Productivity!

I had an excellent weekend so far. I am reading Adventure Divas as suggested by Professor Faith. It has been so inspiring and helpful for my research. I actually sat down and wrote for an extended period of time yesterday! It was amazing. I felt very cleansed by the experience. I think the book is mostly helping me think of stimulating questions I would like to pose to my subjects. I'm very excited for my interview with the carpenter chick next Wednesday.

Corey and I went to the Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate his birthday in advance. I think they are starting to recognize me there. I guess that's ok. We actually branched out this time and tried some other items on the menu. Success! The yellow split pea dish is my new mission in life to replicate. I cannot live a day longer without that yellow split pea soup recipe. It was sweet and earthy and very cuminy. Surely somewhere on the great wide web there lies a recipe for Ethiopian yellow split peas.

We went upstairs to continue celebrating. JP was cooking Moraccan food in his Moraccan food cooking device. I can never remember or pronounce the name of it. It's ceramic and tall and pointy and makes delicious stew. Then we played Settlers of Cataan all night long.

I have definitely decided I have an addictive personality. Once I get involved in a game like that, I can't stop. It's like Katamari. I played for way too many hours yesterday despite my productivity. Now, I have Cataan on the brain. All I want to do is beg them for a rematch so I can build settlements on more productive resource tiles. I was thinking about it while I was making lunch and almost made food mistakes, not to mention dropped diced peppers into the gas flame.

And I'm certainly addicted to rugby. There is no question about that. I think that addiction has a much larger hold over my life than the others. I mean I have quit stable jobs and moved to strange cities based solely on their proximity to women's rugby clubs and kids I can coach. Hmmm, perhaps I don't love rugby as I previously thought but am instead addicted to it as one gets to cocaine?

Hopefully, a nice dose of Steelers victory will cure my obsession with other games for the moment. I'm off to an actual party where men will yell and throw things and my writer friends and I will not psychoanalyze the players and their celebration techniques.

Dentist

Last night, my friend confessed to me that she refuses to get her teeth cleaned or go to the dentist for any reason. I don't understand this behavior. I know she is not alone in her attitude. The last time I went to the dentist, they told me some frightening statistic...like only 40% of people get their teeth cleaned or something terrifying like that. And, says my hygienist, most of the people who come in are making their first visit in years because something is rotting in their mouths.

Now, I don't particularly enjoy the dentist myself. I personally find the brushing there worse than the scraping. This is probably because I don't have much scraping to be done because I brush and floss regularly and don't build up hard deposits. The brushing is horrible. I can feel it for weeks. But you know what would feel a lot worse? Rotten teeth falling out of my mouth as I bite into apples. Or getting corn stuck in the holes in my gums from the diseases I would get without proper dental care.

People should take care of their teeth. I'm taking a stand on this one. I will not be swayed! You only get one set and I have seen what happens when you let them go. If nothing else, let the idea of having to gum your way through steak at your grandchildren's wedding reception motivate you to get your choppers cleaned regularly.

Blink

I wanted to spend the next several hours fuming about administrative crap I'm dealing with at school. But you know what? That doesn't do me any good. I've already located a proactive solution to my problem, and dwelling and fuming about it will not make me feel better, nor will it help me sleep.

I just finished reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. That book is so amazing. I had no idea how powerful our subconscious could be. Gladwell's message through the book is that we need to be aware of the power of this subconscious ability to make snap decisions and then use this awareness to change the way we act and live. For example, if I hang a sign above my desk encouraging me to think positive thoughts and react with calm, I am priming my self conscious to do so. When I am faced with a potential administrative disaster through the University, I can then think positive thoughts and react with calm.

Several months ago, I hung three goals on my refridgerator. Rather than dwell on negative thoughts, rather than fester the stress and insomnia, I shall instead focus on positive, proactive measures to meet my goals. I WILL teach creative writing in some capacity this summer. I WILL get accepted to a writing residency program and I WILL secure funding for the 2006/7 school year.

In the meantime, I have started The Tipping Point, also by Gladwell, to see if he reveals any other lifestyle-changing suggestions.

Insomnia

I haven't slept since last Thursday. I don't know why. The first couple nights, I was out really late and couldn't sleep in. But since then, I just lie in bed awake. Last night, I tried reading boring literature, but it ended up being interesting and kept me up. So then I started reading my friends' writing for workshop. That was obviously interesting and there I was awake at 130 am after trying to be asleep since 1030.

The worst part of this is that I deliberately scheduled time in each afternoon to do work and now I have to spend that time napping if I want to stay alive. I do everything I'm supposed to. I nap for only a half hour so it doesn't keep me up at night. I put on lavender lotion before bed, drink chammomile tea.

I have been a total failure when it comes to exercise lately, so perhaps that is the problem. My body isn't tired because it hasn't done a damn thing. It's very possible. I can't remember a winter off season where I did less physical activity. Although, I couldn't exactly fit in a 1.5 hour workout this afternoon when I had to nap to stay sane and then do schoolwork before tutoring tonight. I feel like I'm in a wheel of sleepless, exerciseless non-health. And I'm cooking with butter as I go along.

I guess the only thing to do is finish today, take some Nyquil tonight, and make sure to exercise tomorrow. I hope this works. I feel like a zombie right now.

Those Germans!

Well I have been shamed by a German girl who is better at Katamari than I am. I taught this girl Katamari and she has the gall to finish the game before me??? How can this be? Apparently, she is a gloater as well as a finisher. Last week, I was forced to admit to my advisor that I have not been working on my manuscript this semester because I have been putting in three to four hours of Katamari each day in a vain attempt to finish the damn campfire level. I located the cousin and the royal present for that level, but when I try to roll them up, I waste too much time and never get big enough to roll up the pile of wood.

I feel so challenged by Em's comment on my blog that I suspect I will not finish this post and work until class as I had intended. Instead, I will sit on the loveseat and sweat while I roll up roast and mushrooms. Who made these games so addictive???

And I really wanted to get work done this week, too, so I could watch the Steelers again this weekend. Those guys have inundated my life. This week, I'm participating in faculty interviews at Pitt. (They let grad students do that here!) The first twenty minutes of this morning's job talk were dedicated to the Bus. No rhetoric theory. No comp fancy talk. Just the Bus and how crazy he must have felt Saturday afternoon.

I wonder if he went home and played Katamari to calm himself down? The Bus is such a mover and a shaker, I feel certain he could easily beat the campfire stage.