Humbled

I have a cold, and while I was trying to convince myself to go for a hot shower to steam out my lungs, I remembered the laundry and asked Mister if he could take the clothes out of the washer. I caught his sharp intake before he agreed, and, in with the clarity that a cold provides the mind, observed aloud: ‘you’re annoyed.’ His reply was ‘Well, I was going to get annoyed, but decided that instead I would just do it.’

I laughed. WHAT?!? and laughed. HE CAN DO THAT? and laughed. and stopped.

He can do that.
He does that.

…

I may have a few more things to learn from this man.

Best icing ever!

Seriously,  I would get fat for this.

Use it to top cupcakes, cookies, cakes…. its just the perfect topping, and is full of protein too!

Recipe (don’t be exact, I didn’t measure at all either time I made it):

1 cup mascarpone cheese

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup icing sugar

splash of milk (or chocolate milk, works both ways)

Mix first two together, add icing sugar and milk, mix.

Enjoy!

I’m a Master!

I defended yesterday, and passed!  WOOHOO!!

Now final touches have to be done for publishing, and then its done done done!

YAY!

What will this year bring?

The past month has been rather enjoyable!  I submitted my thesis on November 30th (WOOHOO!) and Mister and I spent the day puttering around Ottawa. Saturday was his brother’s birthday dinner, and Sunday I went down to Toronto for a few days to work in the office. Back home for a few days, crashed, cleaned up my books and notes, slept, fought a cold, and packed. Then I spent a few days in Montreal (national meetings of the organization I am interning for), then home for a few days, then went to Winnipeg!  I spent a week with my parents knitting/crocheting/visiting with family before Marc arrived and we moved to stay with my brother and sister-in-law.  Then a quiet Christmas which provided quality time with family, after which we all got sick. The boys played a lot of video games, I did a lot of knitting.  And I scratched some cows.  We spent New Year’s Eve with Marc’s parents in Ottawa and did our Christmas celebrations with them, and New Year’s Day with Marc’s extended family in Montreal…. the party quieted down at 2am, at which point the cards started.  We went to bed at 4:30am… his grandparents were up later, and earlier than us in the morning. Finally, we drove back to Ottawa, picked up the gifts and rearranged the car, and then came home to Brockville.  I love me bed.

Mentally, its been an interesting month. I basically stopped taking my meds after handing in my thesis…. I took them when I was in the Toronto or Montreal offices, but thats it.  I haven’t had meds in three weeks. It took about a week before I was able to feel functional again. Stopping outright is not what the docs recommend, but its what I did. I’m much more productive on meds, I think I might be able to be very productive off of them, but I need routine and structure – something neither Marc nor I are good at. I have to work harder, and put more mental energy into doing things off meds. And I can’t read.  I don’t have the attention span, I miss huge chunks… its just not fun. And getting to sleep is much more difficult.

However, I am good at hand tasks… like cooking, knitting… things I can just go and do. So those have been very consistent. That, and these always involve colourful new materials, and new projects, so it helps keep focus by always being new. As I get into larger projects, this may fade.

So, now its time to get back to ‘reality’. My vacation, from meds and ‘life’ is coming to a close (I HOPE!). I am heading down to the Toronto office for a couple days this week, and will start applying for jobs. My thesis defence dates are being negotiated, but it should be mid-month. And then, someone needs to start paying me for something. New year, new focus… just don’t know what it will be yet.

 

 

 

 

This is my work space

Coming back to my desk for an evening session of thesis editing, I realized I had a nest.

As you can see, I have my desk set up in front of the window. I hate facing walls and corners, but the room loses a lot of space if I set the desk up to face the middle. Sometimes I have to squint when the sun is really bright behind the screen, but I like my desk here.  Its dark by 5pm now, and I have to turn the room light on around 3:30.

To the left of the screen, which displays the two documents I am simultaneously working on (editing the thesis text while compiling a summary), I have the sun lamp… helps fight off SADness (teeheehee). To the right of the screen, green plants (good for mental health) and the water bottle I use to squirt them when I am stuck on a phrase… they’ve gotten a lot of water lately, and are growing nicely!  On the left of the desk, the dog’s record papers as I have been distracted by potential holiday plans today and had to see where her shots were at in case of kennelling. Things like this come and go each day, but there usually is something like this around.

To help focus, the glass of water… hydration helps mental acuity. To help fight stress, red wine… alcohol seems to help the editing process… Actually, its just left over from a sauce Mister made yesterday. Usually, its water and tea, but wine is nice tonight.

To the right of the desk, past drafts, original reading notes, and editing notes on previous versions.

On the far right, a space heater, as this room doesn’t get the same air flow as the rest of the apartment.  I have to keep the door closed so that Mister and Bella can do their thing without worrying about disturbing me.

To the left of the desk, my bookcase… computer terminal, printers, paper, the box of books I have used for the thesis. The disk drive there plays yoga or workout videos when my brain stops working and needs a blood flow boost.

To the left of the bookcase, the dresser, with a pile of reference materials for my internship work, and a pile of ‘important’ things that need to be filed/read/dealt with another day.

On the far left, the table with my current craft projects… the set up was done as breaks last night and this morning… a post will come soon on that project.

My nest has certainly grown this past week, both in physical accumulation and in mental significance, but it makes sense as this is where I have been most of the day, most days recently.  I appreciate having such a comfy work environment.