A big part of what I write about here is how overworked I am…I feel like everything is on or off. For instance, I took two trips over the summer for approximately three weeks each. But then in the fall I’m so busy and overworked. I don’t know if it evens out, but it’s the way things are, no matter if it is a little bit self-inflicted, but it’s self-inflicted for good ways.

This is to say: this week has been busier than I thought. On the bright side, I finished up teaching at 6:30 last night, we did open enrollment until around 7 and then made a lovely pasta dinner (lemon pasta from trader joe’s with lemon pesto sauce from trader joe’s, adding kale sauteed in garlic and a can of cannelini beans, so tasty!) and watched a few episodes of “Murder in a Small Town.” But tonight I teach until 8:45 pm which I am not super excited about, and tomorrow night until 9 pm. I have a few extra appointments this week that is making today busier: one is for fun (treating myself to a facial), one is annoying (driving 30 minutes round trip to pick up music for a gig) and then doing a grocery pickup. I have discovered that it’s so worth saving the time to just do grocery pickups instead of shopping in person.

(Again I get the warning from wordpress that long sentences are harder to read, and that shorter sentences are “easier to read and scan.” Well, not everything needs to be easy, wordpress! Like, if you can’t read a long sentence, then that is a YOU problem, not a me problem. I’m writing for me. I’m also not just producing “content” for seo and the LLMs, if I were, I would be in big trouble. Maybe we ARE in big trouble.)

This “blogging everyday” thing has actually been really fun. I don’t wait to blog until I have something interesting to say, I just start blogging, who cares if it’s interesting, right? I mean, perhaps it IS the mundane that matters.

Let me tell you what I’ve been doing at the gym, because I’ve been having fun. Yesterday I went, for upper body day. I have a list of exercises I keep on my phone and I track the amount of weight for each one, and then I select that day’s workout based on 1) what I want to do and 2) what machines are open. So yesterday I walked there (15 minutes warmup) and then did the lat pull-down machine, cable row, bench press (this one is so fun, I feel powerful as I bench press the bar with 5 pounds on each side, haha!), shoulder press with free weights, and bicep curls with free weights. I considered doing a triceps exercise, but the weights I needed were being used and the triceps machine was also busy, so I called it there, and walked 15 minutes on the treadmill with a 9-12 percent incline. Then I walked back home (15 minutes) and that was it! I usually do 3 sets of each weight workout with 1-2 minutes rest in between (I keep an eye on my watch).

The next time I go I’ll do legs: I usually do a combination of squats with the rack, romanian deadlifts, either using the rack or barbells, leg press, lunges, and the leg curl and leg extension machines. Again, this sometimes depends on what machines are free, but I’ve never had trouble getting a squat rack when I go, so I can count on that. I also often do some amount of time on the stairmaster at the end, though usually just 5 minutes because it’s hard and so boring.

So there you have it! Honestly, some part of my busy-ness is things like the gym, but that’s allowed right, I’m not supposed to work all the time? And then fun things like concerts, and writing blogs, that doesn’t take zero time. (This is an expression I will use, that doesn’t take zero time, meaning, even if it is something easy, like putting on your shoes, it doesn’t take zero time, and you need to allow time for it.)