Shutdown Diary: Day 6

General Conference was glorious. After a long walk this morning listening to Mere Christianity, I reached out to Tim to see if I could schedule Human Interaction for the day. He was hosting a lunch for his ward's choir between sessions, so I joined him at his church building for both sessions, plus free lunch and choir practice. It was lovely. And. I totally followed all the rules today -- mostly because I count watching General Conference as productive. Go me! Although it was Sunday, so... pretty much it was an easy day to keep the rules. Tomorrow is going to be the real test, I think.

Shutdown Diary: Day 5

I'm not sure if weekends should count for the shutdown diary, but since there hasn't been any agreement I think government is technically still shutdown so I'll include them. Mostly I spent today doing General Conference stuff. Getting ready for my semi-annual conference waffles party (it was small this this, just five people, but we did more expiriments such as cooking a waffle around bacon. Genius.) and then watching Conference and getting things done between sessions. Wrapped up the day skyping with Katie, chatting with frielounds and getting in an episode or two of Covert Affairs. On the bright side of shutdown stuff, the House passed a bill guaranteeing back pay for furloughed workers, which appears to have Senate and BO support, so that is kind of relieving, but I'd rather actually, you know, earn my pay by going to work. Because I like work, and it turns out I don't love being at home all day.

Shutdown Diary: Day 4

This morning I woke up sorely tempted to stay in pajamas all day. I had books and I'm still signed in to Amy's Amazon Prime account and it would have been super easy to succumb to that. But I also know myself really well and I know that if I ever give into that I will end up miserable and depressed by the end of the day. So instead, I went to the temple. Which, of course, was awesome. The session was completely full, which I'm not sure is normal for a Friday morning. I have a feeling there were a lot of other guvvies like me trying to make the most of their free time. The temple president spoke briefly at the beginning and reminded us that at times of "noise and tumult" the best place to seek peace was the temple, and I know that I found it there.

Re,latedly, seeing as this thing doesn't have an end in sight and I could be looking at being home for a while longer I've come up with four Rules for a Shutdown

1.) Take a shower and get dressed every morning within one hour of getting out of bed (or be out exercising in the same timeframe).
2.) Leave the house for at least 45 minutes every day.
3.) Speak with another human at least once a day.
4.) Do at least one productive thing every day.

Shutdown Diary: Day 3

I'm officially bored. It's been two and a half days and I'm simultaneously in danger of becoming a couch potato and going absolutely stir crazy. Went out for a run/brisk walk this morning. The weather was perfect (note to self: morning, not midday for this business) AND I saw a woodchuck! Virginia is woody and so I've seen all kinds of woodland creatures before, but this was my first woodchuck sighting! FUN! He was like five feet away from me when I first spotted him, but obviously by the time my camera loaded, he'd started scampering off. I spent most of the afternoon working on my Auntie Jules blanket for soon-to-be born Niece #3, but I ran out of thread about the same time that it was time to go work out with Amy Lou. Except then we didn't work out. We watched Doctor Who instead. And Amy and Mel loaned me a giant stack of books, which I'm sure that I will be grateful for. I'm ready to go back to work.

Shutdown Diary: Day 2

I folded all my laundry this morning for the first time in at least two months. Probably three. I also ate way too much chocolate cake and went for a run at lunchtime (not the best decision I've ever made, given the unseasonably warm weather we've been having). My friend Emma invited me over to hang out with her and her kids for while, so I did. We spent a lot of time talking about how ridiculous the shutdown is generally, how ridiculous Congressional entrenchment is getting on both sides, and how absurd the blame game is getting. Doesn't matter who's at fault, what matters is finding a solution which is going to be made MUCH more difficult if you keep publicly name calling. Just saying. I'm also kind of annoyed that right now the only thing on the table is a continuing resolution. Yes, I'd like to get back to work as soon as possible, but I'd also like to not have to face this situation every three months so maybe let's pass a real budget or something. Anyway, finished out the day at my volunteer gig, so I feel like I at least made a contribution to society today.

Shutdown Diary: Day 1

 
 Went into the office today for a 4-hour "orderly shutdown," then was home a little after noon. I filled the rest of my day Skyping with Amber, attending to some neglected housekeeping, and finishing the first season of "Under the Dome" which was annoyingly addictive. Ames and Mel came over in the evening to have dinner and watch Castle and Doctor Who.

It's starting to sink in that this is a for-real affecting my life sort of thing. Fingers crossed that it's resolved quickly.

Career Woman

Over the last several months I've been facing the tough question of what's next in my career, and in the process have had the startling revelation that, um, I'm having a career. When I graduated from college and moved to the East Coast it was in search of a job. Something to pay the bills until my real life started, but at some point I made the transition from having a job to having a career, and that was so not in my life plan.

I was very blessed in this process. I applied for my current job on a whim -- I was semi-qualified and the job seemed interesting but I never expected in a hundred years for my application to stand out enough to be offered an interview and later an actual job. And I was doubly blessed that I not only enjoy the work that I do, I'm also very good at it. I'm not saying that to brag; being very good at my job is hugely rewarding and I feel tremendously lucky that, having sort of stumbled into my career by accident, it was something that I'm good at.

Because I never meant to be a 30-something career woman. My real life plan was to go to college, fall in love, get married, struggle through the lean years, and then support my husband in his career while I stayed home and raised the babies. I got a college education because I love knowledge, because that's what you do after high school, and also because I wanted to show my kids that we as parents valued education. And when marriage didn't happen during the college years, because I knew that I'd have to support myself for a few years before my Real Life happened.

And then marriage kept not happening, and in the meantime I was getting very good at my work and making decisions that were making work into a career. So here I am. And as I've been exploring my next career move (a new office? a new position? overseas?) I've realized that this IS my Real Life, and it's great. It's obviously not without it's challenges -- I'm busy and I can't always keep up with everything that needs to be done and it can be lonely and I still yearn for marriage and children and honestly, making career choices can be terrifying and hard -- but it also affords me a lot of opportunities to serve and a lot of flexibility.

So now when I think about a possible future marriage and possible future kids, I realize that it would be very hard to walk away from this career of mine. Not that I would necessarily have to, but I like to hope that I would want to stay at home and have a new Mother career. But I think if that time ever comes it will be hard. That life no longer seems like it's my Real Life waiting just around the corner.

In related news, I just got a performance-based raise at work. I celebrated by buying myself a pretty.