Weekend (or half of one)

I came in to work on Saturday because we (and by "we", I mean "Wade and I") had another set of submittals to do. Nothing too taxing, just time consuming - printing and collating and laminating and such. I wouldn't have been so annoyed about it, except that what was originally a two-or-three-hour job ended up taking about six. Wade kept going "Oh, we need this, and then we'll be done", and half an hour later, it'd be "Oh, can we add this? It'll just take a couple minutes", and then an hour later, "Oh, and we need to do this too..." To his credit, it's not like he was just standing around the entire time - he was working on various company-related stuff, and towards the end when I was really starting to get frustrated, he helped me finish them. But it was still annoying to end up spending most of the day (and all of the day's light) at work rather than out and about.

On the other hand, the six hours of overtime will make up for half of Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll be able to relax guilt-free for at least three days. Woo!

Sunday was a little more fun - Chris and Brian and I all went skiing (unfortunately, Jeanne had to work that day). I only made it down the hill a couple of times before my legs were shaking too badly to continue. Chris and Brian, being more hardcore skiers, made it down a few more times while I waited in the lodge cafeteria and drank a $2.09 bottle of water (I think next time, I'm bringing my own beverages). But hey - at least I got in my 30 minutes of mild to moderate exercise as recommended by the U.S. government for people in my age group. Or something. Brian wants to go again next week, but I think it might take a little bit of convincing to get me on skis again, given how stiff the left side of my neck is today.

Music practice has been on hold lately due to the weather. The little chapel that Jeanne and I have been appropriating to practice in is located down by the University, in an area that gets a fair amount of snow and (if my experiences in past years are indicative) isn't too high on the snowplow priority list. I'm a little worried, though - Chris and Jeanne both are pretty busy with their whole closing-on-and-moving-into-house deal, so I'm not sure how this'll fit in to her schedule. I guess the most I can do is offer to help with moving and hope for the best. Either way, it doesn't look like I'll get my original goal of a recording by Thanksgiving weekend. Hopefully we can work something by the end of the month, though.

To be perfectly honest, I'm having a bit of trouble on my end, too - as I mentioned before, I have a lot of emotional blocked-uppedness around my voice, and I've been having a hard time getting past it. A lot of it is just comfortableness, I think - my life right now is predictable and pretty good, so it's hard to convince myself that I really want to do anything too risky that might upset the balance. But at the same time, I've been finding that I'm really not cut out for the 8 to 5 grind. It's not bad, and the regular paycheck is pretty nice, but it's just depressing to me to think that I'm spending nearly a third of my life in a mediocre job for mediocre pay. (Not that I'm complaining about the job, mind - it's still the best one I've ever had. I just somehow doubt that there's much in the 8 to 5 world that I'd find more interesting.) Admittedly, it seems logical that the feelings of mediocrity and dullness are exacerbated this time of year, when I go to work when it's dark and come back when it's dark. Still, though, I'm less than happy with the idea of doing this until I'm 65. So for better or worse, I've got to blast through my comfortable indifference somehow. I just wish I had a better idea of how...

Weekend (or half of one)

I came in to work on Saturday because we (and by "we", I mean "Wade and I") had another set of submittals to do. Nothing too taxing, just time consuming - printing and collating and laminating and such. I wouldn't have been so annoyed about it, except that what was originally a two-or-three-hour job ended up taking about six. Wade kept going "Oh, we need this, and then we'll be done", and half an hour later, it'd be "Oh, can we add this? It'll just take a couple minutes", and then an hour later, "Oh, and we need to do this too..." To his credit, it's not like he was just standing around the entire time - he was working on various company-related stuff, and towards the end when I was really starting to get frustrated, he helped me finish them. But it was still annoying to end up spending most of the day (and all of the day's light) at work rather than out and about.

On the other hand, the six hours of overtime will make up for half of Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll be able to relax guilt-free for at least three days. Woo!

Sunday was a little more fun - Chris and Brian and I all went skiing (unfortunately, Jeanne had to work that day). I only made it down the hill a couple of times before my legs were shaking too badly to continue. Chris and Brian, being more hardcore skiers, made it down a few more times while I waited in the lodge cafeteria and drank a $2.09 bottle of water (I think next time, I'm bringing my own beverages). But hey - at least I got in my 30 minutes of mild to moderate exercise as recommended by the U.S. government for people in my age group. Or something. Brian wants to go again next week, but I think it might take a little bit of convincing to get me on skis again, given how stiff the left side of my neck is today.

Music practice has been on hold lately due to the weather. The little chapel that Jeanne and I have been appropriating to practice in is located down by the University, in an area that gets a fair amount of snow and (if my experiences in past years are indicative) isn't too high on the snowplow priority list. I'm a little worried, though - Chris and Jeanne both are pretty busy with their whole closing-on-and-moving-into-house deal, so I'm not sure how this'll fit in to her schedule. I guess the most I can do is offer to help with moving and hope for the best. Either way, it doesn't look like I'll get my original goal of a recording by Thanksgiving weekend. Hopefully we can work something by the end of the month, though.

To be perfectly honest, I'm having a bit of trouble on my end, too - as I mentioned before, I have a lot of emotional blocked-uppedness around my voice, and I've been having a hard time getting past it. A lot of it is just comfortableness, I think - my life right now is predictable and pretty good, so it's hard to convince myself that I really want to do anything too risky that might upset the balance. But at the same time, I've been finding that I'm really not cut out for the 8 to 5 grind. It's not bad, and the regular paycheck is pretty nice, but it's just depressing to me to think that I'm spending nearly a third of my life in a mediocre job for mediocre pay. (Not that I'm complaining about the job, mind - it's still the best one I've ever had. I just somehow doubt that there's much in the 8 to 5 world that I'd find more interesting.) Admittedly, it seems logical that the feelings of mediocrity and dullness are exacerbated this time of year, when I go to work when it's dark and come back when it's dark. Still, though, I'm less than happy with the idea of doing this until I'm 65. So for better or worse, I've got to blast through my comfortable indifference somehow. I just wish I had a better idea of how...