Why I love Tuesday nights

Tuesday, you see, is my Hump Day.

(For the record, I actually hate the phrase "Hump Day" but that's mainly because of all the usually dumb and gross jokes people make about the phrase. The concept itself - the day of the week that feels like once you cross it, you're closer to the end - is fine by me.)

For most people, Wednesday is Hump Day. It's the middle of the week and once you're done with it, you're closer to Friday than you are to Monday. Makes perfect sense to me. And my Wednesdays are long days; I usually go to bed late the night before and then work 9am to 8pm on Wednesday. So it's not that Wednesday is a light day.

It's just that Tuesday carries more weight. I have a short work day, and in my opinion, those are actually harder than long days. I do much better when I have a long list of stuff to do, but ten hours to do it in than a shorter or even moderate list of things to do and only a six hour day to work it all in. On Tuesday I work from 9am to 3pm and then dash into the city for grad school.

So not only do I tend to have a crunched Tuesday schedule at work, I need to be prepared for my own classes. My homework must be done and I need to be on top of any research I should have done. Up until last week, I was doing well. This week I'm a bit behind, but not in any way that's terrible. But it's a lot to juggle in my mind and after I leave school Tuesday night, I have a whole week until I need to face another Tuesday, so Wednesday always feels so much lighter.

Also, the hubby has off Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I know he's home with Nate and those are two days I don't have to worry as much about what Nate's eating, his naptime, etc. I also don't have to drive him to my mother-in-law's or worry about getting to work late or running out of work in order to pick him up and feed him dinner. In short, Wednesdays and Thursdays involve a lot less running around and mental juggling than the other days of the week and, so, heading into them after the mentally full days that Tuesdays are is always relaxing (relatively speaking, of course).

And I refuse to do any work when I get home on Tuesdays (which is usually between 9:30pm and 10pm). I eat a light dinner, catch up on a little TV, and go to bed.

... and then start the whole roller-coaster week again the next day. Wednesdays and Thursdays are lighter, but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are all busy days, full of work and full-time parenting as the hubby works. Tuesday night between 10pm and bedtime is the closest thing I get to a little weekend and I look forward to it every week.

Monday Five Countdown

Happy Monday! (Now that's an oxymoron if I ever saw one...)

"You're an ox AND a moron!" 10 points to you if you know what movie that's from.

And, moving along now...

Five Things I'm Grateful For

1. It's the first day of tutoring for this quarter (I supervise the tutoring center at the school I work at) and we already have three appointments scheduled today. This is GREAT great great because we are under a lot of pressure to get more students in for tutoring.

2. I joined the "Biggest Winner" competition at work. I'm pretty sure I'll be sorry I did this, but I thought a little external motivation to drop some pounds and generally be a bit healthier would be good. This morning was the initial weigh-in and I weighed two pounds less than I did at home yesterday (even with the fluffernutter sandwich I ate at 11:30pm last night).

3. Yesterday was my nephew TJ's 3rd birthday party at a local bouncy-house place and Nate had a good time. He's too little to do any of the bouncing and seemed overwhelmed by all the big structures and the 8,472 screaming kids running around, but he did really well considering all of that. He played with some smaller stuff and had fun in his own little way. (And everyone always says he's so cute, which I will never, ever get tired of hearing.)

4. We took Nate to see the Easter bunny on Saturday and he was SO good. We got a nice smiley picture that we'll be sending out on an Easter card later this week. I'm always so grateful that he's so happy and smiley and generally content.

5. The hubby and I had a really good weekend, for us. There's so much going on lately that our fuses - okay, my fuse - is short and I'm just kind of constantly overwhelmed. But this weekend we had some fun as a family and some good couple time.

Four Things I Can't Stop Thinking About

1. Nate's birthday party. One month from this Thursday!

2. Over the weekend, we went to a local outlet center and I saw a black trench at GAP for $42. I need a new trench because my current one could fit two of me in it and my older GAP trench is too small for me. I hate this in-between size thing.

3. Dinner tonight: pork chops, yum!

4. All the stuff we have to get done in the house. SO. MUCH. TO. DO. (Cleaning, organizing, rearranging, etc.)

Three Things I Want To Accomplish This Week

1. Significant amounts of work on the two research projects I'm supposed to be working on for school.  See, that good family and couple time this weekend? It came at the expense of my homework. Something always has to give.

2. Tasks at work that I wanted to complete last week.

3. Keep up the positive mood I'm in today.

Two Things I Am Working To Be Positive About

1. The hubby's job prospects. We really need him to find something soon.

2. Bills/expenses. (See #1.)

One Random Thing

1. This Saturday we have plans to go out to dinner with a bunch of friends. We have a babysitter lined up and everything. I always have mixed feelings about this because I know it's good for us, but I hate leaving Nate. But it's just dinner, not a nine hour night on the town, so I think we'll all be good. :)

Do you do the Monday Five Countdown?  Link up below!  I want to read them :-)

May I write you a list?

