It even gets a fancy title because it’s the first whole day dedicated to moving things into the house, prepping things in the new place, and so on. It’s going to leave me in a zombie-like state, of course, but I will suffer the woes of being a zombie for the sake of making this move happen.
Tag Archives: work
Make it a great week
The Hell of my last week transitioning from my current dwelling to my new one is upon me. Wednesday and Friday will be nothing but moving things, cleaning up the old place, and probably a fair bit of swearing and frustration. These things happen, I suppose. To be fair, last night gave Brianne and I some powerful motivation to move out of this place in the form of our bathroom door locking. That may sound like a simple problem, except the doorknob for our bathroom is the kind you’d use for an exterior door. And the door trip makes access to the locking mechanism impossible. And the screws holding the wall panel in place next to the door are painted over, thus they are impossible to remove.
Short version of the solution: I had to jam one of those flat metal spatulas used for cake decorating into the door. It took over half an hour, and was pretty damn awful.
I mention this because this week looks horrid, and I will be sure busy, but I know it’s all for a great improvement in my life. It’s going to be a great week.
Before I go on, however, I should mention I’m borrowing these words from my boss. I’m sure he won’t mind. Each Monday morning starts with the promise of an inevitable conference call, and my boss always ends such calls by saying “Go out there and make it a great week”. Normally, I hesitate to admit, those words just signal it’s time for me to hang up and resume whatever task I was focusing on prior to the call. Perhaps it’s the chaos of moving, or the lack of sleep, or even how I’ve been teetering precariously between being sick and being mostly well, but those words resonated with me this morning. I’m about to get a bit soapboxy here, folks, so brace yourselves.
The week, starting with Monday (or Sunday, depending on how your work schedule goes I guess), is only as good as you decide to make it. I’m aware that there are certain things the Universe can throw at a person that will most certainly turn a week to utter shit, but a lot of those things can be reversed or made better. Yeah, it’s a fair bit of effort, but it’s worth it. Right? A bit of work in favor of sanity, success, and so on, or something like that.
I look around me and I see a ton of things that need to be packed and moved. Two couches that need left out for garbage pick-up. What I’m focused on is how my internet and cable set-up dates worked out perfectly. How my customer service experience with Peoples Natural Gas continued to be exceptional even though I won’t have them anymore (my new apartment uses fuel oil instead, which is provided by the landlord; thank god for that). Above all else, how this move will get me the Hell out of my current living situation. Those things and a good few more are all reasons why I’m looking to make this week a great one, even if it is crazy-busy.
Try it yourselves, readers. It may just prove helpful.
Finding balance in work and play
Today was a suitable counter-balance to yesterday, I think. I cut the grass at my new apartment, moved a good deal of things in (though there are still many box-loads to go, I’m afraid), and decorated a little. It certainly was no day of playing World of Warcraft and relaxing in my current home, but not every day can be like that (I mean, they could but I would end up very unemployed, very fat, and quite unhappy, among other things), and so the work was both a necessary evil and a nice change of pace.
However, as far as daily balances of work and play (or leisure or whatever) go, I am not particularly good at finding such a nice equilibrium. Some days are very work-oriented, with me accomplishing a great deal of productive tasks. By nighttime on those days, I am tired but I feel fulfilled. It’s all very positive, really, ignoring the exhaustion and that there are some such days I still feel like I fell short of where I should have been. There are other, very similar days, when I have shirked responsibility in favor of relaxing and recovering. Days filled with video games, movies, books, and so on. They don’t really serve a practical purpose, but they leave me feeling rejuvenated and prepared for the next day of hard work.
It’s very possible to make those two days into a daily thing. I realize this is all very “hey, that’s obvious” territory, but I excel at the obvious.
