The Struggles of Scheduling

Joolya made a great suggestion that I should take a martial arts class, and she said I'm not allowed to use time as an excuse.

Don't worry Joolya, I have plenty of excuses!

I love martial arts. I would like to take a class.

I don't have

a) money
b) energy
c) time to commute to one
d) a schedule that works with anyone else's.

For a while I was doing sports and felt guilty all the time - about leaving work to go to practice, and about getting to practice late because I couldn't get out of work early enough.

Sometimes I was doing jumping jacks while still getting dressed because I missed the beginning of warmup. Some of you know that goes. If you don't know, try doing jumping jacks while putting on a sock or tying your shoe. Just try it.

So I would sit in my car every time I got stuck in traffic, debating whether it was worth it. Sometimes I would be so late I would have to miss practice altogether, since the policy was that you couldn't be more than a certain number of minutes late. And then I had rushed out of lab and wasted all the time in the car... for what?

Ultimately I stuck with it for a couple of years, until the place changed and it wasn't fun enough anymore to cope with the commuting.

So then add in e) time to find a new place.

But there is no day, Monday through Friday, that I can be sure I can leave at a certain time EVERY WEEK. It's just impossible to really commit to anything besides lab.

And no matter what I do, as soon as my boyfriend or I pick a sport to coincide with the other's schedule, it gets screwed up. If we're not careful, we don't see each other awake all week.

For example, my boyfriend used to have an activity on Saturdays, so I found one on Saturdays. Then he stopped doing his activity, and for a while I would resent having to get up and go while he slept in, looking so adorable in bed! Then he found a new activity and mine ended. So lately I blog and do chores on Saturday mornings, at least until I find another exercise activity for Saturday mornings. Sometimes it's great that I can sleep in if I'm tired. But mostly I'm jealous because he's off being healthy & non-science while I'm here being... housewifely? Seriously though, he's pretty good about sharing chores, I just really hate the scenario where I'm at home doing them alone and he's out having fun!

aside: (This is one of the things about the lab lifestyle that I'm getting too old for.

It used to be fun to go in on the weekend! I know that sounds lame, but in the summers I appreciate the free air conditioning. In general I appreciate seeing only the people who really want to be there.

In fact, I generally prefer working on the weekend to working during the week, just because of the reduced population, being able to blare my music if I want to and wear flip flops if it's hot out. Who's gonna know my toes aren't covered?

But. I'm ready to have technicians and students to pick up some of the more tedious stuff for me so I can work hard during the week and not have to feed cells on the weekend. Weekend mornings are my protected time, but weekend afternoons are fair game for demands of lab.)

And if I pick a sport where I can go 'any' day, I tend to go less often. I have a gym membership but it tends to fall by the wayside on busy lab weeks.

Really what I need is a personal assistant to do all my chores and organize all my bills at home and papers at work. Until I get one of those, priorities are the following:

1. Stay sane.
2. Get work done.
3. Sleep.
4. Hold relationship together with boyfriend. (sorry, boyfriend, but I think your priorities are the same, so at least it's fair. Or are we doomed?)
5. Exercise.

So everything after #1 is required for #1 to work, but the actual order varies every day. Most days it's the order I listed. At least one day a week sleep is at the bottom, and at least one day a week work is at the bottom.

But I run around a lot at work and lift heavy things... that counts as exercise, right??