More coming soon…

NaBloPoMo starts this week, so if you don’t hear from me before then, I assure you you’ll be hearing from me all month long…

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For two weeks, I searched online for information to write my research paper. I read and re-read the question that we were to answer, until it was just a jumble of words that made no sense. Truth be told, I didn’t like the “how” part of the question. It’s easy to explain how. Explaining why takes a little more effort.

And essentially, that was the direction I took. I started and stopped writing my research paper several times. So many times, in fact, that by the time the due date rolled around, I had a hodge podge of paragraphs that made up roughly 1.5 pages of the required eight.

The library grand opening was Friday and I worked from 8 to 5 that day, on two hours sleep. When I came home, I fell asleep for an hour and then kicked myself for wasting time on such a worthless activity. Real women don’t need naps.

A cup of coffee later, I was ready to begin. I wrote. For a solid 4.5 hours, I wrote. I looked up further research to support my points. At the end of it all, I was a page short. But I was sick of it. I didn’t care anymore. I finished my bibliography and started to proofread it one last time. I made it halfway through when I realized my brain had already turned in for the evening. In a stupor, I submitted my paper with 12 minutes to spare before the deadline.

There were challenges that faced me over the past two weeks, for certain. I can’t escape the fact that my own procrastination played a part, though, and I was angry with myself for submitting what I felt was sub par work. (I just read it again and it’s not as terrible as I feared, but I’ve still done better.)

Even so, I told myself that I wasn’t going to be upset with the outcome. I have a history of choosing classes based on their workload in relation to other classes I’m taking and what’s happening in my life otherwise. Had this assignment been listed on the syllabus, I would have dropped the class immediately and taken it during a semester that wasn’t already fraught with chaos.

Still, it was with great trepidation that I logged into my course last night to learn what grade I’d received. Out of 100 points, I earned… 100 points. And her comments were glowing. I’m a wonderful writer. I express myself so well. My paper was very well researched and I did a fantastic job.

So, now I have to wonder… if I stop procrastinating and put forth the greatest effort for every little thing I do, how long will it be before world domination is mine?

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I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a couple of days, but last week was just not a good week in oh-so-many ways. It’s not that it was a bad week; it was just busy and there was that whole not sleeping thing. So, this didn’t get posted.

In the past, I have written posts here that included specific keywords with links to them for a company that I’m not going to name, and I have been compensated $5 per post where I have done this. I was able to make a nice chunk of change for very little effort and it all went into my mini emergency fund that I am still slowly building up to one month’s expenses. With all of the brouhaha regarding paid posts that took place after BlogHer last summer, I made sure to make a point of categorizing each of those posts with the name of the company, so that anyone reading them could easily figure out that yes, I was paid to put that link in, even though I tried very hard to write an honest-to-goodness post around it.

Well, the week before last, this company came out with a new disclosure policy. They said we could no longer tag or categorize posts as sponsored, or with the name of their company. We could, however, post a blanket disclosure policy in a sidebar and they even provided real examples. At the time, they owed me about $60 so I waited a couple of days until it hit my account. And then I wrote them a little note to say I couldn’t comply with their new policy.

This is my blog. No one tells me how I can or can’t tag MY posts on MY blog.

To be fair, they wrote me a nice note back and said they completely understood, thanked me for my past work and to get a hold of them if I ever changed my mind. That won’t be happening, but the acknowledgment was appreciated.

Of course, the downside of this is that I no longer have that little extra amount coming in. I wasn’t relying on that money, but I enjoyed the fact that it was helping me achieve that goal a little faster, not to mention the goals I’ve set beyond that one.

Still, all is not lost. I’ve already taken one step toward replacing some of that revenue and I’ll be brainstorming for ideas in the coming weeks. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to pass them along! Just keep in mind that I work full time and go to school part time, so waiting tables on the weekend? Not an option.

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A blissful and relatively solid eight hours of sleep was had last night. Such joy!

Since The Boyfriend and I went to his endocrinologist last Thursday, he hasn’t had an insulin reaction. Granted, I still didn’t sleep on Thursday night, but that had more to do with the wind gusting outside than The Boyfriend’s blood sugar. They’ve made one switch in his insulin, moving his long-acting shot to the morning instead of before he goes to bed. If he does have a drop, it’ll come during the day when he’s awake.