What I’m talking about in this case is a total revamp of my schedule as I know it. It’s probably going to be Hell for a while, but I think if I can pull it off that it will provide me with tremendous benefits. That’s what I’m going for here, by the way. A Phil who can find a daily balance of hard work and relaxation time in the face of working eight hours five days a week and trying to become a writer, all while pretending very well at being a responsible adult. A lot of this will revolve around me making a number of relatively large changes over however long it takes, and I imagine it will involve a great deal of swearing along the way. Continue reading
Problem-solving, and a terrific quote
I was big on problem-solving today. I had the choice to either face the problems that have accrued lately or just say the hell with it and let them crush me. I chose the former, of course.
The good that came of those solutions is that I won’t have to work fourteen days in a row, even though I still have a couple double-shifts. Such is life. I also decided I need a new bank after finding out the replacement debit card I requested after the business with my previous one getting stolen (the info was stolen, anyway) had never actually been ordered/sent out/whatever. That’s some pro-level incompetence right there.
Tomorrow will feature a post about picking your poison, in which I talk about bourbon and my choices of booze. Monday will focus on the difference betwee villains and antiheroes (no spoilers for that yet). For now I’d like to share aa great post Joe Lansdale, an author whose wisdom I was pointed to by Zachary T. Owen (a writer of remarkable skill and wisdom of his own). I’ve not read any books by Joe Lansdale, but I think that’s something I need to correct eventually. Eventually. Hoping you all, dear readers, are having a great weekend. You should like Joe Lansdale’s Facebook page, by the way, and check out his works (like my lazy, simple self needs to as well). I lay no claim to this Facebook post, obviously; it’s just some damn good food for thought.
Honorary coworker and window-lurker at my place of employment.
I had planned a post on another topic, but today turned into a series of misadventures all centered around my debit card info getting snagged when I was in Chicago.
On the plus side, this awesome praying mantis hung out at work with me all day. If you stare at the image long enough it’ll probably feel like you, too, were visited by this super-cool mantis. My phone keeps wanting to say praying mangos, by the way, so there’s also that.
The Good, the Bad, and the Additional Misadventures
First and foremost, I’d like to take a moment to celebrate how the next four days are my own little mini-vacation. Mini-cation? Whatever. The important take-home point is I don’t have to work the next four days. Huzzah! A recap of my recent misadventures, and some more writing-related stuff (which coincides with a lot of boring, non-writing stuff, I’m afraid).
First, we have the Good. Finally, after much scheduling and rescheduling hijinks on my part, I’ve interviewed Hello, The Future about her album Giant Robot Album, which is kind of a big deal. The album far more so than the interview. I’ll be making a post surrounding that, which can be expected by some point on Monday. That way I can do the post justice. And still manage to cater to having a house full of guests. The house full of guests is part of another good thing, however, since it’s a bunch of relatives here for the express purpose of celebrating my not-so-recently married cousin’s wedding (reception).
The Bad…Last week, I worked seventy-eight and a half hours. Overall, I worked sixteen days straight. These are things I was not quite prepared for, though I do have serious doubts there is an effective way to prepare for such things. Some days I worked nine hours. Some I worked over sixteen. Mostly, I ended up completely burnt out, which isn’t really productive for someone who is both trying to be creative. Or pack everything he owns for a move that is rapidly approaching. I also had to have my dog Missy put to sleep this past Wednesday, which was, and still is, extremely painful. There’ll be a post to follow this one in which I get a bit emotional and miss my puppy.
Thankfully, things seem to be calming down to the point where I can at least start trying to plan out uses for time other than working and sleeping (today, by the way, was spent finishing an overnight shift, sleeping, and then working again, so that doesn’t count). I should clarify that I’m very happy to have a decent-paying job with all the benefits it comes with, as I’m aware I am indeed fortunate in that sense.
In any event, at least I didn’t accidentally fall off of the planet or something. I’m sure I’ll manage that at some point later.
Doing adult stuff still feels foreign
This post’s alternative title would be “My laptop’s mouse is trying, rather successfully, to piss me off.”
