Fruit N Fiber Weekends- Maintaining Your Regularity

You have to be able to multi-task in this world. Some people are better at it than others. For a girl on the go, I have precious little free time between flights to try and squeeze in “normal” activities. In my overly scheduled and spontaneity-free life, I find that weekends are just as choreographed, just in a different way. I want to be able to do some fun things, but I know that I have to get my version of “chores” done as well. While I was in the midst of completing what I am calling my “fruit and fiber” tasks, I made a quick list of all the tasks I try to lump together in an attempt to fool myself into thinking I have some sort of normalcy right now. So here we go.

Cranberries and Comet
I have been completing yet another organization project the last couple of weeks. This time with my CD’s. It’s a space issue, as always. Since I was knee-deep in CD’s anyway, I decided to go through them and make sure I had everything I wanted on my iPod. As I came across CD’s that needed to be added to the library, I realized that I couldn’t just sit there waiting. So, time to go clean the bathrooms. And sort laundry. Luckily, none of these things are overly labor-intensive. So, once the bathrooms were clean, the laundry is going, and yet another CD is being added to iTunes, I find I need something else to do as well.

Pulp Fiction and Cascade
I love to read. I read a lot and I read fast. I am always at bookstores looking for more things to read. I came home this weekend to find not one, but 2 packages from Amazon loaded with books I have been looking for, but can’t find in my bookstores. Woo!! New books call to me. When I know they are in the house, I find I am likely to sit and read to the exclusion of everything else, food and sleep being the primary sacrifices. So, knowing that I have these temptations so close is killing me because I really have too many other things to do. So, I start the dishwasher. Then pop another CD in. Then do another load of laundry. All the while, the books are calling to me. Who am I kidding here? I grab a book and plant myself in front of my laptop so I can still deal with the music project. I tell myself I can certainly spare a couple of hours for this. So I do it. And now here I sit, listening to some song on my iPod wondering, why did I download this song? This song sucks.

Omelets and Junk Mail
As you can imagine, I am probably not my postman’s favorite person. My mailbox fills up pretty fast during the week. Of course, it’s mostly crap. The flyers they put together out here are maddening and just ridiculous. It would be one thing if they appeared once a week but instead they appear almost every day. What I end up yanking out of my mailbox at the end of the week looks like the weekend edition of a large newspaper that has been crumpled and stuffed into my mailbox page by page. I hate going through my mail. So, I try to pair up this task with something I love: breakfast. This is great because it gives me something to do at the restaurant while I am waiting for my food. And before some of you freak out on me, no, I don’t leave anything there that might have my name or address on it. I take it home with me and pitch it in the dumpster on my way in. I find that this system seems to work for me since the junk mail never makes it into the house.

Grocery Nirvana
I think we all have certain chores we just hate to do and will put off doing as long as possible. Mine is grocery shopping. I hate it. One perk about being gone so much is that I rarely have to do it. But, when I am home for a while, I do what I can to make this task a little less tedious. First, it’s all about location. I have a nice grocery store near me with a Starbucks in it. Yeah, so I have to go and fortify myself with caffeine first. Then, it’s the music. You’d better believe I have that iPod charged and ready to go. I find that shopping for food and whatnot with a soundtrack and a latte makes this gypsy a happy girl.

Fashion Shows and Movie Stars
Every week I stand at my closet and wonder what in the world I am going to throw together this week for work. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I pick a color and then run with it. I don’t like wearing the same things week after week, so I have to mix things up. Granted, it would be a much simpler process if I didn’t insist on this, but I don’t care. So there is always a mini-fashion show going on as I try to find something to wear and generally destroy my closet in the process. I find this is also a good time to get caught up on my movie rentals. I really need to hook up my other DVD player in my bedroom, but it hasn’t made it high enough on whatever list I have for that kind of thing. So, I have a VCR and a bunch of old movies. This weekend was Apollo 13 and The Cutting Edge. These are movies I have seen a number of times, but it’s still nice to have something on in the background.

Taking Things Too Far
The only time I really resent multi-tasking is when I am asleep. Last night, for example, I was dreaming about work. I hate it when I do that. It generally is an indication of a deadline of some sort coming up. This normally happens before I have to train something for the first time. In this case, I think it’s more wishful thinking. This is supposed to be my last week on my project, but I think it’s going to get extended. In the meantime, I have been working extra hard to try and wrap up as much as I can by the end of this week anyway.

One of the people I am working with here mentioned something last week about their Dentist contemplating adding some additional services. Namely, manicures. Can you imagine getting your teeth cleaned, filled, or whatever, while getting a manicure? I think some tasks should be left alone.