Date Posted: July 16th, 2010
The Weekly Check-in is where I let you all know where I am on the path. “The Hard” is stuff I struggled with this week. It’s complaining except hopefully not as annoying. “The Good” is what went well this week. “The Learning” is what I realized this week. Learning could be related to The Hard or The Good but it might not be. The format is similar to the one FluentSelf’s Havi uses in her Friday Chickens.
The Hard
Exercise Please?
I didn’t bike to work on Wednesday or Thursday, and felt gross because of it. Brain fuzzy, can’t think straight, gross.
Nique needs to exercise consistently. Sewiously.
Not Enough Time
I want more time. I want energy to use said time. I don’t want to give up things I love doing. Can’t I have my cake and eat it too?
The Promise Breaking
I promised myself I’d get up with the kitty and either read (if the weather was nice) or use the exercise bike (if the weather was crummy). This didn’t happen. If the weather is nice I still bike to work, but getting up with the cat is hard. Especially when Rorschach decides that 4AM is a good time to start caterwauling. Rawr.
Maybe I need to face the fact that 8 hours of sleep is what I need. Getting up at 7 isn’t so bad…
Maybe I need to find some other time to exercise. Or something.
Also didn’t do as much writing as I would have liked to. (And I did want to do writing.)
Guilt Guilt Guilt
Not keeping promises to myself brings on the guilt.
Unfortunately while guilt will get me to sit on the bike or open the journal, it won’t make me want to exercise or want to write. Bleh.
The Good
Books!
Finished World Without End. Started Voluntary Simplicity. WWE was very good. I’m kinda sad it’s over. Voluntary Simplicity is looking like it’s going to be good too.
Finishing books is definitely a good thing. It makes me feel like I can accomplish something.
Meetings can be useful
I run a weekly progress meeting for one of my projects at work. Normally when I hear about meetings it’s about how long they are and how they take away from actual productive time. These meetings are different.
For one thing these meetings are short. This last one was 15 minutes? Maybe?
For another stuff gets done in the 10 – 20 minutes before the meeting. On both sides. No one likes to hear that they’re part isn’t done.
Happiness.
Crêpes at the Farmer’s Market
On Wednesday Aaron and I went to the Farmer’s Market on our way to work, and in one of the stalls was a crêpe stand. 
Very unexpected. Very tasty. I would have them again, though not every week.
It was nice to do something spontaneous and not feel guilty about it afterward.
Improving at Recorder
On Wednesday evenings I’ve been spending some time honing my music skills. Recorder has been my primary instrument for about 4 years now, so unsurprisingly I’ve been using some of that time to focus on it.
I’m happy to say that improvement is being made. I’m able to play more of the notes the recorder is capable of and I’ve discovered that the alto is better suited for many pieces I have until now usually played on the soprano.
I’m really glad I decided to block out one evening a week for practice.
The Learning
I feel terrible if I don’t exercise
*Writes note to self.*
Breathing is Good
Yep.
My Self-Worth is tied up in silly things
Like how productive I am and how well I keep promises to myself.
I need to remind myself that me not keeping promises to myself doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. It means something’s misaligned.
I need to remind myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Tags:
Character-Development, Leadership, Mastery, Physical Health, Self-Discipline.
Posted at
7:00 am | No Comments »
Date Posted: June 17th, 2010
The Wedding Party (Click for full size)
Aaron and I are the ones in the center in case you couldn’t guess. 
I made my dress and the dresses for the two ladies on the left. And by made I mean I could have done just about all of it myself, but due to time constraints I sought out a lot of help from my friends.
Not sure I’d make the same decisions if I were doing it all over again. On the one hand I’m happy that the dresses were pretty historically accurate and they turned out well. On the other hand it was a hell of a lot of work for people who don’t do reenactment. Chances are I would have made mine myself and then either ordered the rest from a Renaissance festival clothing website or made them a lot simpler. Such is life. I hadn’t intended to do more than mine in the first place and then things happened and I ended up making them. :-/
So, things I learned.
Our Community is Pretty Awesome
I have a great group of friends that really came through for us for our event. I think the only people involved with the wedding that we didn’t know intimately were the caterer (who just supplied the food; no staff) and the site person. Everything else was done by someone I’m either on a first name basis with or is family.
I’d talked a while back about how modern secular weddings are missing something, and I realized something about my wedding. It may not have had the religious aspect, but we definitely tapped into an old tradition… the tradition of everyone in the village working together to make the wedding day(s) happen. That was really special. And happy.
Sometime in the coming weeks we’re going to have a Thank You party for everyone who helped out with the wedding. There’s a pretty good chance Aaron and I will get weepy at that.
Detachment? Have I talked about that here?
Detachment is a pretty good policy in general, but it’s especially important in anything where your friends are helping you out with stuff. It’s one thing to yell at a stranger because something they did didn’t meet your expectations… you’re not going to hang out with them after the contract is up. With friends, you really shouldn’t yell at them for not helping you the way you want them to. For one thing it’s mean to yell at anyone. For another, they’re helping you! Yelling at someone for volunteering their time does not win you anything except grief. Plus, chances are whatever your vision was wasn’t that important anyway.
Also it’s hard to have a complete vision of everything. Better to give people the space to be creative. The more detached you are from your vision, the more surprised and happy you’ll be by what you end up with. For instance, I had no idea what I wanted from the flowers. Giving my friend the freedom to do what she wanted meant I got pleasantly surprised and I didn’t have to spend time explaining what I wanted.
So yeah, yay detatchment!
I like running events
Not that I was actually running this one. We had people on site in charge of making sure things got done, but I think I’d like being in charge of such things too. We’re thinking of having an anniversary dinner dance next year with more dancing a fewer funny costumes. Methinks that’d be a lot of fun, and a lot less work to plan.
It’s nice to be officially married
Aaron and I signed the papers in September, but we didn’t publicly change our status until after the June wedding. We’d been in limbo for 3/4 of a year and by the end it was really annoying. We didn’t know how to introduce ourselves to new people. We didn’t know whether or not we should let people know we signed the papers. Etc. It was weird. I have more thoughts on this that deserve their own post. Suffice it to say, I’m happy to be able to call Aaron my husband now.
I like kayaking
We went kayaking on our honeymoon. I could see myself doing more of that. There’s a club in Ann Arbor I might join. I’m wary because I already have a busy schedule, but I’ve been feeling like my “likes being in nature” side doesn’t get enough attention.
Will probably keep doing one of those things I’d thought about quitting
In the last check-in I’d said I was planning to give up some positions I have. I’ve decided to hold off on doing that for one of them. I’m excited about where that one is going and the person I had in mind for the job I think won’t be that interested in the new direction.
Still a few more wedding thoughts
I have about three posts in my heading related to our wedding and marriage in general. Hopefully after that I’ll be done with this topic.
That’s about it for me right now.
Tags:
Family, Leadership, Meta, Relationships.
Posted at
11:14 pm | No Comments »