I used to carry around a DayPlanner. I LOVED that thing. It was so useful for keeping all kinds of information that I might need. I kept the names and contact information of former employers, references, and college details that I might need for a job application. I kept the addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays of everyone I knew. I wrote down appointments, holidays, random thoughts, to-do lists - just about everything.

Then it became kind of tacky to carry those. And THEN... then everyone went electronic. I got a Palm Pilot. Remember those?

I tried. I really, really tried - but I just couldn't love it. I missed paper.

The hubby loves Google Calendar. I accept the things he sends me (appointment reminders, etc) . . . and then I write them in my paper calendar. Every time a new device comes out I think, "A ha! This! This will be the one that makes electronic work for me." But nope. Nothing yet. (I wonder about the iPad but I'm not about to spend $500 to find out.)

So I'm on paper - and these days, boy, am I on paper. I printed out two paper calendars today to compliment the personal calendar I keep, the Google calendar I keep for certain reminders, and the new "family" calendar I just created to start keeping track of our "family" activities and responsibilities.

Oh, the paper. But why all the paper?

Nate's first birthday is seven weeks away and we're going to have a party for him at our house - our house that is an utter disaster at times, does not have anything hanging on the walls, has permanent soap scum in the shower, dust bunnies hopping in every corner, and no sofa in the living room.

You'd want to party there, right?  Right?  No, right.

So we need to get the house in order. If the hubby was the one working and I was the one home, we wouldn't need a list. I would just do things until it was all done. But he needs lists - so, boy, is he getting one. More like a calendar. With weekly and daily tasks.

So there's the "what we're going to do in the house, step by step, week by week, for the next seven weeks" list. Then, as I was considering catering for this party and realized that one catered lasagna tray costs anywhere from $60 - $95 and nearly had a heart attack, I realized that I don't need catering. The party is going to be simple and relatively small so the food will be manageable - lasagna, chicken fingers, salad, cold cuts - that kind of thing. So we're doing it ourselves. (See: food list and cooking time-frame list.)

Then there's my job. I really have to buckle down and do some big programming this upcoming quarter so I have a 12 week schedule printed out and I will basically be planning out the next three months of my working life. There's a separate, huge list just for next week, which is the break week between quarters. It's quiet because there are no students here but I have a lot to do to prepare for the upcoming quarter and a conference I'm presenting at the following week.

Then there's school. I didn't write this list yet, but I need to write out a list of everything that's due this Tuesday and next Tuesday (both of my classes are on Tuesday) so I can visually take it in. Otherwise I'm left with a vague mental idea of what I need to do and then when I sit down to do it, I'm surprised at how much there really is. That's never a good moment. I'm doing well in both of my classes but as we approach the end of the semester, it will be far too easy to fall behind and screw up my final assignments.

I feel like I'm juggling two dozen things at once.

source

But as long as I have lists, I feel okay. I feel in control. I feel like nothing major is going to get past me if I'm hyper-aware of everything that needs to get done.

Are you a list maker?

The not really hidden library

Setting: library at a prestigious university in upper Manhattan

Scene: a graduate student weighed down by two sweaters, a heavy winter coat, a full backpack and a purse is clutching a small square of white paper that has five call numbers scribbled on it.  She walks to the back of the library and then up to the front, looks around, and then finally approaches the main desk.

Student (trying to will herself not to sweat): Um, this will probably be the dumbest question you get all day but, um, are all the books at the main library?

Librarian (looks confused): No.... ??

Student: Okay, so, um... (leans in and lowers voice) Where are all the books?

This Tuesday, I went into my school's library for the first time, even though this is my third semester there as a student.  Shameful, right?  I just hadn't needed to go before.  I was able to complete my work with books I had at home and articles I accessed online.

But now - now I needed/wanted specific books.  And I couldn't find them!

Librarian: If you go out the door there, there's a stairwell to your right and you can head up to the other four floors of -

Student Me: Four?

Librarian: Yes, the library has five floors.  The books are in the lofts.

Me: The lofts?

Long story short, these books are in a wacky system.  It's like having two floors of books for every one floor of library.  So I did a lot of running up and down stairs and by the time I got back to the main desk, four books in hand, I was completely sweating.  I took off my coat and threw it on the floor.  I took off my second sweater (what, I'm always cold) and stuffed it in my backpack.  I took off my scarf (see: always cold) and stuffed it in my purse.  I put my purse and backpack on the floor and put the books on the table.

(Other) librarian: Ooookay, let's see.  These three are due back June 1st and this one is due at ... 6:48.

Me: Huh?

Librarian: This is a reserve book so you can only take it out for two hours.  So it's due back at 6:48.

Me: Uh, well, I get out of class at 6:50 so is that okay?

