Restful Saturday

It is awfully nice to have a whole day, every now and then, when I don't have to leave the house. I slept in a little, had breakfast and a (very short) walk in the morning sunshine, and since the late morning I've been implementing my plan for today: Be Appallingly Domestic.

I've done the dishes and started laundry; when the laundry's done I'm going to vacuum (my apartment is desperately in need of a vacuuming). I made a reasonably decorative foil-and-cardboard thingy to sit under my dining-table candles, which WILL keep dripping wax no matter how many times I scold them. I'm going to make bread, and also either cookies or oatmeal bannocks. And I'm going to wash my sheets, and I'm going to spend some time outside soaking in the GORGEOUS fall day. (Probably I'll have to take some homework with me for that last one. Silly homework.)

Even my lunch is both healthy and tasty (the "healthy" was NOT in the plan, but it's nice that it worked out that way...) Hot mulled cranberry juice, fresh coleslaw with ranch dressing, and shredded wheat with melted cheese, salt and pepper, and just a touch of honey. Kind of weird, but also delicious. Also nearly gone, so I had better start peeling myself off the computer before it totally sucks away this rare fit of work-ethic....

Eh-oh...

Looks like Boyfriend and I will be having a long-distance relationship in the afterlife. Here are his Inferno Test results:

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Just made it.

Continuing my tradition of following Julie through the meme-world...

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

I'd thought I was writing more obscurely than that...

That's the fifth sentence of my 23rd post. Not as evocative as Amira's, but not un-representative.

More notes to self: Sleep

All right, my daily life is clearly in need of revision.

I am very very happy with the framework of my days. I like my field, and I love my department, where, contrary to the usual grad-school stereotype, everyone really seems happy to be there. And they're letting me study Arabic! Even though it's not math at all! I have good friends with all sorts of interests, a strong and happy relationship with Boyfriend, and a world of interesting thoughts to run after on the internet.

However, I am not using those days especially well. Running after thoughts on the internet is taking up WAY too much of my time. I am staying up WAY too late at night (as the time of this post can attest...). For too much of my day, I'm too tired to do homework or research or really anything but blog-surfing.

School's been in session for a couple of weeks now, and I've been planning all this time to come up with the One True Life Plan that will send me flying through the semester, scattering homework right and left (preferably ahead of schedule), scrubbing and decluttering my apartment bit by bit until its default state is "clean and restful" instead of "cluttered with tripping hazards," and of course being available for all manner of Fun Stuff with my friends too.

Strangely enough, I haven't yet had time or energy to sit down and even really begin writing out this plan.

So instead, I'm going to try going at things FlyLady style -- change one or a few things at a time (even though ohmygoodness I can't possibly fix this without fixing all these other things!), and work up from there. It's working for the lime scale in my shower; will it work for my schedule too?

My schoolwork habits are probably most in need of revision, but I don't think anything's going to get better until I figure out how to have more energy. Getting back to regular light exercise will probably help with this, but in the last week I've been too sleepy to seriously consider getting off the couch. So, first things first, I'm going to fix up my sleep schedule.

At the beginning of the school year, I really liked having the flexibility to stay up as late as I wanted, without the pressure of having to get up far too early to drive to my summer job. Too much draconian structure, of course, is bad for anyone; but I personally don't do too well without a little structure to hang things on.

So, as an experiment, I'm going to try getting up at 6:30 every single morning (or at last 6 mornings each week). No snoozes, no excuses, but naps are allowed later in the day. I'm also going to set a "Go to Bed" alarm for 9 PM -- it usually takes me up to an hour from the time I think about going to bed to the time I'm in bed, and I like to have some time to read, and I get draggy if I'm not getting around 8 hours of sleep each night, which will require me to be snoring away by 10:30 whenever possible. (I assume that when I have kids a Biological Miracle will occur to get rid of this 8-hour requirement. Otherwise, we're all doomed...)

So, yeah. If I commit to this experiment in front of the whole internet, will it last at least a week or two? (I don't expect it to last longer, since it's only a first draft and will need to be modified once I find out which parts of it are least realistic...)

(Image cribbed from an instant-messenger icon set formerly available at http://www.illwillpress.com)

Is this creepy?

So, I have a fairly well-established habit that works like this:

1) Find a new blog I like (usually via an already-liked blog's blogroll).
2) Read all the posts on the front page.
3) Notice that those posts refer to past events, and, gee, it sure would be nice to have more context about this new person.
4) Read the whole entire blog in chronological order.

Step 4, obviously, normally takes several days to complete.

I can't decide if this is normal behavior (like reading, say, a novel from start to finish), or internet stalking of strangers.

I do mean well...

Note to self

Apparently I am conditioned to think "Food, but not what I'm hungry for" when I see a whole fruit. Which is puzzling. But when I see sliced fruit -- especially if, just moments ago, it was that not-quite-appetizing whole fruit -- I am conditioned to think "Yummy!" A similar principle applies to vegetables, I think.

Maybe I should print this post out and tape it to every piece of produce I buy, so that I don't keep forgetting them and having to throw the poor things away.