The doctor also recommended that The Boyfriend consider an insulin pump and we’re going to look into that further. Going to these appointments with him is beneficial for me, because I end up learning more about what he’s dealing with, and at the same time, my own emotions over it are validated. Dr. B told The Boyfriend, “Lows are worse on the people taking care of you than they are on you.” Amen, Dr. B.

Which, don’t get me wrong, The Boyfriend knows it’s frustrating for me. And even though it *is* frustrating, I don’t get mad at him for it… as long as I know that he’s trying to manage it better. He hasn’t always done that, but just in the past month, I’ve noticed a difference. He is making a definite effort - even going so far as to curtail the amount of beer he has at band practice. That’s HUGE. I’ve been wanting him to do that for as long as we’ve been seeing each other, but he does things when he’s good and ready to do them and not a minute before. Huh. Kinda like me.

Anyway, it was nice getting some sleep and it was even nicer waking up and realizing that he was just fine. I watched him sleep for a little bit and noticed that for the first time in days, he wasn’t frowning in his sleep. Probably because I wasn’t waking him up every two hours asking if he was ok.

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The Boyfriend didn’t have an insulin reaction yesterday morning, which was good because I wasn’t here to help him out. Since the university was on fall break Monday and Tuesday, we were only open from 8 to 5, much to the consternation of a few students who apparently planned to settle in for a long evening of studying.

I woke him up before I left and made him check his blood sugar. He tested at a nearly perfect 88. You’d have thought I’d be happy about that, but instead I just wondered how much it would drop a couple of hours after I left. But it didn’t. He checked in at noon and he was only down to 87.  Whatever he did Monday night worked.

But I must be getting pessimistic about these things, because as tired as I was last night, I’m wide awake at 5:30 this morning, listening to him snoring and wondering if (or when) he’s going to start shaking and sweating. On the one hand, it might be interesting to see what, if any, things lead up to the point where I’m startled from sleep. On the other hand, I’d give almost anything to BE asleep in the first place.

Oh well. It’s not like I have anywhere to be until late afternoon tomorrow. The house is quiet right now and it’s really the perfect opportunity to work on my research paper.

Or maybe just rest my eyes for a moment….

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So, that “To Do” list I posted? Yeah, just forget about that, ok? I’ve spent the better part of the weekend doing one of two things:

1) Whining and complaining about my head hurting / sinus congestion

2) Making sure that The Boyfriend isn’t having seizures

That second one sounds much more dramatic than it is. It’s just that since Thursday morning, he’s had at least three insulin reactions. None of them have resulted in a seizure, but two of them have at least seemed close. His medication may be helping with that, though. That’s one of the questions I plan to ask when I go with him to his appointment later this week.

The reactions are always in the mornings, though, and his shaking is what wakes me up. Adrenaline rush + sinus trouble = MAJOR HEADACHE when everything calms down. I called off work today, because ibuprofen is barely taking the edge off the pain. I finally got a hold of some Advil Cold & Sinus and I seem to be getting some relief.

*crosses fingers*

But yeah, that “To Do” list was pretty much toast by Friday afternoon. Oh well. There’s always next weekend.

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Things that are REALLY bugging me:

• Top of the bookcase next to the phone
• Dining room table
• The dining room itself
• Kitchen floor
• Basement laundry area

Things that should be done this weekend before the temperature drops much more (designate where possible):

• Replace screens in front and back doors with the storm windows (The Boyfriend)
• Cut grass one last time (hopefully) and trim weeds along driveway (JM and JL)
• Make room in garage to store outdoor furniture (JM and JL)
• Store outdoor furniture (duh!) (JM and JL)

Things that absolutely have to get done this weekend:

• Finish research paper
• Read for Illustrator class
• Complete Illustrator assignments
• Add latest photos of library into collection for slide show
• Laundry

Things that I’d like to get done this weekend:

• Make chili and freeze
• Make sloppy joes and freeze
• Make soup or chicken and dumplings for dinner
• Watch football on Saturday AND Sunday

I was going to add “Pay Bills” to the “absolutely must get done” list, but I already did that! And the first item on my “really bugging me list” is already half done. Go me!

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I woke up early yesterday morning with the sinus headache from hell. I’m sure the fact that I foolishly skipped taking my allergy meds for two days had NOTHING to do with it…

I popped a couple of ibuprofen (and my allergy meds) and went back to bed. At 10 a.m., I got up and popped a couple more. And went back to bed. At noon, I finally (and unwillingly) dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. The headache was *still* there. The ibuprofen had barely taken the edge off of it.

