Things for me to work on

[cjsmith]

I'm in a fix-my-life kind of mood. (I guess I'm mentally getting around to New Year's now that I'm feeling a little more human.)

I can think of a few things I'd like to improve. Some of these can probably be done with minimal time or effort -- I just need to DO them.

1. Social life
We now own dishes and crock pots and stuff. We could throw parties. Because work deadlines appear on my schedule with very little notice, and in my personal life I make commitments far in advance, I will need to learn how to deal with schedule conflicts.

2. Finances
I badly need to update Quicken. (Did some of this tonight: checking and savings up to date!) I also want to pay better attention to saving and investing. Any effort at all would be a huge improvement over what I did last year.

3. Feet
Call Stanford. Duuuuuh.

4. Fitness / becoming active
I want to attempt to bike using my heels or arches. Bicycling is cheaper, less loathsome, more time-efficient, and far more flexible to schedule than swimming at the Y. It also requires about 1/4 mile less walking, unless the bike breaks down.

There are a couple more, but they are complex enough to deserve their own posts. I'll think about those later.

Comments

[bigredpaul.livejournal.com]

It's perfectly acceptable to say "no" to work.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's how I handled it last time. I also gave myself a guilt trip the size of Texas. There's room for improvement there. :-)

[tryslora]

*echoes saying no to work* I feel guilty, too, but I'm still working on training them that less than a week's notice is not acceptable. The networks dude who told me on Friday before that he expected me to work Christmas weekend was informed in no uncertain terms exactly how insane he is. Oh, and I've learned to make sure everyone knows my weekend availability far in advance, so if they wait to schedule things, I can smile and say "I warned you" which does really help to lessen the guilt.

If you start biking, you can get a stationary trainer for your bike, and bring it inside and set it up at times when you don't want to bike outside, if that happens. Mine is currently living in my guest room for the winter (I know, your winter ain't like mine! *grins*).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Christmas? Hel-LO. :)

I like the idea of telling them in advance. This is a little awkward in my teeny company because no one else does it; they're mostly unmarried no-mortgage no-outside-commitments types. But I could do it anyway.

True, my winter ain't like yours! (Usually mine is WET WET WET, with pounding rain in the forties or so, but this year it's simply been dry with some frost.) If I can bike at all I'd love to work up to commuting that way.

[tryslora]

Yep, and he looked at us like we were NUTS when we said no! He was like "my dog died and I don't feel like celebrating" and were all like "yep, sympathy, but still NO cuz we've got y'know families and things going on, sorry."

I'm stubborn when it comes to work, so no matter what the environment is (I've worked same place for 12 1/2 years but the changeover every few years means I might as well have moved for how different it is), I'm pushy. But I'm also selfish as all hell about my free time. *grins*

Er, which reminds me I'm supposed to be doing testing today and I forgot. *sighs* I suppose I should do that soon.

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

A thought: instead of "throwing parties" you might consider "having people over for dinner". It might even be the same people, and the same number of people, but the different phrasing may help it feel less overwhelming.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I like "having people over" without the "dinner" part ;-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

we do a lot of potluck-type things. host handles a main dish and maybe some drinks (soda, maybe wine) and everyone else chips in with all the other stuff. we usually have a TON of food.

keep it simple like pasta with sauce(s), baked potatoes with toppings, or something you can make ahead and pop in the oven, it makes things a lot less harried.

damn, i need to live closer.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

regarding quicken: YOU CAN DO IT! :)

i'm all caught up, minus some bank account reconciling. all i need to do is gather up some medical info, and i'm ready to do my taxes!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

You ROCK! I remember seeing some posts about your Quicken catch-up, and I was way impressed. Remember how we were going to challenge each other? HA! I hadda go and get sick to weasel out of THAT one! :-)

But I'm working on it now. I'm done with the bank statements for checking and savings, and they're all reconciled, too, all the way up to the statements that showed up last week. YAY! Now I am working on cash, which is not nearly as far behind but will still be a mess because I don't remember everything. My goal is to get that and my credit cards done tonight. Later I get to do 401(k)s and shit. Would you believe I even had an asset account for my car? NOT ANY MORE, MONKEY BOY! At least not THAT car! Maybe I'll make a new one for my new car. Hahahahahahahaha.