I've been remiss about posting here, but I have to say that life is rather crazy here at the moment. Here's a little peek at what we've been up to.
Weekdays
7 a.m. Get up, shower, dress, eat breakfast, make lunch (and dinner for Jeff)
8 a.m. Out the door to catch the Metro
8:30 a.m. Start my work day
6:00 p.m. Leave Work
6:45 p.m. Arrive home. Begin dinner. (It always takes longer to get home than to get to work. Why is that?)
7:30-8:00 p.m. (On a good day) Eat dinner. Clean up dinner. (On a bad day, dinner is maybe at 9:00)
8:00-10:30 p.m. Work on hiking book. Write entries, edit entries, code entries, plan upcoming hikes, make maps, decide on photos, write front of the book and back of the book materials. Consider writing queries for other articles. Reconsider, decide sanity is better than bylines.
10:30 p.m. Jeff calls. Go pick him up from work. (Yes, he's working 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. these days. It's the final push...it's fun I tell you.)
11:00 p.m. (Three days a week) Remember that I haven't written a post for Lives of Wander. Get to work on that. Maybe watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report while I write. Other days try to do some trip planning.
12:00 p.m. Go to bed.
Weekends
7:00 a.m. Get up. (There is no longer any sleeping in around here). Fill water bottles, pack picnic lunch, confirm directions, double check contents of hiking bag.
8:00 a.m. Out the door. Spend the next 1-2 hours driving to trailhead.
9:00 a.m. to Sunset. Hike anywhere from 1-4 trails at 1-4 locations for up to 16 miles.
9:00 p.m. Try to find somewhere open for dinner.
10:00 p.m. Return home. Jeff goes to work. Shower all the dirt away. Prep for the next day's hikes. Write if there's time.
12:00 a.m. Pick Jeff up at work. Jeff showers. Bed.
I'm not looking for sympathy. We chose this life, and though it's crazy and we're both looking forward to our vacation in 1.5 weeks more than we can express, we're pretty happy people overall. But if I haven't returned your call or your email, commented on your blog, or posted anything new on my blog, please forgive me. It's not that I haven't thought about it. It's just that I really haven't had the time.
Okay, back to work. I have about 30 minutes to 1 hour to get some editing done before Jeff calls...
6 comments:
wow. you are going to look back at this time & think how in the hell did we accomplish all of that? but it's because you both are bad ass' & i'm so proud of what you're doing. we get there in a few weeks :) need to call you & talk about details!
You'd be a good candidate to write a dissertation.
Actually, there are two types of grad students. The scheduled 9-5 types (more you) and the I enjoy the haphazardness that can be grad school (more me). The minute I start scheduling my writing time, I know I am going to enjoy grad school alot less. I also realize, though, that day is coming soon.
part two...
The whole family knew you were super busy when you pretty much stayed out of the buying gifts for mom's b-day/mother's day decisions.
wow, I like hiking, but I think I would start to get sick of it after doing as much as you're doing. How do you keep them all straight in your memory? I would think they would all start to blend together. Where are you going on vacation?
I take lots of pictures and I take notes while I hike to try to keep them all straight. Lots of the pictures are for memory trigger or so I can look something up rather than for quality photos. We shoot trail intersections, signposts, and all kinds of plant and animal species I want to identify. Also, I try to write the descriptions during the week in which I hiked them, so by the time the next weekend rolls around, I'm starting fresh and can forget about the previous hikes. The hardest part is coming up with fresh ways to describe vistas, outcroppings, creeks, and all the little features that may seem so awesome on one hike but get repetitive after 40 hikes (or 80 once the book is done).
We're going to Pawleys Island, SC with my family. It will be a very relaxing week (well as relaxing as things get with my family), so I'm looking forward to it (though we'll see if I get restless without having a ton to do). I think this might be the first relaxing vacation Jeff and I have ever gone on, although I guess the honeymoon was for at least the first few days.
wow.. I'm a lazy bastard!
Bryan
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