Life Without Facebook – Day 2

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent. It was also my first day without Facebook. I will admit that it was a little tough. I found myself at work, sitting at my computer, wondering what to do. I still haven’t given up reading celebrity news and gossip, so I was checking those sites (People, Deceiver, Go Fug Yourself) more often than usual. But I was thinking today on my way into work that I should try to replace all that Facebook time with actual work, news reading, or a combination (I’m shooting for option 3). It’s not that I don’t read the news now; I just don’t read as much as I should. Also, I am often on Slate reading news, which is really more op-ed than news. So, whenever I have the urge to get on Facebook and see what people that I don’t talk to are doing at this very moment, I will try to go to my homepage (The Washington Post) instead and read a news story with which I’m unfamiliar.

And if I was having any doubts about giving up Facebook for Lent… I was on Hulu last night watching clips from the most recent Alec Baldwin-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live, and one of the sketches was titled “The Cougar Den.” It was making fun of the possible trend of being a cougar or the total overuse of that term (or maybe both). During the sketch, the 3 cougars, who were hosting a show called “The Cougar Den,” had to pick up their Blackberries and stop for a Facebook break (they also stopped for a PedEgg break and discussed how the eggs were full of shavings… blech). I am proud to say that I have never used Facebook Mobile, and never will. And if there really are middle-aged men and woman who act like this and use Facebook as a way to “stay young,” then I certainly made the right choice.

I leave for Florida tomorrow night. Today in St. Petersburg the temperature high is 77 degrees Fahrenheit and the low is 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Hooray! There’s only a high of 57 degrees Fahrenheit in KC today. Dali and crab cakes, here I come!

Vacation

One week from today, I will be flying to St. Petersburg, Florida with my mom to spend 5 days and 6 nights with family. I think it’ll be nice to see everyone and spend some time away from work and winter, but I’m struggling just a bit with the packing issue.

I haven’t actually started packing yet, and there’s a few reasons for this:

• Most of my clothes are not exactly clean
• Most of my clothes do not fit me
• Since most of my clothes have not fit me (at least not well) for quite some time, I have been dreaming of the day when I will return to my original size. This has not yet taken place, and, therefore, much of my wardrobe is not what I want it to be (that of a 24 year old in 2009 vs. an 18 year old in 2003).

The biggest problem is that I don’t really have enough to pack for a 5 day trip. My day-to-day clothing is a recycling of the same 3 pairs of pants and 4 sweaters; all are both vacation and weather inappropriate. So now I have the dilemma of spending money. Should I just suck it up and buy some new clothes that fit well and make my rounded tummy a little less pronounced, or hold out even longer until I can make myself get active? I may have to go somewhere in the middle. Maybe I’ll buy a few things to get me through the trip, but not so much that I get any more adjusted to my current body than I already am.

What I want to wear everyday (in KC or St. Pete)

             

Chick Lit and Life

I have had a hard time lately devoting myself to any heavy reading. I need to start reading The Fountainhead for the LOST Books Challenge, but instead I am now reading 3 chick lit novels simultaneously: Just Listen (Sarah Dessen), Can You Keep a Secret (Sophie Kinsella), and Imaginary Men (Anjali Banerjee). Prior to this little stretch, I read the entire Shopaholic series. I need to read something with some depth, but I can’t make myself! I really get some pleasure out of reading chick lit. I don’t want to say that I shouldn’t enjoy this genre, but shouldn’t I mix it up a bit more than I have been lately? Really, I just need to put all the novels down and crack the spines of my textbooks. I know you’re dying to read Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, aren’t you?!

Maybe I like chick lit because the women are always so harried and frazzled. I often feel both harried and frazzled. I can relate to that aspect. The having-an-addiction-to-buying-expensive-things or lying-about-an-engagement, not so much. See below for why I am harried and frazzled.

Here’s what I’ve got going on…

• Collection Development assignment (compare/contrast essay) due before midnight tonight
• 3 discussion board posts (2 for one class that have to be 24 hours apart) due before 5pm on Sunday, and 4 more due before 5pm on Sunday 3.1.09
• Friday 2.27.09 – Thursday 3.5.09 I will be in St. Petersburg, Florida with my mom visiting some family and some beaches (and Salvador Dali!)
• Exam #2 (essay) due March 5th, the day I get back to Kansas City from Florida
• Country Profile of India due March 6th, the day after I get back to Kansas City from Florida

These are all things that need to be accomplished while working 40-50 hours a week. I know, I shouldn’t complain because there are plenty of people who have crazier schedules than that and are a lot more successful to boot. But it is a lot to squeeze in to a relatively short time frame (considering doing laundry, cleaning, and packing all have to fit in there somewhere). I’m also attempting to have a life, although rather unsuccessfully. Oh well…

LOST Books Challenge

So, despite working a full-time and a part-time job and being a full-time graduate student… I’m going to participate in the LOST Books Challenge. Basically, I have to read at least 5 books relatedto the show LOST before it ends in 2010. I figure I’ll be reading at least 5 books in the next year anyway, so why not? Here are the 5 I’ve selected to start with.

