T-day break

I really have been feeling so isolated lately. I have been busy, and it has been hard to make time to try and be with friends. I am really thankful for the friends that I do have, both far and near. I don't even really share lunches with many of my coworkers. One of them asked me to lunch last week. I was so thankful for that. I guess I feel like I just don't have a lot of money right now to eat out a lot, so it has really inhibited my social life at work, since most of it revolves around getting lunch with people. I really do need to seek out people at lunch sometimes, but I have a commitment to paying off all my debts within the next two years. I am struggling with finding the balance between socializing by going out and eating in. It's important to me to do both.

Tonight was a good night too. One of my cello students made me pumpkin bread and then I had dinner with a friend of mine from church. I really needed the fellowship tonight. Combine that with the pumpkin bread and, well, it has been an encouraging evening.

Turkey Trot in the morning... plus a T-day party. It is going to be a good day, even if I can't spend it with my family.

Autumn weekend

I've been trying to take a picture of something from fall that I can hang on my wall at home. This is close to what I'm looking for. This is edited, and I'm bummed that the lighting wasn't a little better. But the color is still fantastic! The original is much darker, and I've tried to bring out the color a bit more on it.

So here's my story from the weekend:
Last night, I went to work out at the little gym at my apartment complex. I normally like going on Sundays because I can watch football while working out. However, I happened to go during an "intermission" when there weren't any games on. So I was channel surfing and found Twilight. I have not read the books, nor have I seen the movie, so I was curious because of how many teenaged girls love this series. Well, I was about halfway into my workout when this older guy comes in and starts working out. I felt bad about watching Twilight while he was there, but I didn't want to just arbitrarily change the channel. So I decided to leave and come back later when football would be on. I handed him the remote and I'm pretty sure he was quite relieved that I was leaving so he didn't have to watch Twilight. I'd like to think it was a graceful exit... I do have compassion on my fellow male apartment dwellers.

Life Balance

I've been back now a few weeks from my vacation and I find that it is hard to focus at work. I'm gradually getting better at it though. I have had two really great weeks of getting to bed early, and it has made a big difference in what I'm able to get done every day. The bummer part is that I haven't really spent any time with my friends here since I've been back. I am finding it challenging to find the balance -- get everything I need to get done for my jobs, get the rest I need, and exercise, and also make time to be social.

For example, I got invited to see a show on Saturday, and it sounds really fun, it's at this theater that produces melodramas and lets the people in the audience cheer and boo and throw popcorn at the actors. However, I work all day Saturday, would have to drive about 45 min to get to the theater, and then I have to be up early on Sunday morning for church. I hate showing up to worship really tired. So I'm torn. I'm actually probably not going to go to that show, but I feel like I'm missing out on a fun experience. My inclination is to go home and just chill out.

This is very typical for me. I make this kind of decision all the time, and mostly, I'm choosing rest over being social because I know how much harder things seem to be if I don't get the rest I need.