Back to Work & Things To Do Wrap Up

Last night I had such a hard time dealing with the idea of going back to work. Of course, this culminated in a lot of crying over other things, issues with my father, other family members, being grumpy with my RRHB for being away so long, and just the general tiredness of dealing with the disease and all of the various side effects of the prednisone.

The “prednisone crazies” are out in full force. My skin is breaking out and I’ve gained weight; as well, I’ve got some chest acne, pain in my left hip and a puffy face. On Saturday I went to get new glasses and was so frustrated with looking at my puffy face in the mirror I almost broke down in Lenscrafters. It’s funny, it’s not like black dog depression; I can realize that it’s the prednisone crazies, but that doesn’t stop the tears from falling freely.

The emotional roller coaster kept me awake for hours. This meant I was ironing the pants I wore today at 1:30AM. I was well prepared for today. I packed my purse and knapsack the night before, planned my breakfast (made a smoothie), organized all of my meds (the supplements I’m taking at lunch) and made a list of the things I was taking for lunch. As a result, when the alarm went off this morning, I didn’t feel panicked and frustrated, nor did I worry I was going to be late. In fact, it was a stressfree morning.

And that feeling carried on throughout the day. I had myself all in a panic about a meeting with HR this morning to talk about the sick leave. Not that could be helped, I mean, after all, the last time I went back to work after a sick leave I got fired by the Boss From Hell. But in the end, everyone was happy to see me. Everyone commented on how well I looked, how much they liked my snappy new haircut.

Most importantly, I made it through the whole day and I’m only semi-exhausted. I’m actually quite proud of myself.

Now, to the list…I didn’t do too badly. Here’s a wrap up:

1. Complete my own version of John Allemang’s Book A Day challenge. Follow with a Movie A Day challenge as well (the challenge here will be limiting myself to just one movie a day). I’m spending way, way too much time in front of the television.

I read 15 books since posting my list on March 22nd. Not quite one per day, but I didn’t do too badly. If you count it as a work week challenge, I did all right. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

2. Finish unpacking our boxes and transfer the unused contents to plastic storage bins that can go in the basement. This is so my RRHB (when he gets back from tour) can completely demolish the first floor. This is a selfish goal to some extent because I’m so sick of only living on one floor of the house that anything I can do to help the renovation along, I’m going to do.

This was too much for me. The boxes are too full and too heavy and I need my RRHB’s help. I did move some of the plastic boxes to the basement, so that’s a start. I’d count this one one third done.

3. Go through all my old writing and transfer as much as I can to the new computer. I bought a cute little clipboard from the Pottery Barn, just to hold up my pages!

I’ve started this too, it’s an ongoing process, one that’ll probably take me a few months to complete. I did, however, put all of my writing in one plastic bin, but I’ve got so much that I’ll need another one. I need to make a trip to Staples this week to buy some more storage containers. So, still working on this one too.

4. Create a menu plan for the next three weeks. Then go grocery shopping.

Yeah, didn’t do this at all—but I did do a lot of grocery shopping around the advice of the naturopath, which was kind of the point.

7. Research yoga classes for the diseased. Do such things exist?
8. Clean the downstairs hallway. Part of #2.

Done and done!

9. Get our taxes organized. Take everything to an accountant.

I have the name of a good accountant, but I haven’t done any organizing yet. Another project for this week. Will keep you posted.

11. Clean out the car (see #10).

Didn’t have the energy for this either. Fingers crossed it gets done this weekend.

13. Write each day (and not just on the blog).

I did this! Done and done!

15. Write all of my non-wedding thank you notes.

Still on the list.

16. See the eye doctor (appointment made), family doctor (appointment made), naturopath (appointment made) and osteopath (appointment not made yet…). This is all in the goal of spending the next 2.5 weeks getting as well as I humanly can get in the time I’ve got to myself.

Done and done!

All in all, not too shabby, I think, not too shabby—good effort!