1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
2. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
3. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
4. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
5. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Since I picked The Fountainhead as one of my books, maybe I won’t get through more than 5. But I might read that one first since it’s the most ambitious (I think). If anyone else wants to join in the fun, check out the LOST Books Challenge here. Books and LOST… does it get any better?

Work

Working, like the economy, sucks.

I am writing this entry at work because I am totally unenthused by what I should and need to be doing. I am responsible for, as of the end of January, 3 tasks (other than working a public service desk). Those tasks are:

1. Mending broken books – I wish I could do this at home. I would get through so many more a day (or week… I have many days where I mend nothing) if I could do it at my coffee table while watching Scrubs or Arrested Development.

2. Barring patron accounts that have mail returned – This job makes me feel like the library bad guy, but I don’t terribly mind physically doing it. It is a task that requires a computer, so I can deal with a few pieces of mail and then take a break to read Go Fug Yourself.

3. Pricing and stocking books for the book sale section of the newly-opened cafe in the library – The book sale was only made my task a few weeks ago, and it took so long for my bosses to come up with pricing guidelines that I’ve only really been working on it for about a week.

It’s a rare day when I leave at 5pm feeling I’ve really accomplished anything. When I applied for, and subsequently accepted, this job, I didn’t know it would entail painting book spines with glue for 4 hours a day. Although, I probably would have taken it anyway because I was so desperate to get a full-time, benefits-included job. With the economy in the toilet, I do worry about keeping my job sometimes. I mean, if you were forced to lay off an employee for budgetary reasons, would you fire the person who gets their duties done in a timely manner, or the person who currently has 197 books/comics/magazines checked out to the mending account but hasn’t touched one for a week?

Right now, the only thing I have any desire to work on is homework. I have a research analysis due on Friday, and I haven’t even read the entire research study yet. It’s titled “In Search of Information Literacy Programmes  and Practices: Survey of Selected Institutions at Bangalore.” I hope I can stay awake…

Tonight’s agenda: buy some necessities (and some not-necessities) at Target, finish doing the dishes, bake some cheesy biscuits (maybe), basic at-home manicure, read research study, watch last night’s Scrubs episodes, work on adding to iTunes on my laptop, watch Lost after Cody gets home from work.

Born to Run

I want to run. I want to want to run. I want to fill my iPod with amazing, uptempo music and just go. I want to lace up my sneakers, thrown on my Obama t-shirt, and rock some M.I.A. while I pound the pavement. I want to sweat because I have exerted myself, not because it’s 80 degrees inside the library (like today… blech!).

Inspiration
Barack Obama — Obama manages to find time to exercise 6 days a week. He’s the frickin’ President for pete’s sake! If he can carve 45 minutes out of his day, I should be able to do the same.

Lance Armstrong — Lance is like the ultimate inspirational story. I know it’s probably cliche to mention him as an inspiration, but he truly is. He has worked incredibly hard to get where he is, and witnessing that sort of drive is motivating.

Kirsten — Kirsten is my boyfriend’s oldest sister. In October 2008, after months of training, she ran her first marathon. I am totally impressed by her and how she was able to train so consistently and not give up. She has worked very hard to get where she is, in all aspects of her life, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for her.

I’m hoping to make this a photo blog. Another goal I have is to take more pictures, so I’ll try to combine them. I’ll make an effort to photographically document my (hopeful) progress. I suppose to know what progress is, you’ll need to know where we’re beginning…

This isn’t the most recent photo I have of myself, but it pretty accurately displays the chub in face. Here’s a photo of me at 18, for comparison:

I’m not striving to be some super tight and toned uber-runner. I just want to shed the extra weight and get back to a point of feeling good about my appearance. I’ve never been a runner, but until recently I’ve never really had the desire. I hope it can help me clear my head too. Music and wind and outside and movement; it’s gotta help, right?