Contributing factors

There are several factors that have helped in my achieving progress with assignments today:

1. The sun was out long enough to keep me warm while sitting in the garden.
2. Counting the frogs in the pond is a very peaceful and relatively quick study break.
3. Neil was able to sit outside with me while enjoying the sun so we weren't in seperate rooms feeling like we were neglecting each other.
4. Owen is much quieter when he sits outside with us.
5. A laptop is a student's best friend on a sunny day.
6. We're leaving in less than 48 hours and I have definite goals to accomplish before then. Just say no to holiday guilt.
   

Hurray! Study weekend has arrived!

In an attempt to release me from guilt I have planned three days of studying before N and I leave on our quick trip to Toronto. I do not want to take any computer or study books with me, so I will be staying up all hours if necessary to finish the rough draft, 2nd draft and final draft of my digital resources report. I will also be finishing the final draft of my cataloguing report. Then on Sunday evening N and I will have fish and chips (deamed digestively acceptable food the day before an 8 hour flight), pack, print travel documents and get very little sleep as our bus to the airport leaves at 4am.

Bring on productivity and a holiday!

Failed

So my list was not achieved. I failed. But I was productive in so many other ways.

First thing in the morning, even before changing out of my pajamas I set about transplanting (which was on my list). The grass was still too short to handle but I could move the rest. They're now sitting on the top shelf of the green house attempting to grow even bigger (hopefully).

Straight after that I planted some more pea seeds. This is where my productivity went astray, but in my defense I have been saying I need to do this for weeks.

As it was getting nicer and nicer outside I decided to keep gardening. So I filled the potato bags (more soil hopefully means more roots which means more potatoes!).

Then it was on to planting more lettuce leaves so we have successive crops for good salads this summer.

After all this I started on the dishes. I'm the type of person that leaves the dishes until I have enough to warrant an entire sink full of water. Which is usually just three times a week. While doing the dishes Neil arose, made us breakfast burritos and then we began a productive day together. It revolved around the drilling jobs we've been accumulating. First we put up the key safe which was easier than expected. Then we took down the small monitor in the living room and hung it on the wall in my study. I now am such a geek that I have two monitors to use at the same time (and I love it!).Then we moved on to hanging the new television in the living room. As you can see we still need to work on hiding the many cables connected to the television (this is the thing I hate about appliances). After all this we relaxed a little, had dinner and then Neil finished off the day by planting some more corn and climbing beans.

It was a very productive day. All of it needed to be done. So now I'm wondering if it's my list writing skills that I should be working on instead of my ability to stick to a plan. I think I learned that I should feel prouder of what I do get done than I feel guilty about what I don't achieve. Ah, those life lessons.

Monday

On Monday I took a photo along my walk to work because I was so happy to be walking to work in crisp and crunchy snow - even if it was dark and chilly.The photo isn't much but I'd like to use the photo in my first digital scrapbooking layout for an album I'm thinking of creating. The project is a scrapbook of one layout for each week of 2009 - or whatever year I get around to the album. I'm afraid of not seeing the project through though, thus causing guilt and frustration with a lack of achievement. Is this a lesson for me in knowing when to say no? What's the harm in such a creative and fun project? It could help me to remember that things happen in my life (did anyone else feel like 2008 went by in a blur or was it just me?). It could also be yet another subconscious procrastination tool to keep me from my studying. This is a complicated decision.

the rest of the story

I'm feeling guilt over not blogging more regularly. I hope to fix that soon, but until I have a regular writing schedule that I can stick to I will just have to try harder to get here more regularly. Over the Christmas break I brainstormed some new blog post ideas to help me write more here. I categorized these blog ideas and under the ethics category I have written that I should update you on the conclusion to my haircut drama. It's probably a good idea to start the year with a finished story, but I'm not very happy with what has turned out to be the end.

I stood my ground. I wrote a letter which I let Andy, my faithful stylist, read before I gave it to his boss (the owner and manager of the salon). Andy went straight to the boss-man and explained that he was willing to cut my hair for only £18 and that he didn't want to lose me as a client. Boss-man begrudgingly let me have my £18 haircuts, but it appears he's not prepared to make this a standard practice for female customers with short hair. I feel as though I have fallen short of my goal by accepting my price cut despite his insistence that he doesn't have time to decide who gets a short, medium, or long cut. Surely that's what he hires stylists for, as well as cutting hair they could decide just how much to charge.

It seems that because I am a long standing client of Andy's he is willing to bend the rules, but not change them. He, this boss-man, also felt a need to explain that there are all sorts of women who begrudge paying full price because they have short hair or because they have a trim around their single length of long hair. Boss-man also pointed out that he owns a men-only barber shop as well but he allows women there because they are seeking a decently priced short haircut. Neil thinks he's just reasonably widening his customer base, but I'm not exactly comfortable with how he's going about it. He'd have every woman in Cambridge flocking to his salon for a reasonable priced haircut if he could see to change his pricing, while having a salon with good business and ethical practices.

I will keep going there because that is where Andy, my trusted stylist, cuts hair. But I am not surprised that the salon has opposition to their pricing scheme. I hope that other women stand up to it. And I only hope that my stand has made boss-man think. A disappointing result, although I got what I was after..

the word

So it's 2009. This will be the year I turn 30. The year I lose at least 50 pounds. The year I attend my final study school. The year I start my dissertation.

I've read a few blogs where the author cjose a word for the year - a word to explore and understand in a very personal way over the course of a year. If I were to choose a word for 2009 I'd like it to be achievement. I'm terrible at setting goals and sticking to them. Although I realize some goals are meant to be altered for true success. But I rarely feel a sense of achievement. I often feel there's at least 20 more things I should be getting through. This is always the time of year that people set goals which normally never get finished, I'd like to do something different - explre the way to undertstand, se and achieve. I'm sure I can squeeze that into 2009.

I think sometime I subcontiously sabotage my achievement because I'm fighting agains predictability. Or is that just an elaborate excuse for being lazy?

Lastly, choosing achievement as my word for the year sounds like a good occaision for a little redecoration around here. It also may sound like a procrastination techniqye but sometime goals can be purely for the fun of the journey. I can see achievement may be quite an adventure for my brian. I hope that journey towards understanding throws up more answers than questions.