Posted May 24, 2023
But, every time I say that, I find myself wondering if I will ever experience (or have ever experienced) a week as “not busy”. No matter how little I have on the agenda for a given week, I end up with enough things to do, people to see, etc. to make it feel busy. I’m not sure if that’s just my perception and selectively remembering the times when I was doing something more clearly than times I was doing nothing, or if, given a period of free time, I create busy-ness for myself. Something to ponder.
In life updates, my team has been moved to a different floor of our office building, and it’s…objectively worse than where we were before. The ceilings are lower, the noise level is higher, the kitchen is oddly partitioned and doesn’t feel like an open space, and even if the line for the coffee machine wasn’t unglaublich1, there is almost always some setting on the machine or the grinder that has been tampered with, never for the better. The only nice thing about it is that most of the people I enjoy chatting with during breaks or outside of working hours are now concentrated on the same floor, whereas before they were split between the two floors. Still, I am not particularly thrilled about having to adjust to a new spot. I’m a creature of habit, and now all of my routines have to be adjusted. I feel less motivated to go to the office than I did previously, and the previous motivation level was already pretty low. We’ll see how this changes in the summer; in the past, I’ve spent more time in the office in the summer because of the AC, however…
🥁 …drum roll… 🥁
We finally bought an AC unit! Well, a swamp cooler, anyway. Other models aren’t really an option for us as we don’t have the right kind of windows for a window unit, and anything else would require renovations, which would be difficult to convince our landlord to approve2. In any case, a brief test shows it will at least cool an area down a noticeable bit, which is already a HUGE improvement over the unbearable and unchangeable heat of our apartment during the past 2 summers. Let’s see if it’s good enough to be comfortable working from home, but at the very least we’ll be able to get better sleep this summer than we did last summer. Death to the sweat box!
Reading: The Sword of Truth series, which (I found upon googling the series to make sure I was going to read the books in the correct order) is part of a genre called “sword and sorcery” which is, like, exactly my deal.
Listening: for podcasts, either MBMBaM or The Adventure Zone, both of which are comedy podcasts by the McElroy family. I’ve listened to so many hours of their content that it’s truly like being in the room while my good friends have a conversation. For music, I had my Swiftiest friend recommend me some T Swift songs based on the 2 I like most from her Midnights album (Lavender Haze and Karma, if you’re curious), and I’ve been checking that out. I needed the recommendations because man, she is prolific! I wouldn’t have a clue where to start with her music, otherwise.
Crafts: kind of in between right now, I did a little bit of drawing and some coloring while we were in France, but since we got back I haven’t had the time (or frankly, the energy) to pick anything up. Maybe I’ll pick my cross stitching project back up soon? Though it may be a better idea to paint one of my mini-canvases, as the time commitment you have to make to get results on that type of project is MUCH lower. Case in point, my current stitching project has been a WIP for about a year 😅 not that I’ve worked on it constantly, far from it, but a mini-painting I can knock out in an evening or two. It’s a nice choice when I just want to get a little bit of craft momentum going, because it’s always so rewarding to see some kind of result (even if it’s not exactly as I originally planned).
Other: I’ve finally returned to indoor bouldering (and more importantly, the croissant that comes after)! The finger I dislocated has taken its sweeeeeeet sweet time to heal, but it’s finally feeling pretty stable and not bothering me too much. I still need to be a bit cautious, but I can climb routes at the level I left off at, and I can do 3 (well, ok…2 and a half) consecutive pull-ups again, so I’m absolutely psyched to be back at it and back with my bouldering crew. 🥐❤️
Other other: I originally posted this with a picture without sharing any context; the picture is of my most recent attempt at latte art, and while the crema isn’t exactly consistent, the shape of the foam art is the best I have ever achieved, and I am excited about that! It’s difficult to improve a skill when you only practice it 2-4 times a week, but I do see some progress. Also, it’s an art that’s tasty, so even if it looks like 💩, it still tastes like ☕️ and that’s what matters.
Nah, dawg. That’s it.