homework until Vicki comes back with our friend.  Then I will work on crocheting because they will be playing on the Wii and it is too distracting for me to do homework.  However, I can enjoy their company while I work on grad gifts.  I won’t have to feel guilty for the down time because I will be putting in some study time before they get here.  I may finish another chapter of science or just make progress on it.  I don’t know how far I’ll get but I know I will feel like I balanced out my day by working this way. 
Without a doubt, I will struggle with having balance, but for this past week, I can at least feel like I found some semblance of it during my vacation time.  My to-do list didn’t get done – either one of them – but I did make progress on both.  Maybe that is the point, especially for someone like me who always has too long of a to-do list, I got something done on both lists and made progress.

Back to Work (or in my head it is Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to work I go)

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

First thing this morning I went back to my normal routine (mostly) and got myself off to work.  I had help because I still need assistance with getting things.  Vicki made my breakfast and my lunch.  I drove to work, got my scooter out, and got into work on my own. 

It may seem like a small thing.  Big deal.  I got off to work on my own.  For me it is a big deal.  My sense of self came back a bit and I felt more independent than I have in weeks.  I appreciate the assistance and care that Vicki has given me.  I wouldn’t have been as mobile as I was without her.  It was just great though to be able to get out on my own. 

I worked nearly eight hours which is more than I’ve worked since before Thanksgiving.  My foot swelled and by the end of the day I was worn out.  However, I was still able to move about and get myself from office to van without assistance.  I got the scooter back in the van and got home on my own.  Again a little thing for most but feels like a giant step for me.

Now once I got home the recliner and I enjoyed a nap.  I spent the rest of the evening in the recliner and took Tylenol to help with the pain.  More of my pain was in my knees though than my foot.  My foot is still swollen but it is not very painful so this is a huge improvement. 

Tomorrow will be another work day and I have a lot to get done before classes start in two weeks.  Wow!  Classes start in two weeks.  I have to get my books ordered from Amazon and call the rental to see if either class has books there.  I have five books to buy and they are expensive.  The science one is outrageous.  I’m going to make sure I don’t write in it so I can sell it back when I’m done.  The four for my writing class I’ll have to see if I find them useful.  The writing books I’ve been keeping.  I do need to remember to put the grammar book on sale though as I won’t use the one I got for one of my classes last semester. 

My desk and office are a colossal mess.  I’m hoping that I can be well enough to get in there to clean it up before classes start otherwise it will likely take me all semester to clean it up.  I’ll likely keep the information from my grant writing class and the book.  For the other class I’ll be much more selective about what I keep and what I discard. 

Part of me wants to just get in there and start on it and then I move my foot and I know it won’t be happening tonight.  I’m thinking I’ll try to get to bed before midnight for a change.

Back to Work

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

I didn’t hate getting up.  It was good to go back to work and get into the groove.  I chatted with two of the new faculty and helped them settle in a bit more.  However, over 110 emails to weed through today.  It took me until 2:00 to catch up and I’ve weeded out and handled all the ones that were simple to do.  Now I need to go back and look at the tougher ones and figure out what I’m doing.

No naps for me today even though I wanted one about 8:00 am.  I tackled the emails today and started on some of the stuff on my desk.  Tomorrow I’m going to tackle the rest of my desk.  Hopefully by Friday I’ll have it all back under control. 

For now, I’m looking for bed before midnight.  I was going to say before 11 but realized it was already 10:30 – that isn’t going to be enough time to deal with the emails (MORE OF THEM) for my personal account and get to bed before 11.  Midnight it will hopefully be. 

Five More Work Days!!

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

Five more days!  Yet another countdown for me, I have five more work days to get through and then I will have off until the 15th.  This is very exciting for a number of reasons.  Vacation is always good.  Holiday pay is always good.  The two girls coming from Georgia is wonderful.  Time off is great.

One of my goals for this next vacation is to not set the alarm clock for at least two days.  I’ll probably do that at the beginning of the vacation because as I get closer to going back to work I have to work back into my normal routine. 
Fourth of July we will probably spend getting ready for the girls’ visit.  Then they come on the 5thand will be here until the 10th.  After that I’ll be in vacation mode.  This means I hope that I’ll be writing a lot.  My goal is to get several chapters done in my one novel.  I also want to start editing the first book. 
In addition to the writing, I would like to pull out my list of publishers and work on doing some submissions.  I haven’t done any in a while.  I have two articles ready for one publication and hope to meet the deadline on them.  After that I need to update my work list spreadsheet and clear out my emails of the rejections.  Then I have to look at my spreadsheet to see what old submissions I have that I haven’t gotten a response on. 
Hopefully in the cleaning and getting ready portion of the vacation I’ll have time to clean my office a bit so it is more organized and less chaotic.  If I get that done it makes it much easier to do the submissions.

Over!

