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By kilax, March 1, 2013 5:51 am

Not your typical fluffy FQ!!!

Do you ever feel like you are being judged for how you spend your time? Do you ever catch yourself judging others for how they spend their time?!

Yes and yes.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot, and I hope this post doesn’t come off as offensive, but I’ve gotta say it.

I am young, married, with no children and a somewhat flexible work schedule, and I often find myself feeling that my day is “not my own.” That I don’t get to do what I please, as much as I’d like.

I really think it’s mostly* okay to feel this way sometimes. I’m sure we all have a list of daily “to-dos” that we’re kind of meh about.

But I think that because I fit in a lot of workouts and make time to travel/see my friends/have fun, it appears that I have a ton of free time to do whatever I want. I don’t. I am busy too. Even though I don’t have kids/have to commute every day/only work three jobs/etc., I am a person with a very busy day. And a person who doesn’t know how to relax, and fills up their free time.

Today’s schedule – 5:00 am train to city for run date, study on train ride home, errands, appointments, Fake Meats work, more studying… blah blah blah.

I really liked Jillian’s post earlier this week about making time to workout. Jillian works her arse off at two jobs and still makes the time to exercise. She does seize the day to make it work for her. She doesn’t whine about her lack of free time – she figures it out.

Why am I bringing Jillian’s example up? Well, with how dang busy she is, she is a prime candidate for bemoaning her lack of free time and that of others, and just giving up. But she doesn’t.

And it’s not just about making time for exercise! I’m not that short-sighted, ha ha. It’s about making time for what you need/want. We all have different interests we want to pursue, and thats how it should be.

How it should NOT be is with all the outside judgement of what you do and how much time you spend doing it.** You don’t have to work to be busy. You don’t have to have children. You don’t have to be married. You don’t have to commute. You get the idea!

We’re all in charge of our time, even though we have unwanted obligations in there. Maybe we could focus making our time work for us instead of thinking so much about how others spend theirs?

*I really want to write more about my bad attitude when I’m doing things I don’t want to do, but I’ll have to get in to that another day. This is already too long!
**Unless harmful to your health, making you lose all your money, harmful to others, and so on.

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By kilax, February 22, 2013 6:26 am

How do you share your calendar/schedule with your family… if at all?

Gosh, I swear I have asked this before! It’s a very interesting topic to me. I put a lot on my schedule and want Steven to know where I am and what I am doing. 

We have a dry erase board in our kitchen. I am the only one who uses it. Ha ha. 

So we rely on google calendar. We both are big google fans, and use google for work and personal use, so I have shared calendars that Steven can see – Exercise and Social Appointments. And we also send each other invites for appointments as well. Are we super dorky? Or do other people do this too?

Work items in light blue, exercise in dark blue, social appointments in red, regular appointments/reminders in yellow. 

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By kilax, February 15, 2013 2:32 pm

Have you had CPR/AED (cardiopulmonary resuscitation/automated external defibrillator) training? Would you be comfortable performing CPR on someone?

Confession! I have a whole list of Friday Questions to choose from, but sometimes I’m feeling kind of meh about them… so I let my day play out a bit and see if anything pops in to my head. Hence this question…

I took a CPR/AED certification course today. And what perfect timing! Steven told me this morning he is pretty sure he is going to have a heart attack during his leg of the relay this Sunday. Okay, that is really morbid and offensive*. I hope he feels well enough** to participate/run the course… and if not, he can walk or someone else can sub in for his spot!

*But apparently not enough for me to delete
**He got the nasty cold I had last week, only a nastier version. 

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By kilax, February 8, 2013 6:50 am

Do you do the whole Valentine’s Day thing? Are you romantic?

I have never been big on it. But I do like to send cards,

eat my favorite (and stupidly hard to find) candy,

and secretly hope Steven makes me this (or a heart shaped pizza).

I do think it’s silly to have holidays (this one and the many others) that remind us to show love and affection – because I try to do that year round. But the truth is, I am not very romantic, so Valentine’s Day may be a good reminder for me to continue to try to be more so!

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By kilax, February 1, 2013 7:50 am

What position do you tend to sleep in? Do you fall asleep one way and wake up another? Does it depend on the night?

Data advises that as long as you get 18 hours of sleep a day, it doesn’t really matter how or where.

As I continue with a whole month of restless nights (due to vivid dreams) I am looking more in to the way I sleep. I found this article with a cool infographic explaining the benefits and disadvantages of certain sleeping positions (sleeping on your stomach can constrain your neck, sleeping on the back is bad for snoring, you shouldn’t sleep on a side that you have shoulder issues with, etc.). 

According to the article (which surveyed a very small amount of people), it is most common to start on the side, then the back is next most common, then the stomach. But, people change positions between 3 and 36 times a night (with the average person changing 12 times). 

I can contribute to those “findings” – I prefer to start sleeping on my right side. But I know I move a lot, and usually wake up on my back!

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By kilax, January 25, 2013 6:57 am

What dreams do you have over and over? Do you think they mean anything?

Like Sara, I quite often dream that I break or lose teeth. 

