I knew from the beginning that I was unlikely to write a "Hiss and Purr" post every week, but I was hoping to do it a bit more frequently than monthly. By comparison, slukettg at This Liminal Space has been writing her "Weekly Hiss and Purr" literally every week and has lapped me in a very short time. (If you haven't read her recent post about substance abuse and privilege, you should do that now. It's way better written and more important than anything I'm going to come up with today.) I'm going to try to write these posts more often, as they're a relatively easy way to get some of my thoughts out and to keep up with the habit of blogging. I don't, however, promise weekly.
The Hiss - Insomnia:
Insomnia has been a lifelong enemy of mine, and for some reason it has decided to be particularly bad lately. Most nights I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and then I lie in bed afterwards for anywhere from one to three hours, completely awake. On bad nights, the timing of falling back asleep corresponds to the timing of the cats crawling into bed, and then there is no additional sleep for me. The interrupted sleep has left me profoundly tired - on Friday night, I started whining about needing to go to bed at 9 PM, which is very unusual for a night owl like me.
The strange thing is, I don't know why the insomnia is so bad. Usually I suffer from insomnia when I'm under stress or unhappy about something, but I don't feel like either of those things are the case right now. Yes, there is some stress associated with starting work as a real doctor, but it feels very mild compared to what I'd feared. And I'm not unhappy! I'm enjoying work even more than I had expected; the girlfriend and I have been doing lots of fun things in our spare time; and I'm getting better about avoiding the trap of staying up too late at night. I just don't get it!
I've been exercising again recently (more about that later in the week), and I'm hoping that will help turn things around. Because I'm tired of staring at the ceiling when I should be asleep!
The Purr - Long Weekends:
There is something so unbelievably luxurious about having three days off in a row. I love having one day for fun things and one day for necessary things and then yet another day for whatever I choose to do. This has been a particularly good long weekend, as we haven't had any weddings to go to (I am so done with weddings). I've finished my book (more about Chasing the Scream in a future post), finished knitting my first sock (and started my second), introduced my girlfriend to Treme in honour of the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, played board games, tried four different hamburgers for Burger Week, and eaten an amazing celebratory dinner at my favourite tapas restaurant. And it's not over yet!
At the moment, I'm still in pj's, and I'm keeping my girlfriend company while she makes zucchini loaf. We have an oldies station playing in the background, and we're chatting about everything from the tragedy of the Syrian refuge crisis to the awkwardness of junior high. It's everything I need in life.
Showing posts with label Knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Knitting. Show all posts
Monday, September 7, 2015
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Check In - Home and Hobbies
About a month ago, I wrote a post about my goals for "Home and Hobbies" and promised to check in after starting work to let everyone know how things are going. Here's the update:
Have two knitting projects on the go at all times:
I've been using knitting as a way of relaxing in the evenings (when I'm not mindlessly surfing the internet), and I've made some good progress on my knitting projects. I recently finished knitting a baby sweater for a friend, and I just need to sew the hood and sleeves for it to be completely finished. Her son is now seven months old, so it's a good thing I opted for the 18-month size! I'm also almost to the end of knitting my first sock, which has been a six-month-long exercise in frustration; I may never knit the second one.
Now that I've finished knitting the baby sweater, I've essentially only got one knitting project on the go, so I need to find something else to work on. I'm thinking maybe something mindless, like a prayer shawl (maybe a Christmas gift for my Mom?), or something big, like a cozy sweater for myself. Ravelry here I come!
Cook regularly with my girlfriend:
This one has been fairly successful. We have a ton of produce from our CSA share (too much zucchini), so we've been doing a lot of cooking in an attempt to avoid wasting the beautiful organic vegetables. I also finally got our BBQ cleaned off, so we've been eating a lot of charred meat. I feel a bit like a caveman.
Read for pleasure every day:
This one got off to a very slow start due to exhaustion and my unfortunate technology addiction, but it's starting to pick up. After starting a few books that didn't hold my interest, I finally found "Chasing the Scream", which is a fascinating book about how the prohibition of drugs has led to the worldwide drug war. If you have even a passing interest in drug laws or racism or gang violence, you should read this book.
Now that I have a good book, I'm finding some time almost every day for reading. Unfortunately, I'm approaching the end of this book, so I'm not sure what I'll read next. Any "must-read" books that you'd suggest?
Keep up with my finances:
I've probably been doing too well with this. I've continued to track my budget on my iPhone, and I've started tracking all of my billings in an Excel file so that I can confirm that I'm being paid properly for the work I do. All of the monitoring has made me a bit obsessed with money, and I'm finding that I get unreasonably anxious whenever I spend money or drop below a budget surplus that I've arbitrarily decided is "enough". I'm hoping that the anxiety will wane as I get a better sense of my income and as I make progress with paying off my debt.
Spend time daily and weekly on keeping the apartment clean and organized:
Remember when I said "This will be a challenge. A huge challenge."? I was correct in my assessment. Cleaning and tidying have been the lowest priorities in my life lately, so the clutter and disorganization are starting to return. It's been made even worse by the fact that my girlfriend has been going through her own work transition, leaving her with neither the energy nor the motivation to help out much.
We have been doing a few things right, thankfully. We've been keeping up with the dishes and cleaning the kitchen semi-regularly, which means that there is usually space in the kitchen for cooking and eating. I've also been doing laundry every Sunday morning, so my laundry pile is small and I always have clothing to wear. I've also been filing my mail as soon as it comes in, which is keeping me more on top of bills and other important things than I usually am. So all in all, not a total failure with this goal.
Any goals that you've been working on lately? How are they going?
Have two knitting projects on the go at all times:
I've been using knitting as a way of relaxing in the evenings (when I'm not mindlessly surfing the internet), and I've made some good progress on my knitting projects. I recently finished knitting a baby sweater for a friend, and I just need to sew the hood and sleeves for it to be completely finished. Her son is now seven months old, so it's a good thing I opted for the 18-month size! I'm also almost to the end of knitting my first sock, which has been a six-month-long exercise in frustration; I may never knit the second one.
Now that I've finished knitting the baby sweater, I've essentially only got one knitting project on the go, so I need to find something else to work on. I'm thinking maybe something mindless, like a prayer shawl (maybe a Christmas gift for my Mom?), or something big, like a cozy sweater for myself. Ravelry here I come!
Cook regularly with my girlfriend:
This one has been fairly successful. We have a ton of produce from our CSA share (too much zucchini), so we've been doing a lot of cooking in an attempt to avoid wasting the beautiful organic vegetables. I also finally got our BBQ cleaned off, so we've been eating a lot of charred meat. I feel a bit like a caveman.
Read for pleasure every day:
This one got off to a very slow start due to exhaustion and my unfortunate technology addiction, but it's starting to pick up. After starting a few books that didn't hold my interest, I finally found "Chasing the Scream", which is a fascinating book about how the prohibition of drugs has led to the worldwide drug war. If you have even a passing interest in drug laws or racism or gang violence, you should read this book.
Keep up with my finances:
I've probably been doing too well with this. I've continued to track my budget on my iPhone, and I've started tracking all of my billings in an Excel file so that I can confirm that I'm being paid properly for the work I do. All of the monitoring has made me a bit obsessed with money, and I'm finding that I get unreasonably anxious whenever I spend money or drop below a budget surplus that I've arbitrarily decided is "enough". I'm hoping that the anxiety will wane as I get a better sense of my income and as I make progress with paying off my debt.
Spend time daily and weekly on keeping the apartment clean and organized:
Remember when I said "This will be a challenge. A huge challenge."? I was correct in my assessment. Cleaning and tidying have been the lowest priorities in my life lately, so the clutter and disorganization are starting to return. It's been made even worse by the fact that my girlfriend has been going through her own work transition, leaving her with neither the energy nor the motivation to help out much.
We have been doing a few things right, thankfully. We've been keeping up with the dishes and cleaning the kitchen semi-regularly, which means that there is usually space in the kitchen for cooking and eating. I've also been doing laundry every Sunday morning, so my laundry pile is small and I always have clothing to wear. I've also been filing my mail as soon as it comes in, which is keeping me more on top of bills and other important things than I usually am. So all in all, not a total failure with this goal.
Any goals that you've been working on lately? How are they going?
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Day Off Fun
When I started planning my vacation, I imagined an abundance of time with my girlfriend. We would sleep in late, cook elaborate breakfasts, ride our bikes through our local parks, and head off on adventures in the city and across the province.
I did not imagine weddings. And multiple family gatherings. And all kinds of things that involved people other than just the girlfriend and me. In the end, we've had much less time to spend together than expected. Until today! There was no wedding to attend, all of the family has flown back to their home cities, and my girlfriend had a mid-week day off. Bliss!
We started the day with a very large breakfast at an old-school diner. The diner is only a few blocks from where I'll be working starting next week, and it's right in the heart of the inner city. A lot of people avoid this part of my city because it's associated with gang activity and drug use, and they worry that it isn't safe. While these are definite issues in the neighbourhood, in reality most of the members of the community are good people who are just trying to build their lives under sometimes difficult conditions.
And there's great food available at low prices. (If you're not familiar with the deep fried pockets of goodness on the right, they're perogies, which are a staple in diners in my city.)
After breakfast, we headed across the street to a Thrift Store to search out some bargains. My girlfriend found an assortment of $0.50 CDs, including the Sound of Music and a few classical CDs, while I scored big on knitting needles - six pairs for only $0.25 each!
While a big part of my motivation for going to thrift stores is to save money, it goes beyond that. In our wasteful society, I think it's important to look for ways of reusing things and reducing how much we send to the landfills. It's also a great way to support charities such as Mennonite Central Committee, which focuses on relief and peace-building efforts across the world. And there's something really satisfying about making a great find (like six pairs of knitting needles for $1.50).
(End of soapbox)
After the thrift store, we went to almost every bike shop in the city to look for a bike for my girlfriend. She's been using a second-hand bike from her brother for almost ten years, and it's probably well past the time when she should have bought one for herself. She's looking at a cruiser bike, and I think she's finally settled on the one she wants to buy. (At least I hope so, because I think I might ram a kickstand through my eye if I have to look at another bike.)
After the bike shopping, we headed to a local farm to pick up our Community Supported Agriculture share. (I could wax poetic about CSAs for days, but I think the thrift store paragraph was probably enough sappiness for one blog post.) The people with whom we've been splitting our weekly share are away for the next few weeks, so we have an even greater abundance of produce than usual. I have no idea how we're going to eat ten cucumbers, five zucchinis, and four bags of kale in the next week. Any suggestions?
And that was our day. My girlfriend got a last minute invitation to a free play, so she's off watching that while I read and blog and try to fit copious amounts of produce into our tiny apartment fridge.
Life is good.
I did not imagine weddings. And multiple family gatherings. And all kinds of things that involved people other than just the girlfriend and me. In the end, we've had much less time to spend together than expected. Until today! There was no wedding to attend, all of the family has flown back to their home cities, and my girlfriend had a mid-week day off. Bliss!
We started the day with a very large breakfast at an old-school diner. The diner is only a few blocks from where I'll be working starting next week, and it's right in the heart of the inner city. A lot of people avoid this part of my city because it's associated with gang activity and drug use, and they worry that it isn't safe. While these are definite issues in the neighbourhood, in reality most of the members of the community are good people who are just trying to build their lives under sometimes difficult conditions.
And there's great food available at low prices. (If you're not familiar with the deep fried pockets of goodness on the right, they're perogies, which are a staple in diners in my city.)
After breakfast, we headed across the street to a Thrift Store to search out some bargains. My girlfriend found an assortment of $0.50 CDs, including the Sound of Music and a few classical CDs, while I scored big on knitting needles - six pairs for only $0.25 each!
(Please do not put any needles in here)
While a big part of my motivation for going to thrift stores is to save money, it goes beyond that. In our wasteful society, I think it's important to look for ways of reusing things and reducing how much we send to the landfills. It's also a great way to support charities such as Mennonite Central Committee, which focuses on relief and peace-building efforts across the world. And there's something really satisfying about making a great find (like six pairs of knitting needles for $1.50).
(End of soapbox)
After the thrift store, we went to almost every bike shop in the city to look for a bike for my girlfriend. She's been using a second-hand bike from her brother for almost ten years, and it's probably well past the time when she should have bought one for herself. She's looking at a cruiser bike, and I think she's finally settled on the one she wants to buy. (At least I hope so, because I think I might ram a kickstand through my eye if I have to look at another bike.)
After the bike shopping, we headed to a local farm to pick up our Community Supported Agriculture share. (I could wax poetic about CSAs for days, but I think the thrift store paragraph was probably enough sappiness for one blog post.) The people with whom we've been splitting our weekly share are away for the next few weeks, so we have an even greater abundance of produce than usual. I have no idea how we're going to eat ten cucumbers, five zucchinis, and four bags of kale in the next week. Any suggestions?
And that was our day. My girlfriend got a last minute invitation to a free play, so she's off watching that while I read and blog and try to fit copious amounts of produce into our tiny apartment fridge.
Life is good.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Habits - Home and Hobbies
As I was reading Gretchen Rubin's book "Better Than Before", I kept thinking about habits that I've recently incorporated into my life, as well as habits that I'd like to adopt. There are so many of them, most of which unfortunately fall into the latter category. Over the next few days, I plan to write posts outlining the habits I'd like to have in four different broad categories: home and hobbies, personal, work, and relationships. (Not necessarily in that order or on four consecutive days. I'll pick my topics as the mood hits me.) Because going back to work is going to make habit change challenging, I plan to do a check in on my habits once I'm two weeks in (and finished my first stretch of call as an attending).
In deciding on the habits on which to focus, I'm trying to remember that the end goal isn't to adopt good habits - it's to be happy in both the short and long term. If these habits aren't making me happier, then I can choose to drop them whenever I please. (Isn't being an adult wonderful?)
So here we go with habits in the home and hobbies category. The habits are roughly arranged from what I consider to be least important to most important.
Have two knitting projects on the go at all times:
I started knitting sometime in the last year after being inspired by the many women (and some men!) at my girlfriend's church who knit. Some of them knit during the services, and many more of them knit at social events, and I was always jealous when I watched them work. Since I started knitting, I've knit three infinity scarves (one for myself and two for my nieces), as well as almost one sock and almost one baby sweater.
I love a lot of things about knitting - dreaming about projects and picking out nice yarn, watching a project slowly come together over weeks to months, and having something to distract me when I'm in a boring or awkward social situation. I also like that it's slightly subversive to be a knitting physician. Physicians are supposed to be constantly rushing and stressed and short on time, so I love the idea of doing something that is intentionally slow.
This is something that will undoubtedly wax and wane depending on how busy I am, but that's okay. Knitting projects can sit idle for a long time and then be picked up when needed. I'm choosing to have two projects going, as it's nice to have something that gives me a bit of a challenge (e.g. a baby sweater) as well as something that is purely mindless and relaxing (e.g. an infinity scarf).
Cook regularly with my girlfriend:
My girlfriend and I both have a huge love of cooking and of trying new foods/recipes, and it's one of the things that brought us together early in our relationship. We've unfortunately fallen out of the habit of cooking together recently, as my girlfriend's job has required her to stay at work until after the supper hour. I think our relationship has suffered as a result of us not cooking and eating together, and it's something I want to work on. Thankfully, starting next month her days will be ending at 5 PM, so hopefully it won't be hard for us to get back into this habit.
Read for pleasure every day:
Have I mentioned recently how much I love books? I love reading once I get into it, but I sometimes avoid it when I'm tired, because checking Facebook/surfing the internet/watching tv seems easier and more relaxing. Which it isn't; reading is definitely more relaxing than any activity involving technology. I want to maintain the habit I've developed this summer of always having a book going and of reading every day.
Keep up with my finances:
I was a bit of a financial disaster during my training. Not only did I not budget, I also did terrible things like file my tax returns late (really, really late) and occasionally miss a credit card payment. I've finally gotten on top of everything financial, including meeting with my financial adviser to figure out my get-out-of-debt-as-soon-as-humanly-possible strategy, and I want to keep it that way. To do this, I plan to deal with financial things (bills, etc.) as soon as they come in, even if that means waiting a day or two to check the mail until I have time to deal with it. I also plan to set aside time on Sunday mornings (while my girlfriend is at church) to quickly review my bank/investment statements and to do anything financial that didn't get done during the week.
Spend time daily and weekly on keeping the apartment clean and organized:
This will be a challenge. A huge challenge. I've done very well this summer at getting the apartment decluttered and organized, and I've managed to adopt the habit of doing annoying little tasks (like unpacking from our weekend camping/wedding adventure) as soon as they come up. The apartment is so much tidier as a result, and it facilitates things like cooking and reading and other fun activities. But doing tasks when they arise isn't my default setting, which means that this will be really hard to maintain once I go back to work. And my girlfriend is much more tolerant of chaos than I am, which will make it hard to get her on board!
My first strategy for achieving this is to set aside dedicated times for cleaning and tidying. On a daily basis, this will mean taking a few minutes when I first arrive home to hang up my jacket/purse and empty out my lunch container, as well as spending some time doing dishes before bed. On a weekly basis, this will mean spending some time every Sunday morning doing laundry and tackling some of the items on my to-do list.
My second strategy is going to have to be talking to my girlfriend. While I've been on holidays, I've assumed the majority of the household responsibilities, and it's gotten stuff done, but it won't be sustainable (or fair) once I go back to work. As difficult as it may be to do, we need to come up with a way of dividing up the household tasks. The big challenge for me will be accepting that we have different ideas of what needs to be done around the apartment; therefore, if I want things done better than she does, I may need to do a bit more of the work.
Hmmm....it seems like I have my work cut out for me. And this is only day one of four!
In deciding on the habits on which to focus, I'm trying to remember that the end goal isn't to adopt good habits - it's to be happy in both the short and long term. If these habits aren't making me happier, then I can choose to drop them whenever I please. (Isn't being an adult wonderful?)
So here we go with habits in the home and hobbies category. The habits are roughly arranged from what I consider to be least important to most important.
Have two knitting projects on the go at all times:
I started knitting sometime in the last year after being inspired by the many women (and some men!) at my girlfriend's church who knit. Some of them knit during the services, and many more of them knit at social events, and I was always jealous when I watched them work. Since I started knitting, I've knit three infinity scarves (one for myself and two for my nieces), as well as almost one sock and almost one baby sweater.
I love a lot of things about knitting - dreaming about projects and picking out nice yarn, watching a project slowly come together over weeks to months, and having something to distract me when I'm in a boring or awkward social situation. I also like that it's slightly subversive to be a knitting physician. Physicians are supposed to be constantly rushing and stressed and short on time, so I love the idea of doing something that is intentionally slow.
This is something that will undoubtedly wax and wane depending on how busy I am, but that's okay. Knitting projects can sit idle for a long time and then be picked up when needed. I'm choosing to have two projects going, as it's nice to have something that gives me a bit of a challenge (e.g. a baby sweater) as well as something that is purely mindless and relaxing (e.g. an infinity scarf).
Cook regularly with my girlfriend:
My girlfriend and I both have a huge love of cooking and of trying new foods/recipes, and it's one of the things that brought us together early in our relationship. We've unfortunately fallen out of the habit of cooking together recently, as my girlfriend's job has required her to stay at work until after the supper hour. I think our relationship has suffered as a result of us not cooking and eating together, and it's something I want to work on. Thankfully, starting next month her days will be ending at 5 PM, so hopefully it won't be hard for us to get back into this habit.
Read for pleasure every day:
Have I mentioned recently how much I love books? I love reading once I get into it, but I sometimes avoid it when I'm tired, because checking Facebook/surfing the internet/watching tv seems easier and more relaxing. Which it isn't; reading is definitely more relaxing than any activity involving technology. I want to maintain the habit I've developed this summer of always having a book going and of reading every day.
Keep up with my finances:
I was a bit of a financial disaster during my training. Not only did I not budget, I also did terrible things like file my tax returns late (really, really late) and occasionally miss a credit card payment. I've finally gotten on top of everything financial, including meeting with my financial adviser to figure out my get-out-of-debt-as-soon-as-humanly-possible strategy, and I want to keep it that way. To do this, I plan to deal with financial things (bills, etc.) as soon as they come in, even if that means waiting a day or two to check the mail until I have time to deal with it. I also plan to set aside time on Sunday mornings (while my girlfriend is at church) to quickly review my bank/investment statements and to do anything financial that didn't get done during the week.
Spend time daily and weekly on keeping the apartment clean and organized:
This will be a challenge. A huge challenge. I've done very well this summer at getting the apartment decluttered and organized, and I've managed to adopt the habit of doing annoying little tasks (like unpacking from our weekend camping/wedding adventure) as soon as they come up. The apartment is so much tidier as a result, and it facilitates things like cooking and reading and other fun activities. But doing tasks when they arise isn't my default setting, which means that this will be really hard to maintain once I go back to work. And my girlfriend is much more tolerant of chaos than I am, which will make it hard to get her on board!
My first strategy for achieving this is to set aside dedicated times for cleaning and tidying. On a daily basis, this will mean taking a few minutes when I first arrive home to hang up my jacket/purse and empty out my lunch container, as well as spending some time doing dishes before bed. On a weekly basis, this will mean spending some time every Sunday morning doing laundry and tackling some of the items on my to-do list.
My second strategy is going to have to be talking to my girlfriend. While I've been on holidays, I've assumed the majority of the household responsibilities, and it's gotten stuff done, but it won't be sustainable (or fair) once I go back to work. As difficult as it may be to do, we need to come up with a way of dividing up the household tasks. The big challenge for me will be accepting that we have different ideas of what needs to be done around the apartment; therefore, if I want things done better than she does, I may need to do a bit more of the work.
Hmmm....it seems like I have my work cut out for me. And this is only day one of four!
Saturday, August 8, 2015
This Counts as a Post
I'm three minutes away from our scheduled departure time for a wedding in Middle-of-Nowhere, Canada, so this will be the briefest of brief.
This is my third wedding of five (one of my family members, one of my friends, three of the girlfriend's friends) this summer, and I'm starting to wish that we had a smaller social circle. While I have nothing against the idea of weddings (love, commitment, buffets), the actual act of attending a wedding is not my preferred thing. Too many people (particularly too many people I don't know) for an introvert.
But what to do? People host weddings, other people attend. It's the social convention. So I'll pull out my fancy dress one more time and pretend that I'm having fun, even though I really just want to wear sweat pants and work on my knitting*.
*It's entirely possible that I'll knit at the wedding. I'm not above that.
This is my third wedding of five (one of my family members, one of my friends, three of the girlfriend's friends) this summer, and I'm starting to wish that we had a smaller social circle. While I have nothing against the idea of weddings (love, commitment, buffets), the actual act of attending a wedding is not my preferred thing. Too many people (particularly too many people I don't know) for an introvert.
But what to do? People host weddings, other people attend. It's the social convention. So I'll pull out my fancy dress one more time and pretend that I'm having fun, even though I really just want to wear sweat pants and work on my knitting*.
*It's entirely possible that I'll knit at the wedding. I'm not above that.
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