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

My week of vacation ends on father’s day.  Ken has gotten to talk to all his daughters so that is good.  I have so much left on my to do list but I feel good about the week off.  I got stuff done I wanted to and I feel more relaxed and able to cope with life in general. 

I’m sure that tomorrow will be chaotic and busy.  I’m hoping not to have too many emails and voicemails I have to deal with.  However, today I’m not going to think about it.

Today I’m going to work on stuff I want to – it is still my vacation.  I started two new crochet projects.  One is a sweater for Vicki and the other is a small afghan (large shawl) for Beth.  The yarn for Beth’s is exquisite but very expensive.  So far I’m loving the pattern.  It is working up quickly which is always a bonus.  I’m also enjoying working on Vicki’s sweater.  The pattern is also easy and I think will work up quickly.  The thing with her project though is I will have to work on it only when she is around because it will involve figuring out how to custom fit it to her.  When I’ve done it once I’ll write it up so I know for the next time if she likes it enough to repeat the pattern.

I spent time on Pinterest this morning.  It is definitely an addicting site.  I was also on craftsy.com.  Both of these sites are very distracting.  I could look at crochet stuff forever.  So many great patterns and not nearly enough time to work on them all. 

Midweek…

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
Are you sure today can’t be Friday?  I’m wiped out.  Part of it is my fault and part of it is my schedule.  I’ve got a lot on my plate this week with school, homework, work, and a side job.  Tonight is clean up night for the work week.  I’m hoping to get the paper due on Friday turned in and the side job done so I can move on to my weekend homework. 
My new blog is out there so go check it out.  Silk flowers – Vicki’s idea totally – are pretty fun and creative.  http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/green-gardening/gardening-with-a-black-thumb-silk-flower-arrangements.aspx
At work I accomplished a lot.  Many tasks flew off my desk.  This is good because I have two or three big projects I want to move forward with.  I actually made it to working on one today.  I’m working on revamping the web page for our department.  I gather the information and then present it to the department.  Then the department makes decisions on what goes in.  I have to just put it in terms they understand.  I hope I’m getting it there for them. 
To me the web site is a window for the world to see what our department has to offer.  I want everyone to know how good it is and what great people are in the department.  The challenge will be in presenting the complex material in such a way that it is user friendly while still conveying the complex issues and information that has to be conveyed.  I’m excited to move forward with it.  I can’t wait to help write, edit, and design the pages.  (Yup there is that word geek again… LOL).
Tomorrow I tackle a summary on the copier options we have.  Another situation with lots of information, and I have boil it down to advantages and disadvantages.  I’ve been stewing on it.  That sounds like I’m grumpy about it but I’m not.  I have to take in the information and let it rattle around for a bit before I can gather it all into one place.  My goal is to have a summary I can present for the meeting on Monday – I’ll probably write something tomorrow and then re-write it on Friday. 
On Monday, I had a wonderful meeting with my professor.  We talked about the project we have to work on all semester.  I’ve done a bunch of research – some is new and some has been done for Moon Affirmations (the manuscript I just keep trying to get published).  We talked about marketing strategies, targeted audiences, and so much more.  I felt like I was taking a step back from the love I have for this project into a very practical and helpful review of what I need to think about as I try to get a publisher to actually accept the project and see it through.  Now all I need is TIME so I can put the package together that I see in my head and send that off to a publisher (or 10) to see if they will bite.
We also talked about other things like the classes I have to take and the degree.  I really enjoyed this because I’ve not been thrilled with my advisor as I felt like she didn’t understand what I was looking for.  I requested that my professor be my advisor and that request was granted!!!
After our conversation I got to thinking about a couple of the classes and how I’ve already done what will be taught in them.  I’m totally not a traditional student.  I have a ton of life experience (and am looking forward to more)  So I put in a request to the chair to see if I could get a couple classes waived and take different ones.  I’d rather take classes that are actually going to benefit my writing skills and advance my knowledge in this field rather than taking classes that would just be refresher courses in areas I’m already strong in.  I’ll see what she says…

End of the Work Week

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

Today is my last day of work for the week.  I’m going to have a four day weekend.  It promises to be a very full weekend.  Then next week starts the new semester.  I’m very excited to start classes.  This time around I’m taking Fiction Writing and Book Editing.  I can’t wait to see how they turn out – hopefully better than last semester.

While I got my books (thanks Alicia) for school, I need to get my bag ready as everything is scattered in my office.  My netbook which I love has been used all over the place but now it needs to go in my bag so I can have it for school.  I have to get binders ready for each class.  I cleared out last semesters stuff.  I didn’t keep any of the work. 

I may or may not try to get some of the work printed from the Creative writing class.  I was so disappointed with the class I have a hard time adding any of the work to my works list and marketing it.  I need a bit of distance before I decide.