The most current thing though, that has been ongoing for the past two weeks, and making me wake up A LOT throughout the night, are dreams about people not being ready to do things on time, and about me breaking my phone. So, I knew I was a schedule freak before, and hate it when people are not ready to go on time, and when I am late… but apparently it bothers me so much that I am dreaming about it. Every. Single. Night. And the phone thing, well, let’s just say I was happy when I woke up at 3:30 am today and saw my phone did not have a big crack down the face of it. 

I have these books… maybe I should actually use them?! Anyone else have a book about what your dreams mean?*

*I must have written about this before, because I recall Erin saying she learned about dreams in college and used to have a cool book or some notes on it or something. 

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By kilax, January 18, 2013 6:38 am

Which television series do you think are worth watching a second (third? fourth?) time? Which television series do you think are NOT worth watching a second (or first?) time?

This is an odd question for me to ask because I do not watch much television, and when I see a series, it’s on DVD! However, I watched Sex and the City over and over when I lived in Rome.  And we recently started rewatching Downton Abbey, and it’s even better the second time around!

There are a few series I have tried to get in to with no luck – The Walking Dead and The West Wing being the most recent.

Bonus question – any television series I should check out on Netflix?

When I work from home, Steven and I watch shows together during our lunch break. We started with Star Trek: The Next Generation, then went to Downton Abbey… hmm. Seems like I am missing one.

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By kilax, January 11, 2013 6:57 am

What is your definition of a “people person”? Do you think you are one?

I am starting to wonder if my mom was right. 

When I was in my hometown for the holiday, we were having a conversation about me not wanting to go shopping and be in large crowds, and my mom started teasing me that I just might not be a people person. To be funny, I tried to build my case as to why I was…

but I have thought about it more since then, and become even more confused. Maybe I really don’t like people (just kidding!). 

I love hanging out with people when I want to hang out with them. I love being social when I want to be social. I love seeing my friends and family, and yes, I love talking to new people and even strangers. I had a conversation with the lady sitting next to me on our flight to Minneapolis last week* and honestly enjoyed it. And while I greatly appreciate my me-time and quiet time, I know that I thrive off of some interaction with others on a daily basis, hence the constant emails, texts and other methods I use to bug my friends to PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!! Ha ha. 

But yesterday left me for a spin. It was my first day physically back in our downtown office since before the holiday. Everyone was in. It was people overload – social stuff all day. I felt fake. I felt overwhelmed at times.  I felt frustrated**. I felt anxious, thinking about all the things I wanted to get done during all of the social interactions I needed to participate in. I could talk a lot about how working from home affects the social culture of the office, and that the days we are in can be overwhelming like this, but it really isn’t appropriate, especially when working from home works so well for me (in getting work done and in a life balance sort of way) and when it is really just something I need to learn to adjust to. It’s really a Kim problem, not a work problem. 

But, blah blah blah. So I had this overly social day, and then had Erin‘s fun birthday party to go to, which I had been looking forward to all week, but then found I felt drained and quiet from my day at work. Totally not like myself, and that bummed me out a bit. I had a great time, but felt more like an observer, listening to everyone’s fun conversations about their Starry Night paintings… but just not feeling “on.” Or like some of the definitions above say not “good at interacting with others,” at least in that particular moment.

So to answer my own question, I wonder if a people person is someone who is, yes, good at talking to others and makes friends easily, but maybe also someone who is almost always energized by socializing, and can handle A LOT OF IT in one day***… kind of like how we discussed extroverts finding energy from being around other people, and introverts feeling a bit drained… if THAT makes any sense.  Does any of this make sense? Ha ha. I think this is the LONGEST Friday Question EVER.  

*We had layovers both ways to KC
**This greatly has to do with the fact that I had work to get done but no working phone and computer issues as well. 
***Even if some of it is forced, like at work. 

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By kilax, January 4, 2013 8:06 am

Are you a tracker? What do you track?

Hmm, another question that doesn’t make sense! 

Well, with everyone declaring their 2013 goals I’ve been thinking about the things I tracked in 2012 and what I want to track in 2013.

In 2012, I did a really good job of tracking my running mileage and money donate to charities. But in 2013, I would like to better track money spent on races, miles biked, books read, weight (until I give up on eating healthy again), and so on. I can go back to my notes and figure out all of this stuff for 2012 if I would like, but it’s more fun to track it in real time that to look at it retrospectively for me (since I love spreadsheets!). 

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By kilax, December 21, 2012 6:16 am

WARNING! This post contains spoilers… or rather, it eludes to the truth about Santa Claus. You’ve been warned!

Growing up (or even now), did (do) you get gifts from Santa? Were all of your gifts from Santa, or just some of them (and some from your parents)?

Good thing I didn’t ask this question again

I think I need to explain this question a bit better. Gina and I were chatting this week about how different families “do” Santa gifts. When she was a kid, all of her gifts at home were from Santa – none from her parents. But when I was a kid, we received gifts from Santa, and from our parents. If I remember correctly, we were allowed to open our stocking from Santa before our parents got out of bed. And there was a gift from Santa wrapped in Santa paper (which maybe we got to open early too?). But the rest of the gifts at home were from our parents, and we had to wait for them to get up to open them*.

I was surprised to hear some kids only got gifts from Santa. Gina was surprised to hear that I got gifts from Santa and my parents!

And yes, “Santa” still gives me a stocking… I love stockings!

*As you know, they were not sleeping in, we were just up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning!