Saturday, March 12, 2011

Saturday Randomness

I'm laying in bed at mom and dad's, getting ready to face the day.

There is a muffin and a banana on my bedside table.  On Saturday's especially, I eat breakfast in bed.  This is solely because I don't want to get out of bed any sooner than necessary, and on Saturday's it is imperative that I eat my breakfast by a certain time.

This is because I take a "warm yoga" class.  If I haven't had an hour or so to digest before that 11 am class, or if I haven't eaten, it's not good.  Somehow, I don't think keeling over, or puking in the middle of 90 minutes of exercise would be the healthiest thing around, so I make sure I bring some breakfast downstairs with me when I go to bed on Friday nights.

And, speaking of yoga, I cracked up on Thursday night, when, just as house church was getting ready to start, my phone buzzed with an email.  I checked it quickly and had to laugh.  It was an invitation to an event from my yoga studio, a fundraiser for a woman going through cancer treatments.  An invitation to ladies only, candle-lit, naked yoga.   Umm, I'm pretty comfortable with my body, but I think I'll pass.  No one needs to see that!  And I don't need to see that either!  I'm still laughing just imagining the concept.  I don't think even candlelight could make that sexy!

Today is going to be one of those days with lots of time spent on a bus as I transit to and from appointments.  I have a book I'm hoping to finish up, and then a novel.  I think I'm very informally shooting for reading the equivalent of a book a week this year, and novels are what will help me make that goal!  They are the books I can plow through in a couple of hours instead of a couple of weeks.  The brain candy.  I had stopped reading novels for quite a while, almost two years, actually, as I began to discover some interesting effects that a steady diet of brain candy was having on my emotions.  (That, I think, is a whole separate post, for another time.)  When I finally came back to them, I tried to do it (and still try to do it) with a level of balance.  I pick up novels that still teach me something.  Or I read ones that I know are "healthier" for me.  And I make sure to balance them with books that have more edifying and challenging content.  But today, after a couple of really full and challenging weeks, I think I'm going to finish up my more edifying title, and then dive into a novel on the bus.  (And, I'll just comment that novels can also very much be edifying and uplifiting as well.)

I'm tired these days.  Sleep has been more spotted with dreaming again, and I've had more early mornings than usual as school obligations have picked up speed.  And, honestly, right now, I'm just kind of traveling from one day to the next, making lists and hoping to tackle at least a portion of what they require from me in a given day.  I'm usually multi-tasking, though I'm also discovering the beauty of single-tasking as well.  This coming Monday, night, for example, I have three hours at home slotted out for some truly brainless entertainment.  It's on my calendar.  But I also know that while that is going on, I will be doing a load of laundry, and maybe some filing, and definitely some emailing.  Yesterday, though, when I needed to study, I simply closed all the windows that would normally distract, limited my ability to "cheat" and open them again, and surrendered to the lovely beauty of letting one thing have my complete focus. 

And that singular focus is perhaps my argument for bus reading - though these days I'm not so much doing the formal "bus reading" as squeezing reading in on my multiple trips around the city by bus.  But that is working, too, for now.  And really, depending on the number of places I need to be in a given day, it's not totally uncommon for me to spend up to four hours a day on a bus as I transit from place to place.  (Audio books are also lovely for this sort of transiting, since they don't have to be stopped for transfers, walking and the other things that come with a lifestyle where city transit is your main form of transportation.)

And now, now that I've rambled lengthily, clearing my brain a little for the day ahead, I'm off to prep for yoga, and for the rest of my day!  See you tonight for the daily 5!

4 comments:

Miss said...

Hey Lisa
I'm always amazed (and impressed!) by your ability to achieve so much in a day.

I also like the idea of scheduling time that helps you rest and rejuvenate, even if you are doing other tasks at the same time. Brava!

I seem to blob from one thing to the next and nothing quite gets done to my satisfaction. I simply do not know where my time goes. Hmmm.

But you, and another blog, have inspired me to give it a go for a productive afternoon...

Have a great day :0)

Lisa said...

Hi Jenny!

I think it's partly that I count even the very small things as achievements! Made it out of bed, got my teeth brushed, and made the bed? Sweet! :) Plus, I get huge (abnormal!) amounts of satisfaction from crossing things off lists, (and making lists, for that matter), so that bizarre motivation helps!

I waste lots and lots of time too. And I'm absolutely a terrible procrastinator.

And, just so you don't feel too bad, I accomplished very little today. I went to my yoga class and to an appointment I had this afternoon, and that was it. Maybe a little bit of reading on the bus :)

Hope your productive afternoon is a great success!

Hugs!

Lisa

Miss said...

:0)
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly - small things are to be crossed off the list!

I managed to wash the dishes (score!), throw away some papers and tidy others, and watch Pride and Prejudice, my fave 'calm down' DVD. I've also resolved to call in the professionals (well, sort of) to get a house chore done - paint a room - so I can rejig the house and make it more useful. But let's not count all the things I didn't get done. Ha. Oh, and I still managed to waste heaps of time on the computer. Time leaks that way!

Hope it's warming up where you are.

Shalom
Jenny

Lisa said...

Hooray for getting some things done! And for favorite "calm down" DVDs :)

warming slowly!

hugs!

Lisa