Lately: The Psychology of Packing

...is not something I have figured out.

It's silly considering how many times I've done it (about 20x since leaving home at 18). But I just can't seem to make myself pack right now, even though I really want to avoid a fiasco like last time.

So this is how I spent my weekend:

 

Yep, that's right.  I didn't want to pack so badly that I WORKED OUT instead.

The 12 stages of inbox acceptance

One of the most difficult things about my new (started a year ago) job has been the massive number of emails.  For the last 10 years (ish), I have been a stickler about my work emails - a clean inbox and carefully filed archives.  But that's basically impossible at the new job: it's a never-ending onslaught.

A(n almost) year later, this is what I've learned.

Stage 1: 
All my friends and new coworkers warned me about the volume and told me my best bet would be extreme prioritization and not doing/seeing/covering everything. But it was the beginning and my optimism ran (too) high.

Stage 2: 
A couple months later the job was in full swing and I started to understand what everyone meant.

Stage 3: 
DENIAL. This cannot be right.

Stage 4: 
Negotiation with email senders to just IM/call/meet/anything instead of email.

Stage 5: 
No one listened to my desperate pleas and I am overrun and overwhelmed. And the better I got at my job, the more emails I got. I felt hunted (or maybe haunted).

Stage 6: 
It worsened and my inbox reached horrific heights: tens of thousands of un-filed emails even though I spent long hours every day reading them all. Instead of addressing the inbox itself, I decided to change my perspective...just not quite yet.

Stage 7: 
Vacation = procrastination = temporary bliss.

Stage 8: 
I returned from vacation to find THOUSANDS of unread emails.

Stage 9: 
My fresh-from-vacation delusion convinces me I should clean up my act/inbox with some really hard work.  It feels pretty damn good when it's finally clean.

Stage 10: 
It lasts less than 2 weeks, but I keep trying. I spend countless hours over the course of 3 months re-cleaning it. I end up resenting everyone who Replies All with meaningless shit...a lot.

Stage 11: 
After several months and countless hours of failing at this, I finally gave up. I decided it's just not worth feeding my mental/emotional need for a well groomed inbox. It's added to the list of "let that shit go."

Stage 12: 
A full 10 months after starting my job, I have finally accepted my crazy inbox.

I even relish it a little.

The end.

And Back Again

It's decided.  Phoebe and I are moving back to the UAE in early June. We've set the plans in motion and are counting down the days.

Lately: Full of Song

I've just realized in the last couple months how much I love sing-songy hip hop.

On any given day in the last month or two, the chances I have listened to at least one of these songs is probably close to 100%.

Steven is probably falling out of his chair about now.






And this one isn't new to my playlist, but has been on heavy rotation for almost a year.  It could have been the (slow) start of it all.

Lately: Oh Lover, I'm Lost

This song has been on my playlist for almost 10 years. It never felt personal until now.

Lately: Rain and Reading

Lately, some of my happiest moments look just like this.

Little Things

Sometimes, maybe even most times, life is a lot simpler than we (I?) make it. Today, I slowed way down and just filled my day with quiet and simple pleasures. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Today that was: 

1. enjoying an entire pot of carefully made coffee,
2. spoiling PB with a few too many prosciutto trimmings,
3. finishing a book I couldn't put down,
4. making homemade pumpkin bread,
5. pulling up purple radishes I left unchecked in the garden, 
6. staring at my peachy-pink roses and living lettuce for like 10 minutes (yep, that happened), 
7. making my my own blend of hand-ground spices,
8. roasting veggies that were generously covered with above spices, 
9. reminiscing over photos of Sven and I from 10+ years ago, and
10. getting in bed in the middle of the afternoon to enjoy the warmth of fresh from the dryer bedding.

It was a good day.