Reasons to Smile

Although some of the troubling issues that I posted about a couple of weeks ago still persist, I have been feeling a lot more positive the past week. My life isn't perfect, but I do have reasons to smile. Here are just a few.

I picked out a paint color for my home office and our awesome handyman (or possibly his son) is coming to paint it this week. A furniture repair place is coming out soon to give me a bid on my desk. With a little bit of luck, I might have a good workspace at home by the end of the month.

One of my nieces, Norah, just turned two years old - though she insisted to us the other day on Google hangout that is now three. It is so much fun to see her and interact with her over Skype or Google now because she is really talkative and is learning new phrases and things all the time. (I also have to say that I love how much these technologies have improved since I started using them a few years ago when I lived in Spain.) My other niece, Isla, who was born in January, is starting to stand and walk and jabber. I can't wait to see her again soon - hopefully during winter break!

Isla sports her fall colors!

I'm headed to a conference in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to hang out with some far-flung early modernist friends, hear some interesting panels, and get some feedback on some of my own research. I'm also hoping that I'll get to see some beautiful fall foliage and enjoy some warmer temperatures for a few days.

I have awesome new rain boots and have been getting quite a few chances to wear them. However, this week the forecast is calling for some dry days and possibly even a bright and sunny one.

M. and I've been continuing to explore our new city. We initiated our Costco membership, which was both terrifying and thrilling at the same time. We had dinner and drinks out with new friends a few nights ago. I may have discovered the best skillet of mac & cheese in the state at Subzero. We have date plans to go to a concert at a local venue and check out another new-to-us restaurant later in the month, as well.

Speaking of M., he gives me a lot of reasons to smile. Only occasionally, such as when I think of things like my spouse's apple juice hoarding tendencies or the iPhone 5 debacle*, is my smile more of a smirk.

I love my cooky family!

What's been making you smile here lately? I'd love to hear about something positive that's been happening in your life!

* This incident refers to the time that my spouse usurped my yoga class time in order to trade in the phone I was perfectly happy with so that he could get himself the iPhone 5 and give me his iPhone 4. It ended in much shaming and compensatory Mexican food. 

Starting to Feel at Home

Even though I still have a tree on my roof and still don't have any furniture in my campus office, I'm starting to feel more at home here. We still have some things to do - there are odds and ends to put away and hang, decisions to be made about attempting to repair our large desk, and taking a bunch of my boxes of books and files into campus once I have furniture there. However, getting mostly unpacked has really helped me to feel like I actually live here. I was really excited to start eating dinner at our table again after our furniture arrived and have actually enjoyed unpacking a lot more than I normally do after a move. Perhaps, absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

Our dining area

Last week I even managed to unpack my special Japanese tea set that has been boxed up since a move seven years ago. My dad gave this set to my grandmother after he was stationed in Japan when he was in the army. She gave it to me during my first year of graduate school. The tea set is the only piece of material culture that I have that belonged to her, and looking at it reminds me of my dad's wanderlust and willingness to explore and travel.

The loneliness I mentioned last week hasn't completely gone away, but we're starting to get settled in, routines are starting to emerge, and I've had some social interaction off campus with people who aren't my husband. All good things. We had a few friends over to eat chili and watch some football on Sunday. Our friends K. and J. brought their dog Ellsworth with them. He is just as insane as Bailey, though it manifests in different ways. Bailey is starting to warm up to him, but she wasn't as enthused about his presence this past time as she has been the last couple of times that they hung out. It rather shows in this photo. While he looks zany, she looks dismayed.

How is your week going so far? Do you find yourself feeling either zany or dismayed?

House Buying and Hiking

M. and I spent the last week in Alaska and just got back to Midwest early this morning on a red-eye. We consider the trip to have been highly successful. Our realtor arranged showings of about 15 homes for us, and we liked a few of them a lot. On our first day of looking we saw one that we really liked but that was on the very edge of our price range. The next day we saw a home that we loved just as much that was more affordable for us, so we made an offer on it. It was accepted and we close in mid-July!

View from the street

We managed to get a home inspection done while we were in town so that we could be present for it, and, although there were a couple of small issues that need to be attended to, the house checked out, and we were able to breathe a sigh of relief. We were even happier when the seller agreed to fix all those little problems. In between housing errands, we opened a bank account, picked out a few pieces of new furniture, chose paint colors for the master bedroom (which is currently an almost-black shade of eggplant purple) and the kitchen and dining area, and shared a couple of meals with some of my new colleagues.

I didn't run the entire time we were there because of a combination of factors, including the location of our hotel and our schedule. However, M. and I were able to fit in a couple of 1.5-2 hour hikes. It was still snowy on the mountains and we didn't have very good gear for tackling inclines, so we stuck to more gentle inclines and easier paths.

