July 2, 2020
This morning, I failed my medical tests so badly that the doctor stopped after the first two and told me to come back and try again next month. Didn’t even know that was possible! Oops.
Yesterday, I stepped down from day-to-day management responsibilities in my main job, so that I can focus on the things only I can do and delegate the rest to other people.
I expect these two situations are related, and hope to have better results in August.
June 25, 2020
Still hot, still busy. Internet went out Wednesday and I ended up having to reschedule four meetings. Thankfully everyone was gracious about it. New tiers for the Vodou related Patreon have gone live and I’m thrilled about them, because they allow me to budget time for some fun projects. I’ve learned that working on a manuscript is more difficult if it’s the only thing I’m beating on, and having something completely different to spin my brain around every few days is helpful and recharging. Good feedback from Kickstarter backers on how to convey the ongoing process to them as well.
I get to spend more time writing than doing busywork for a while again. This is very exciting to me.
June 23, 2020
It’s Tuesday. two counseling sessions, five divination sessions (with or without additional counseling), a class to teach, homework to read and grade, and a ton of email to catch up on. Super hot outside so I’m trying to stay ahead of it with the portable air conditioner. So far I haven’t melted into a puddle. It’s supposed to be more like Portland June by the weekend. Will I survive? Will all of us survive? Signs of the world reopening are more obvious: boarded up shops are opening, more people are on the street. It still feels too early and I’m going to stay home until my doctor’s appointment on the 2nd, when we finally work on finding out how the chemo did.
June 22, 2020
Today’s schedule
- four appointments (two Discord, two Zoom)
- editing for Coptic Encyclopedia
- grading Patreon homework
- scheduling the rest of the week’s appointments
- ongoing preparation for new beginners class in the temple
Today is the slowest day I have through Friday and it’s more than 8 hours. Hoping to be caught up on the work backlog by the 30th. It’s going to be stressful, and there’s much to be done, but I’m trying to stay confident.
June 17, 2020
Conversations about work started before I was even out of bed this morning. A full 10 hours of scheduled events follow for today, tomorrow, and Friday. Next week pretty much the same. Trying to get caught up on several weeks of slowdown due to two deaths in the family plus an already-existing work backlog. Sometimes I find myself wishing I had even a small bit of the coronavirus boredom/lack of things to do that others are reporting. If anything, my workload doubled once we entered lockdown.
A friend reminded me: “Pay yourself first.” Trying to keep that in mind and schedule in some payments.
My father would have been 71 today, had he lived. This is a random bit of trivia but my brain reminding me of it every few minutes hasn’t been random. Doesn’t matter that it’s been almost eight years now. I still try to phone him every now and then.
June 16, 2020
Sitting in an online class to learn how to use Discord in a better way for my Patreon. Learning how accustomed I’ve become to multitasking as I keep getting distracted from just paying attention to the class. Once upon a time I had the opposite problem - where I’d get so engrossed in a single thing that I’d lose track of the existence of anything else until it was done.
Technology continues to reshape the way we think and situate ourselves in the world, and largely does so without either our knowledge…or our objections. The only way this stops is deliberate effort. Time to put that into action and pay attention to this class alone…