Librarian (typing): Okay, it's due back at 7:00.

And scene.

Monday Five Countdown

I love when life forces me to feel happy when I really, really want to wallow.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Sometimes I get peeved because when I want to wallow, I really want to wallow.  But that doesn't make for good blog reading and throughout most of last week I didn't post anything because I was in just too miserable of a mood.  And I wondered, how would I do my countdown on Monday?  What in the world could I be grateful for, much less what five things, ugh!

But life can be surprising, in the simplest, most pleasant ways.

Five Things I'm Grateful For

1. A reader of this blog sent me a Barnes and Noble gift card so that I could buy Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.  Just typing that sentence is making me tear up.  I am so astounded and grateful for this act of generosity and really cannot believe that someone that I don't actually "know" in the real-life sense cares enough to do something so remarkably nice.  Thank you, Rebecca - thank you so very, very much.  I cannot wait to post about the book and I promise to pay this kind deed forward.

2. The whole weekend was warm, if a bit rainy at times.  But what this means is that the crazy ice and snow melted a bit.  There are still two, three, four foot mounds of snow on every available patch of grass, but the sidewalks around my house are 98% ice free, which makes walking the dogs significantly easier.

3. Which brings me to the third thing I'm grateful for, which is the hubby's general attitude.  We have had a rough week with the dogs, Buster in particular.  And I always find myself fighting the urge to punt Buster to the moon.  He seriously makes me want to throttle him.  Well, last night we came home from a lovely SuperBowl watching evening at my parents' house to find quite the doggy mess.  The hubby, while extremely pissed off, didn't yell, didn't physically threaten either dog.  He just muttered and swore quietly while he cleaned.  I think most other people may have blown their top, but he was so remarkably calm.  One of us has to be and I'm glad it's him.

4. My mom made all sorts of yummy food for the SuperBowl and sent us home with all the leftovers.  Yum!

5. Saturday we went to see Kate so she could take Nate's Valentine's card pictures.  It was really good to see her for the first time in two months, to get out of the house and out of the immediate area for a few hours, to take a drive with my two guys, and to have Kate get to see how much Nate has grown in the past two months.  It was a really great afternoon.

Four Things I Can't Stop Thinking About

1. My student loan check.  It should come in the mail any day now.  Please let that day be today.

2. The dogs.  Well, mainly Buster.  Oreo is twelve years old, so when she has an incident in the house, I know why it is and there's usually something I could have done differently.  But with Buster, there's just no pattern, no predicting, no correcting.  I don't know what to do.

3. Homework.  I did NOT finish my homework this weekend.  School is tomorrow.  I'm at work today.  The hubby has errands to run tonight.  Gah.  I really, really need to figure out how to fit in my schoolwork to our new life.  It's so hard to leave Nate with the hubby in the other room after a long day of work and go do homework.  I'd much, much rather play with Nate.

4. Pants.  Have I mentioned I need new pants?  Once we have a little bit of funds, I have to buy maybe two pairs of inexpensive work pants.  (And did I ever mention that when I dress Nate, I sing, "Pants pants pants pants" to the tune of that really awful "Shots" song?  Ha.  So now every time I even type the word pants, I hear that in my head.)

Three Things I Want To Accomplish This Week

1. FINISH MY FRIGGIN HOMEWORK BEFORE MONDAY MORNING.  Must figure this out (and next weekend is buuuuusy so this will be a really good week to figure out how to do this).

2. Actually complete the laundry.  Because we are still living without a working dryer, we machine wash and then air-dry all our clothes, so it takes a full day to do a load of laundry or two because of the drying time.  So we haven't actually done all the laundry in over a month and there are things at the bottom of the hamper that I'd like to wear again at some point.

3. Get a new student ID.  Turns out that taking a semester off from grad school made my ID "dead" so I have to go get a new one.

(Note: Notice I did not say I wanted to move the Christmas decorations and supplies to my parents' house - because it got done!  Finally!!  Hurrah!)

Two Things I Am Working To Be Positive About

1. Buster.  I want to punt him.  But more than that, I want to figure out how to help him become a good dog.  I just can't figure it out.

2. The hubby's job prospects.  This job market is truly frightening and without a four year degree, he's at an additional disadvantage.  I just want him to find something and not knowing when that'll happen is scary.

One Random Thing

1. My bloggy (ha, blahggy) friend Liza from Blahggy is a panelist on Momversation!  Her first video posted today.  I absolutely adore Momversation (and have since before I was even pregnant, when they first began) so I am so incredibly proud of Liza and so remarkably jealous.  What an awesome opportunity. Check out her first video.

So, what's going on with your five this week?  Please share - I do love to read your lists.  Linky Tools now charges for links so no more Linky, boo.  But please leave a link in the comments if you do the Monday Five, okay?  I really love to see your lists.  :)