Hiking the Powerline Trail

The trip was a success and now we just have some paperwork odds and ends to deal with and of course packing and preparing for the move over the next few weeks. My stint in the Upper Midwest is drawing to a close, as I'll be gone for part of next month, working on a research project in New York. I need to more or less divide most of my days between writing and prepping for the move between now and the time I leave for NYC. I do have some plans to get in some favorite running routes here while I can and a group run or two.

Standing Desk #2

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about turning my writing desk into a standing/balance ball work station. While I enjoy working from my writing desk, it's small size is sometimes limiting.  It's hard to read a book for instance and take notes on my laptop, for instance.  So this past week, my husband and I have been sharing my our other desk in our office.  Again, until I've worked standing into my regular routine and have been doing more working while standing than sitting for a couple of months I don't want to spend money on building a workstation.  This is what I came up with in the meantime:

It's not perfect - I have to step over from reading to typing - but it allows me to spread out my various materials more easily as I'm doing research, and it's easy to disassemble when I'm done working.  At this point I'm working while standing or sitting on the balance ball about a third of the time that I'm working (some days more, but some days - like yesterday when I spent a couple of hours working at a coffee shop - less).  Since I'm currently tapering, I don't want to stand too much more than that until after the marathon.  I'm hoping to increase the amount of time I'm standing to at least 75% of my work time by the end of the summer.  If I've succeeded in doing that, I'll start looking into upgrading from cardboard boxes and textbooks.

Now, having said that, I better get my ass off the couch and head to the gym and then put in some hours of working while standing....

Standing Desk

Over the past few months I've tried to sit less.  When I lecture or lead discussions, I tend to move around a lot.  However, on the days that I don't teach, I often spend 12 hours parked on a chair or on the couch after my run or before and after yoga.  I can easily spend four hours sitting, surrounded by books while writing a lecture or working on an article, and get up only once or twice for water.  The scholar gig has lots of rewards, but it is a pretty sedentary lifestyle.  (That's one of the reasons that I gained 10 pounds during the final stages of dissertating last year.)

When my mom started having back problems again this winter and then when I threw my back out while reading in March, I began to think more seriously about how I could arrange a work station that would be better for my posture.  However, I didn't want to invest much money into this project.  I won't consider an upgrade until I am standing while working for a few hours on a relatively daily basis -- hopefully that will be by the end of the month.  Cleaning out my writing desk here recently gave me the opportunity to put a makeshift arrangement into place.  I decided to move my writing desk out from the corner of my living room and into the center of the living room dining area.  This way it sort of marks the division of the dining room and living room areas and that it is more accessible.  Now I have much more room for standing.

For the time being I'm using my old gigantic Dell laptop, several textbooks (now I finally have a use for some of the unsolicited ones that publishers have sent to me), and (after deciding my laptop was still too low) a cardboard box.  I like that I can easily slide the books back into the desk and put the box under when I'm done.  My goals are to keep this workspace organized and usable and to actually use it.  On Saturday I spent two 30 minute increments doing work while standing.  Sunday I took the day off after my long run, but yesterday I spent two 45 minute increments grading exams while standing - first at the podium in one of my classrooms and then at my writing desk.  I also picked up a balance ball at Target to sit on during non-standing increments.  However, I'm pretty sure that I need a bigger one, as I feel like I'm too low to the desk to write comfortably for long.

 Either way, I clearly need to work on my balance....

Have you considered a standing desk arrangement?  If your career has you sitting most of the day, how do you try to counteract the negative impact of long hours spent in a chair?

March Goals

I knew that February was going to be so busy that my only goal was to keep my head above water for the past four weeks.  March will be busy, but things shouldn't be quite as hectic so it's time to refocus and start working towards accomplishing my 2011 goals more proactively again.

Fitness/Health Goals:

- Be more consistent with journaling all of my food intake.  Most weeks I've been good at the beginning of the week about doing this, but I tend to slack off around Thursday evening.  I'm going to share my journal with a friend the next couple of weeks so I have a reason to be more consistent.

- Run 70+ miles in March.  I have my first race of the year coming up in April, so the miles need to be logged.  

- Drink more water during the day.  I've gotten into a bad habit of not drinking much water during the day and ending up feeling dehydrated each evening.  I'm going to try to make sure I drink a glass before every meal and one during every meal in March.

- Focus on one yoga pose in particular each week in March.  First up: Vriksasana

Writing Goals:

-Get the transcript of the project I'm co-editing off my desk by March 15.

-Translate 15 pages of the transcript into English by the end of the month.