Back at Work

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
I can’t say it was an awful day back at work.  I got back into the swing of things quite quickly.  Napping was certainly something I wanted by about mid day but I got caught up on emails and other things. 
I have to say I am impressed with all the work my student workers got done while I was gone.  They assembled furniture and rearranged furniture.  They did a variety of tasks which cleared up a number of tasks for the department. 
For only being off eleven days, I struggled a bit with the schedule again.  I just hate mornings.  I would rather start at noon.  I know the world doesn’t revolve around my sleep schedule but really 5:30 was too early this morning.  I was so out of it that I forgot to take utensils with me so I could eat my lunch. 
I’m sure it will take me a few days to get back into the swing of things.  I’m hoping that I will get back to it quickly because I have new classes to tackle in two weeks.

Vicki and I spent a nice quiet evening listening to music and reading.  I actually managed to say at the end of this chapter I’m quitting and did it.  This rarely happens for me – I usually read three more chapters.  I’m going to attempt to do the nearly impossible and go to bed earlier than 11:30 tonight…

School

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

This week has been a disaster.  I’ve worked a ton of overtime to work on a huge project which is really only about half done.  I’ll be continuing to work on it this next week and I’m not sure how much overtime I’ll be putting in. 

There’s also been a bit of drama with school.  In my linguistics class I’ve been arguing with my professor about some of the answers on quizzes.  It isn’t really getting me anywhere but I at least want to make a good argument.  I’ve decided to step it up and start actually asking for points back because the subtle approach has not been working. 

Several of the students in my linguistics class have decided the professor is trying to fail everyone so they are taking it to the dean.  I’m not sure that is the right approach.  I’m sitting back and waiting.

I sent off three questions to my creative writing teacher.  One was for clarification on the comments she made on my paper – not saying she was wrong just looking for clarification.  One was asking about her grading scale.  One was a question on the next assignment.  Now I will concede that these were all in one day but I tend to ask things when I come across them.  It just so happened that I came across all of them at once. 

The professor was quite snarky about my questions.  Her attitude seemed to be “don’t question me”.  She insulted my ability to write which was very hurtful to me.  I know I’m a good writer and a good editor but for someone in that position to be so condescending it does make me question. 

I felt slapped.  I know that may sound harsh but if I can’t ask questions – particularly on the comments on my papers – then how am I going to learn?  I don’t know.  I guess then it just becomes her opinion which I can quite easily dismiss if I don’t agree with her. 

I’m disappointed with my creative writing class.  I was looking forward to some new and fun projects to expand my thinking and my abilities but I’ve got three books that don’t really help.  One of them I had to buy so now it is mine which after this class I will never open again. 

To me if you are teaching a writing class then the writing should be out there for discussion.  Here is my sample of work – how can it be made better.  We had a sample poem we had to edit but she never commented on the editing we did.  My question (which I’m not allowed to ask) is did I edit it the way she wanted?  What was she actually looking for?  There were some general comments but she couldn’t be bothered to comment on all the postings. 

I guess I’ll chalk this up to experience and make sure I do not take any more classes that she teaches.  I’ll also think twice before I take more classes.  If the teachers here aren’t able to help me grow then I need to go elsewhere so that I can expand my knowledge and my abilities.

Bumness

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
After a week of overtime and chaos with fifty balls in the air, I took yesterday and did NOTHING.  It was so relaxing to play on the computer and hang out with Ken, Vicki, and Beth.  We did only one thing productive and that was rent a car for our trip to Georgia.
I think my brain just needed to shut down and think on nothing.  I did make a date with a friend to visit her.  I have to email or text another to set up time with her.  I also have to turn down an invite to another friend’s for a party because the timing is bad for me.  One more friend to contact and see if she wants to get together, then I’ll be caught up on the social front mostly. 
With starting school, my time is getting more crunched.  The funny thing is I think I actually like it.  It means I’ll have to make the most of the time I actually get to do things like writing and genealogy. 
While I was a bum yesterday, I have to get my bum in gear today.  Ken and I played together on the computer but now I have to get serious and find my desk, organize my writing, genealogy, bills, etc.  I have to get my stuff ready for work and school next week. 
On top of which I got an email from a cousin with information on a family member I didn’t have before.  I need to write her a note and send her more pictures.  I also have to work on submissions for writing today. 
At some point though, I really want to go sit on the deck.  For the most part this summer it has been too hot and muggy to be outside for me.  I’ve felt trapped but today the a/c is off, windows are open and it feels HEAVENLY.  I’d be tempted to take my crocheting out and sit on the deck to do nothing. 
Mom, Alicia, and Beth are coming down tomorrow to grill out, maybe I’ll drag Stephanie’s afghan out there then and have my down time.  Social time and crocheting – multi tasking once again…
Vicki just brought me a pattern for a wrap which looks amazing.  I read the pattern too and I think it would be easy enough and quick enough to do.  I might have to do one for her and see how fast it works up.  I better stop before I get a giant list of craft stuff I want to do.  Although I seem to remember doing fifteen afghans one year while in school and working.  Maybe I just need to do more to keep me busy and sane (or is that insane?).