I am feeling it right now: that tightness in my chest and labored breathing. The not being able to focus and the feeling that my mind is being swirled with a spoon. I’m taking a few minute break from what I’m doing to write this in hopes of relieving some of this stress and not actually freaking out.
My life has gotten very busy recently. The main issue is simply not having enough time to get everything done that I need to get done. My house is a mess. There’s clean laundry piled up in baskets that needs to be put away. The kitchen never seems to come under control. I’m sure it drives my husband crazy how disorganized the bathroom is right now.
I started a new job recently, which is great. It’s not my end-all job, but it’s a good opportunity for the time being. But the hours have been a little difficult. They jump back and forth between 8-5 and 11-8. I work every other Saturday and will often have a day off during the week. But since the schedule was just set last week, I ended up working 6 days. And today I’m actually here all day, from 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 this evening. And just getting back into the swing of a full-time job has been a bit more difficult that I anticipated. Fortunately, it’s right up the road from my house, so I have the ability to go home for lunch/dinner. On days I’m working until 8:00, I try to come home around 5:00, but I only have about 45 minutes to get dinner ready and to eat and head back out the door. You’d think not going into work until 11:00 would give me lots of time to get things done, but I end up spending the morning getting things prepared that I can quickly stick in the oven to heat up when I get home, that I have hardly any time to do anything else.
The half-marathon in Vegas is fast approaching! I have hardly more than 5 weeks to prepare and train. A major issue I’m noticing is just how much time is involved. I’m running 3 times a week for between an hour and 2 hours, plus trying to keep up with swimming and cycling. I never thought about just how much time goes into endurance sports. I was supposed to get up and run this morning, but didn’t realize that it is absolutely pitch-black at 6:00 a.m. and I hadn’t given myself enough time to go to the gym. I’m right now trying to figure out if I can work through dinner and use my break for a quick run.
I haven’t even spoken about this to more than about 3 or 4 people, but I’m planning on taking the GRE next month and hopefully will be applying to grad school in the winter. Even if I don’t end up applying for next year, at least I’ll have a GRE score that good for several years. I’ve always tested well in the past, but I haven’t been in a true academic setting in over 4 years, so I definitely feel as if I’m playing catch-up and having to re-learn a lot of things.
I really want to do a lot more with this blog and other social media. I want to redesign The Stolen Colon and put together something a little more professional. I want the ability to interact with a lot of different people out there and really invest some time in it. Right now, I feel that I hardly have 10 minutes to write a quick post.
Then of course there’s the cleaning that I mentioned, running to the grocery store and other errands, trying to spend some time with our friends and family, and, oh yah! Maybe a few minutes to actually relax. I still don’t know how I am going to get it all done. I’m trying my best to stay organized and keep to a schedule, but I’m finding that I’m feeling a little thin. I’m doing a little better after taking a few minutes to breathe.
Sorry for the length and chaos of this post. Such is the format of my life at this time.