Epiphany

I just had an epiphany. I generally eat Lean Cuisine for dinner, and they have codes that you can enter on a Web site to earn points towards items in their catalog (for example, travel mugs, movie tickets, and Lean Cuisine coupons). I save all my boxes for their codes, but I often don't enter them because 1) I'm busy and 2) It's a tedious task. I have a large backlog of them. Tonight, I thought about entering some of them, and felt myself resisting doing it. Then I realized that I was expending energy resisting doing it that could be spent, well, doing it. And so I did.

I'm much more likely to procrastinate at home than at work because 1) I have no deadlines and 2) No one but me knows if I did procrastinate.

Well, right now I do have a deadline because I'm going out of town to a conference and then vacation (in Michigan) soon. My new pet sitter is coming over on Sunday. (I fired the old one for flakiness and communication problems. Well, at least I'm not giving her any more work, although she works at my vet, so this could get awkward.) Tomorrow, after taking Harlee to the vet, I need to spend my time cleaning my apartment and organizing my home office. Sunday, after meeting with the pet sitter, I need to run errands for my trip, dye my hair (Did I mention that I've been dyeing my hair? Yes, I've joined the dark side.), edit something for work, do some work for my grant writing class, and start packing. So hopefully this epiphany will allow me to sail through it all.

"An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?" Hmm. Maybe I Should Try That.

I took Harlee to the vet this morning after chasing her around my home office. I didn't think that I was going to get her into the carrier, but I eventually did. And she was wailing like she was being tortured as per usual. (That's not an exaggeration. One time, I was at the vet, and another client heard her wailing, and asked, "Is she in pain?" Well, no, she's just a drama queen -;)) That made me wonder how parents with human children manage to cope. While I do take Harlee to the vet, I always feel awful about upsetting her so much. I would think that would be worse with a human kid, although you can communicate better with a kid than with a cat.

And speaking of health care, I had a blood test recently, and my cholesterol is elevated, so I've been trying to eat better. Wendy's has an incredible salad with lettuce, strawberries, blueberries, almonds, asiago cheese, chicken, and raspberry vinaigrette dressing, so I've been chowing down on that at lunch. (No, this isn't a paid ad.) I've cut back on garlic rolls and ice cream, but haven't cut them out of my diet completely. But I'll probably blow my diet at the library conference in Chicago. Many of the people that I know on Facebook live in Chicago, and I've been getting excellent (but mostly not diet-friendly) restaurant recommendations from them. (I brought it on myself though by telling them that I love Italian food.) I'll be happy if I eat half healthy food and half not. But I should wind up walking a lot. When I get back, I'll start using the gym in my apartment complex. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a pool to swim. The college at which I work has a pool, but it's closed for the summer.

(Added) Something weird is going on with my eye. Sometimes when I look down, I see a golden circle in my peripheral vision in my left eye. I know that I need to see an eye doctor, but can't do so until I get back. (I'll ask about a prescription for contact lenses at the same time, although I won't wear them all of the time.) I also had a toothache earlier this week, so I need to see a dentist. And I have an appointment with my psychiatrist when I get back. Why is maintaining yourself so much work?

I wonder how the weather will be during the conference. It's been beastly hot and humid here, and I've been wondering how I managed to live in Champaign-Urbana during college (and I usually stayed there during the summers) without air conditioning. However, I was younger and thinner then.

I've been taking a break to eat lunch. Back to my to-do list....