Is warm. Also moist. Ugh. Going outside is something I do when required for health appointments or work. Otherwise, getting all the gear on and then being too hot and chafed has limited rewards. The gym, while not exactly comfortable, is slightly more air conditioned and definitely equipped with fewer uneven surfaces to roll ankles and knees on, so I can push a bit harder. I generally get 25-65 minutes of exercise each day (some combination of stationary bike, walking, and / or physical therapy pool). And I'm thinking about when I do the biking and walking because work has finally become Too Much.
Work is a mess. All the things are finally starting to move--unfortunately at the same time--and I am needed for some long days. Not just with physical tech writing but also project management. I have scheduled over 20 meetings recently trying to get the right people in a room to align and be facing the same direction and goals. It's exhausting physically and mentally.
Long days and later nights mean that I don't eat or exercise until too late, and that messes up my sleep quality (as it is) which is a BAD spiral to get into. So. I am going to try to exercise in the morning. I am going to persuade my brain that rather than coming online slowly as I check in with social media and personal email, I can, instead, READ BOOK while exercising first thing! Then work. Then another shorter exercise session if needed and not too late with more book.
I was hoping this plan to switch up the exercise and guarantee book time in the AM would prevent the other side effect of overdoing it at work: the insatiable desire to read and the inability to stop reading physical books that are RIGHT THERE. When work ramps up, hand, wrist, thumb, and finger pain also ramp up. Do you know what is guaranteed to make that worse? Holding books. My self-control is on life-support when I'm overworking, so I am more likely to make decisions that are in part small acts of self-sabotage (and in part sweet, sweet bliss reading to try to block out the pain).
This is a long weekend. I am trying to resist the urge to BINGE on the books to make up for all the time I had to spend working last week and will spend in the coming weeks. I took myself to the bookstore on the first day and to the regular store to make sure I had everything I could need to leave the house for in the house, so I could spend the next two hardcore resting.
Me: We need to REST with this extra day.
Also Me: READ BOOKS?
Me: We have to rest our hands and fingers, as well as our ankle, knee, and everything else.
AM: READ MOAR BOOKS? Good ones? Series?
Me: Must we? Could we not just do something restful and not damaging? There is SO MUCH anime* we want to watch but know we will binge if we start, and we have a WHOLE day.
AM: Read WHOLE SERIES? Get it at bookstore on the first day of the break?
Me: Fine, I will buy you the electronic versions of the books I have RIGHT HERE, so you won't have to hold them. You're welcome, **book publishers. WHY, AM, WHY?!
* I have plenty of anime that I could watch that would require 0 thumb or finger holding of things or turning pages. AM is not interested in these things, for some reason, especially when they would be the better and more budget-friendly choice. Then again, my main supplier of steeply discounted anime and manga sold out last year, and I have probably saved thousands of dollars since they got eaten by another company that discontinued everything that made them great.
**It is weirdly important to me to support physical books because I can, in theory, lend or give them to theoretical people who want to read them and have good physical book etiquette, which is not true of electronic books. This means electronic books are more selfish and only for me. So I buy physical books if I know I want to reread and support the author, and then I want to try to read them when the pain levels are okay and I am not in Canada. And if I know I am going to hurt myself by giving in to the impulse, I will also buy the electronic version, which makes me feel like I am appeasing a toddler instead of being an adult. I would use my library system for these if I could, but while my library systems are fine for regular electronic books, they are absolutely unforgivably bad with manga and light novels. And also, honestly, the publisher business models with e-books and libraries are ruinous, so that's why I haven't gone after the library request queue with a vengeance; it's not their fault publishers are also happy to price gouge. I am grateful to be in a place where I can financially support physical publishing because many folks are not. I know many of these things are irrational, so I leave you with this : D
I am a mystery (and a hazard) to myself. But, man, I am looking forward to all the books! And weirdly happy when I can still book binge because sometimes I physically can't for brain reasons.
I'm also looking at my dwindling time here and my to do list and trying to figure out which things I really want to do in order to figure out when to do them without further destroying myself. I started a list. It's around here somewhere.
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