-Organize my campus office and clean my writing desk at home so that when I have time to work on other projects I don't have to spend time digging for files.  

-Acquire everything I need to revise and resubmit an article.

Do you have any goals for March?  What are your tips for organizing your work space and keeping it organized?  

House in Progress: Furniture Arrival

Our new furniture finally arrived on Wednesday afternoon, so we finally had something to sit on besides captain's chairs or our dining room chairs.  It also allowed us to finally start arranging the living room and office.  It's still a work in progress, but our house is starting to feel like a home.

For the time being at least we're not allowing Bailey on the sofa or love seat.  Since one of her favorite activities is looking out the window, she's having to find new, creative ways to do so.  I wish I had had my other camera close at hand to capture a video because she was wagging like crazy and practically dancing around when I took this shot.

I was also very excited about the arrival of my -- okay, our -- new desk.  Although I've had a writing desk (pictured above in the corner) for over a year now, my office desks have always been cheap, particle board affairs until now. 

My goals for the day are to finish the living room and dining room set up -- we still have odds and ends to put away and pictures to hang -- and to get the office unpacked.  I need to get a little reading and writing in as well.  I should also take my bike into the repair shop because, when I went to ride my bike to campus yesterday morning, I discovered that the brake on my back wheel was not functioning. 

What's on your agenda for this Friday?  Any fun plans for the weekend?

August Writing Goals

It really helped me in July to see my writing goals and evaluate how I was progressing every week, so I've decided to continue posting about them here.  Because our belongings only arrived yesterday and we're still waiting on our new furniture, including the desk, to be delivered (allegedly tomorrow), and a fair amount of my time will be spent unpacking and organizing, my goals this month will be pretty modest.

At least the kitchen and dining area are mostly under control after a couple of hours of work last night.  (We still want a small table for the kitchen, though.)

Anyway, on to the writing goals:

*Edit a friend's chapter by August 5th
     - I've already done about half of it, so I'm going to spend a couple of hours today and tomorrow and if necessary the day after to finish this
* Write a book review for an academic journal in my field
     - I have the book and the deadline for this is the end of this month, so I need to get started on this on Monday, as well, if not before.
* Syllabi and Lectures
     - The semester starts on Aug. 23, so I need to get this under control ASAP.  I've already started working on my syllabi for two of my courses and their almost done.  I'll work some more on this here and there in between unpacking boxes beginning today.  I need to expand a couple of lectures and write a couple of new ones for two of the classes and I need to write quite a few new lectures for my other course because it's the first time I've taught it.
* Manuscript transcription edits
     - This had initially been on the docket last month, but the person I'm co-editing with was abroad and it was easier to wait until this month to get started.  I'm going to work an hour or two every other day on this starting next Monday.  This project will probably spill over into September.* Send four cards or letters
     - Sending cards and postcards made me really happy last month, so I think I'll keep this goal for this month too.

What's on your agenda for August?  Do you have any writing or work-related goals that you're working toward?

On the Other Side

After an epic adventure of loading an ABF truck with the help of two awesome co-blogging friends, some frantic and haphazard cleaning, and two days of driving in an extremely cramped car with a slightly overwrought beagle, we arrived at our new home.  We won't have any furniture (aside from two chairs, an air mattress, and a bed frame but no mattress) until early next week when the rest of our new furniture and our moving truck arrive.  Right now there's not much to unpack or to do except make repeated trips to Target for things that we keep realizing we don't have.  You know, things like trash cans and soap and contact paper....

For as cramped as our car was, it doesn't seem like much was in it.  I guess Bailey's crate and bed, our two suitcases, a few random boxes and canvas bags, and our computers and cameras really filled up our Mazda.  I had to ride with my knees against the dash and a bag of dog treats and my purse under my feet.  I wanted to take some pictures, but I couldn't get to either of my cameras because of their location wedged under numerous other things. 

Even though it added to the space problem in the car, I'm glad that we also brought champagne flutes and a bottle of cava left over from our wedding back in January with us.  (You may be able to see that I wrote car on the bottle of cava just so I wouldn't accidentally give it away or pack it in a box going on the truck.)

We unpacked the flutes and cracked the cava open and had it with take out from Panera.  Then we unpacked what we could and hit the air mattress early.  An exhausting week and the Central Time Zone had us feeling like we had just ran a marathon. 

I got up early and ran 1.5 miles around the neighborhood.  After a shower, breakfast, and some vacuuming, I went to Target (again) to get some items for the bathrooms and a couple of chairs for our deck.  I also went to a furniture store to pick out a new entertainment center and a desk.  Both were on clearance, and I'm really excited about the desk.  I'm hoping to get some good writing done on it once it arrives next week. 

How has your week been?  Is Target getting all your money?