The Boyfriend was having an insulin reaction as I walked back into the bedroom. It wasn’t too bad; he was still able to talk to me, but he was shaking pretty noticeably. He came out of it completely very quickly; a few glucose tablets, a glass of juice and a bowl of cereal and all was well with the world. I can handle those. He visits his endocrinologist next week, though, and I’m going to go with him to find out what (if anything) we can do to help prevent these sudden crashes. He thinks it’s all related (and I suspect he’s right) to working out on a regular basis. It seems like every time he’s started an exercise program, we’ve had issues with sudden lows. But exercise is healthy for him, so we need to find a way to compensate. Besides, I figure if we can get him straightened out, he’ll motivate me more to start working out, too.

By the time all of this had finished taking place, it was time for me to think about heading into work. I wasn’t looking forward to it. I knew that we were going to be short on student help during the day, which meant that things like incoming OhioLink wouldn’t get touched.

I have a few gripes about a couple people in the workplace, but I’m not going to get into it here. Everything ultimately got done. I’m just thankful that nothing came in for reserve in the evening, because that would have been two nights in a row that I would have been leaving stuff for J to do the following day, and her week has been horrible.

I came home from work last night, ecstatic that I’m on a three-day weekend thanks to fall break. (I’ll pay for it next week when I only get one day off, but for now… I rejoice.) I’d planned to stay up and get something, anything… done. Instead, I had, for the second night in a row, a great discussion with JM. Which is even better.

And then I crashed. Until 10 a.m. this morning. I woke up to find Mickey all snuggled up against me. That’s not like her, but the house is chilly with the temperature drop and I’m not willing to turn on my furnace just yet, when blankets and sweaters are plentiful.

At the moment, I’m feeling pretty good and I want to take advantage of it. I have a boatload of homework to do this weekend, and god knows there’s always a ton of housework to be done. Last weekend, I was very unmotivated, probably because I was upset about the impromptu research paper assignment. I forced myself to work by using Flylady’s 15-minute method, and I was quite pleased with the results. This week, there’s a lot more that I’d like to do, so I’m going to use it again.

Since this blog is supposed to be about my disordered life, it’s only right that I would chronicle what I want to get done vs. what I DO get done right here in this space. So, stay tuned….

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Because I’m not… but it’s cold outside this morning!

I just switched cars with JM a few minutes ago and when he stepped outside he said, “Now THIS is fall!” Hopefully this means I’ll stop telling patrons that their books are due in August instead of October.

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Thankfully, the heatwave we were experiencing broke last night and I found myself snuggling under my down comforter at some point in the middle of the night. I am useless in heat and humidity. If I break a sweat merely by thinking hard, there’s not a chance I’ll be productive at anything.

I find myself getting frustrated with my classes more and more lately. On the one hand, part of it is unnecessary. In one of my classes, I had four points taken off of my last assignment because I… followed directions? It was an Illustrator assignment. During one task, the instructions I followed caused there to be some overflow text. The book specifically stated said it wasn’t anything to worry about for that example. So, I didn’t. And I had points taken off.  The other two points came off because I followed the professor’s written instructions to adjust the page setup to landscape. Setting it to landscape would have caused it to print incorrectly, and yes, I realize that now, but at the time I was focused on getting that assignment finished so I could work on my research paper that I thought was due this Thursday (more on that in a moment). I’ve emailed her about both and hoping that since I followed the instructions to the letter, I’ll get at least two of those points back. Otherwise, I’m looking at getting a B on that assignment. That’s unacceptable to me.

And that research paper? Our prof emailed us last night and said we now have until the 19th. It would have been nice to have that nugget of information before I canceled my plans to attend my friend’s baby shower last Sunday, thinking that I needed every possible minute to work on the paper. (But truly, I’m still grateful to have that extra week.)

So, classes are making me a bit cranky. However, if I’m to be honest with myself, and yes I’m trying to be, the bigger and more important reason I’m frustrated with my classes is because they’re both taking me out of my comfort zone. Which is good, I realize, but it’s still a little nerve wracking.

I’m at least grateful that both of my professors are people who know what they’re doing and can actually teach me something, unlike that “instructor” I had last spring. But I have a lot of work to get done over the next few weeks… and if my children are smart, they’ll be helpful and kind instead of… you know… their normal selves.

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