Saturday, February 23, 2008

Ahh, relaxation

Spent most of the morning, vegging on the couch and watching the NFL Combine live online. It was the O-line and Tight Ends today, but O didn't wake up early enough to watch it. Too bad, he would have loved to see guys his size running the 40 yard dash.

O has repeatedly told me that he needs, and I'm quoting here, me to kick his butt and make him exercise. So I did just that today and made him come out for, what was for him, an early morning walk. At 3pm, hehe. We went down onto the river skate trail again today, it was just gorgeous out, Winnipeg in February gorgeous, 3 below or so. O was not a happy camper at first, but perked up towards the end, and seems much more energetic today for it. I'd like to sit down with him later today and make up a list of fitness goals and agree on a plan together.

On the way home, we stopped at the library to pick up our holds, and the Dr. Who dvd we've been waiting for is in! O is on the next to last mission in Fire Emblem and we have a Dr. Who marathon before us (not Christopher Eccleston or Tom Baker Dr. Who, but still Dr. Who all the same.) What a fabulous day.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Another shopping trip survived

Well, we couldn't find a coat big enough for O, and he literally hissed when passing the changing rooms (what is it with the damn change room?), and 3 cabs were stolen from me on the way home from Superstore, but we finally managed to come home. O kept me from going completely insane in Stupidstore, and I thanked him for coming with me (and he commented "now I know why you wanted me to come with you, to stop you from killing someone") I don't know what it is about my ass that proves magnetically attractive to other people's shopping cart, but I can never get through a Stupidstore trip without being rammed at least twice. Sheesh.

When we got home O showed me what he and his best friend had been up to while I went to see Juno with B. They built a facebook page for Chewbacca. He then spent most of the evening taking quizes (Chewy is Catwoman!)

I've taken 4 days off from work so far, and will probably only go into to work for a few hours tomorrow. I really don't have much to do besides the scheduling, so I can take as much time off as I want. Everytime I take time off I'm reminded of how much living I'm missing out on when at work. I'm still really torn about quitting my job, I do really love it, and I'd still have to work, at a crappier job, but probably for more money. I miss my kid, though. Today I wound up napping in O's bed while he played Fire Emblem on the Wii, we hung out and talked and he was so happy to tell me about his game. We really need to have time like that more often.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Today's lesson

Today O and I will be learning all about patience. Patience, tolerance, understanding, respect.

Yes, it's that time of year again.

Time for O to shop for clothes.

Wish me luck.

Better yet, pray for me, that I do not strangle my son when he grabs the first thing he sees, yells "this is fine, lets go!" then spends the rest of the shopping trip trying to sneak away to EB games to play the Xbox and avoid coming within 500 yards of that dreaded form of torture known as the "Changing Room" (said in tones of doom.)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Schedule vs. flow

Things have not been progressing easily for us this year. With my work schedule, I've been struggling a lot to find a good rhythm for our days. This week I am working 7 days straight, Monday through Sunday, at least 8 hours each day, probably at least 60 hours this week, while next week I could take the entire week off if I choose (and if I can afford it.) This kind of random schedule makes it really hard to have a satisfying rhythm to my day, or to do anything spontaneously. Everything I do has to be laboriously planned out beforehand and too often I don't finish everything I need to do in a day, and rarely get to start on the things I want to do.

Now to be clear, I have absolutely nothing against having a schedule. We've just never really had one because we're more flow people than schedule people. My sister is very much a schedule and structure person, and we've had more than a few "discussions" over our differences. When I have structure imposed externally on me, I feel overwhelmed and out of control. By the same token, my sister feels the same way when she has no structure or schedule going on. I realized that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with any kind of structure or schedule, it's only what works for each person that really matters. And I've always functioned best with a very loose sense of flow, rather than a strict schedule.

But right now, I have no flow, and no end to this in sight. So now it's off to structure land. I just don't know where to start with this, though. I try to figure out a schedule that will work for us, but my hours, and O's well-developed sense of the spontaneous has thrown a wrench in the works every time. Maybe I should be looking more at listing the things that are really important to me and O to get done during the day, prioritize them, and work on reducing impediments to getting our stuff done.