Sunday, August 10, 2008

Back on Schedule

For several weeks, my weekend has been disrupted with have-tos. Some have been good (Cadbury!), some have been less tedious than I expected them to be (Dan’s half-sister’s daughter’s Pentecostal wedding), and others have been teeth-grindingly frustrating (lunch with my immediate family).

I’m a creature of habit and too many weeks in a row of disruptions to my schedule leave me irritable and tired in a deep way that extroverts can never understand. So it was with great joy that I greeted my first normal weekend in a long time.

My Saturday long run was a semi-repeat of last week, when I got up extra-early and drove to Memorial Park so I could begin my run at 5:00 and finish before the weather became obscenely hot. Memorial Park is full of runners at almost every hour of the day and night, so it was quite safe to be trotting the trails in the pre-dawn darkness. Once there was a little light, I took off toward Turtle Pond, the roadside garden, and Tanglewood, which is a route I’ve missed doing since moving close to the university. Upon my return to the park, I did one more loop, changed into dry clothes in the Tennis Center locker room, and went home. Indian buffet lunch proceeded on schedule, as did my post-everything afternoon nap. Very nice.

Today I spent some time in the kitchen, making food for the week. Menu is as follows:

* Quinoa Spinach Bake, using Bag Lady’s spinach.
* Rice Balls, using chipotle cheddar instead of mozzarella. Mind-blowingly delicious.
* Steamed Broccoli
* Brown and Jasmine rice blend
* Oatmeal Cookies
* Granola Bars (made these Saturday night)

I’ll probably make some kind of quickbread this week, but I haven’t decided what kind. I have a lot of dried apricots, so I’m leaning toward using them in some way.

I followed up my afternoon in the kitchen with a 90 minute spin in my exercise studio. It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been able to do that.

And finally, the big news. I finished the line edits of my novel this morning and uploaded it into Lulu for print or electronic-download purchase. The pocket format is more expensive than the trade paperback format for some reason, so I’ll be working on the trade format tonight or tomorrow and making that available as well. I also uploaded the novel into Kindle format, available from Amazon in a few days. For more information about all of this, check out my post on my writing blog. And to get started reading the web serial, you may bookmark Steal Tomorrow, add it to your reader, or sign up for the emails. New posts will appear on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

That’s it! It’s been a nice weekend of re-charging by doing the same-old and I’m ready to face the week. Sort of. This actually promises to be Hell Week because we’ve got exactly one week to review, approve, and upload all merit increases for the entire university, but hey, one Hell Week every now and then is nothing compared to Every Week a Hell Week in my last job. I am so counting my blessings!

This Week’s Workouts
Monday: 30 minute elliptical
Tuesday: Rain Day laziness
Wednesday: 4.5 mile run
Thursday: 30 minute elliptical
Friday: scheduled rest day
Saturday: 19 mile run
Sunday: 90 minute spin

3 comments:

MaoMao said...

I'm glad things are back to normal fur you, Auntie Bunnygirl! My Momma's the same way. She's an introovurt too and too much weird stuff makes her all twitchy.

Momma's ecksited about yur book! I know when she was readin it she was so drawed in that I could do alla the naughty stuff I wanted and she'd nefur notice, hehe!

Kittyhugs and purrs from MaoMao!

the Bag Lady said...

Glad to hear things are back to normal for you, BG. I have a similar attitude - I like my routine. Don't mind an occasional disruption, but it's always nice to get back to normal.
Congratulations on the book! Must be very exciting for you.

Vickie said...

I know exactly how you feel about being busy every weekend! Its been 3 weekends in a row and one complete week gone and this weekend two family get togethers, so I'm looking forward to some normalcy. Finally getting caught up on blogs too!