As I’ve mentioned lately, I’m working my first-ever full-time job with a big-name company that has grocery store chains and gas stations and so on (and is actually quite terrific to its employees, which is a very new, exciting, refreshing concept for me). Today’s mail featured my first-ever statement from my 401K, shredded courtesy of the United States Post Office. I also got my first-ever dental coverage card in the mail this week.
Those two things still sound weird to me, because they’re still filed neatly in a corner of my brain under the label “Adult Stuff”. No, not that sort of “Adult Stuff”, and don’t lie and say that phrasing didn’t make you think of explicit content because it honestly reads like I’m talking about porn. Whatever. Moving along.
I also wanted to post saying how I have mixed feelings about this week’s Short Story a Week story. It’s a fun concept, but I feel like I may be overreaching my grasp on it. Who knows? Guess that’ll have to wait until Sunday to be sorted out.
What I’ve been up to (other than short stories)
I feel like this blog has been neglected in the sense I’ve only been going from short story to short story with less of my typical commentary, which sort of detracts from my overall misadventures in fiction being posted. And that defeats the real purpose of this blog/web site/whatever, which is to broadcast my rampant narcissism across the internet. Obviously.
So I’m still adjusting to my very-first full-time job at a place I won’t refer to by name so as to not, you know, get in trouble. I’ll be honest, though; I love it. It keeps me busy, and it’s a lot to get used to, but I’m already very happy with the way things are run. I also have an amazing boss (who has an amazing boss as well, who I have talked to on a few occasions). However, getting used to forty hour weeks after working sixteen hours one week, thirty-some another, and so on, is a bit taxing. By a bit I mean a lot.
On top of all of this, I have lots going on that I’m not quite willing to reveal yet as it’s all still very much in the works. Things I can say, at least: I’ve started keeping notes in my Hobbit Moleskine about my (Un)expected Journeys, and whether or not that ends up manifesting as Misadventures in Nonfiction or something will remain to be seen. I also am now the proud owner of a Hyundai Sonata, courtesy of my parents’ tremendous generosity. It also means more responsibility, which is something I was unaware I had so we’ll see how that goes.
I should like to point out I’m not dead, homeless, in some really horrible state, or anything like the previous, so I’m doing pretty damn well, all things considered. I say that ignoring the way I worry myself to the point of health problems, of course, and those are all things I will never likely post about in great detail on here because reasons.
Lastly, I wish you all a happy Memorial Day, and offer up some serious digital high-fives and salutes for everyone who has ever fought on behalf of the US (or any other country, or for any cause no matter how big or small it may be perceived for that matter). To see people exhibit such courage in any situation still renews what faith I have in the human condition, and that’s a hell of a feat in itself.
Changes, schemes, and so on
This is one of those big, crazy, confusing, and amazing times of tremendous change in my life, where I’m transitioning from one job–the very first job I’ve ever had–to a new job, and I’ve only got two days left there. It’s bittersweet and all, but I’m more focused on how it’s a huge change in my life. One of those “oh-shit-am-I-really-sure-I-know-what-I’m-doing?” changes. So naturally, it’s pretty daunting and my creative thinking processes seem to have handled it in the most appropriate fashion possible by completely shutting down. Those lazy, good-for-nothings. (On a related note, however, I do have a short horror story idea that needs writing once I figure out just what the hell I’m going to do with it.)
As a teaser of sorts, I’d like to say this much (and only this much), and I’ll leave the rest for next Monday: I start my new job next week, and I feel like something new should accompany that. Something new in terms of writing. Ooh, mysterious.
Still doing an absolute ton of world-building for “Joshua’s Nightmares”, and I think I’ve reached the point where if I were to lose my red Moleskine notebook I would also actually lose my mind.
Lastly, given the way last week went, I hope anyone who reads this, their families, friends, and so on, are all safe, happy, and healthy. There’s enough bad shit in the world as it is, so do remember to take care.
Phil's Misadventures In Fiction 