Here is what my Tuesday/Thursday schedule is like:
8:30-9:00ish - arrive at work
work
all day, typically staring an excel spreadsheets, entering data, and
sometimes doing some calculations if I am lucky. I only get up to use
the bathroom or to get my lunch that I eat at my desk. This is a typical
day. I've been doing a better job of getting out for lunch, but it is
pricey in terms of both money, calories, and time.
3:45-4:00ish - leave work and drive directly to school, sometimes eating a granola bar in my car
4:00-5:00 - sit in the computer lab at school frantically reviewing my notes trying to remember how to teach statistics.
5:00-7:30ish - blather on about statistics to incredibly bored
undergraduates in the hottest classroom you can imagine. Only stop for
water breaks.
7:30-8:00ish - drive home, become depressed at
the idea of having to cook dinner and stop at some kind of drive-thru.
Likely one that has rootbeer floats.
8:00ish - "unwind", eat my sad dinner while playing candy crush saga
8:30ish - write a disseratation and consume a rootbeer float
1:00am ish - go to bed
3:00am ish - fall asleep
Doesn't
this sound awful? It's pretty intense. Luckily, it is making me
productive as shit. Teaching is going well, and my writing is perhaps at
its peak. My advisor has taken to writing compliments on my drafts.
That never happens. Ever.
Monday and Wednesday are meant to be my easy days.
Instead of teaching, I go home and grade either quizzes or homework
assignments and enter grades. Then, I write my dissertation.
I had every intention of taking Fridays off as mental health days,
and unfortunately, I've been going in to work to get caught up on
projects. And the weekends? Honestly, it's a blur. Usually laundry, cleaning my apartment, and letting my family know that I'm still alive.
I've been doing a variation of this schedule for about three weeks now,
and I'm worried my mental and physical health are going to crumble. The
good news is that I only have two more weeks of teaching and then things
will calm down.
I hate for this to sound overly negative and complainy, so I will end with the positives.
I'm
feeling incredibly lucky to be where I am compared to six months ago.
It's amazing what you can do when you let go of negativity. Sure,
getting laid off sucked, my new job isn't great. My boss is possibly a
clinical psychopath. But you know what? I'm making good money, I have
flexibility in my scheduling, and for whatever reason, the psychopath
seems to like me on some days. I'm finally making real progress towards
graduating, after a year of working on my dissertation and not really
getting anything done (what was I doing?!). I'm planning on graduating
in December and throwing the most epic party of all time.
I've managed to maintain my unemployment weight.
I've been cooking and finding time to exercise and feeling great. The
best part is, I'm having more fun that I have had in a really long time.
I've reconnected with old friends and have made some terrific new ones.
I've spent a lot more time with my family and realized they are
seriously the coolest people I know. I'm planning an epic vacation for
my 30th birthday that I'm crazy excited about. I just need to find time to blog about all this awesomeness.
I'll leave you with my new life motto:
"Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” -Marilyn Monroe.
