Category: Mekeeping

Penciling in a New Recipe

I have a new former co-worker who insists I start writing again…
…I don’t know what to think about that right now, or even if I want to pencil in when I want to think about that.
– “In Absentia, Refactor” 12/29/2024.

After I turned in my work paraphernalia, I met the NFCW and another new ex-colleague for lunch. Thanks to the happy confluence of being within walking distance of a Vietnamese restaurant and not having any afternoon meetings, I got to have phở for the first time. It was as delicious as I had hoped, and I had zero regrets afterward about the food.1

The jury remains out on the aftermath of my lunch conversation with the NFCW, which picked up again via text while I was walking back to the nearest Metro station. She bet me a bottle of fancy brandy2 that I could come up with seven chapter titles by the time I got to my last stop on the Metro. There were seven stations on my way back.

I did it in five. I didn’t invest a lot of thought into coming up with the titles. I was paying more attention to her messages about the horrible date she’d had over the weekend and my inner argument about how ridiculous it was that my first reflex to figure out when I could distribute the boxes of holiday cookies I bought for the neighbors before dropping off my work stuff3 was to check my work calendar which I didn’t have a) access to anymore and b) a need to access anymore.

But, yes, yay, voilà, there the chapter titles were on the phone note I popped open when I sat down on the train, and they even seemed to fit together.

Huh.

Maybe not thinking so much can be a viable strategy?

Maybe?

Anyway, I’m trying it. Since I was already twitchy about no longer having a recurring 10:00 AM meeting, I decided to reclaim that timeslot for writing. I’ve consistently made that appointment. Unfortunately, I’m still struggling with4 making my biweekly 3:00 PM meetings, which I repurposed for professional education. I have a few certifications that will expire in 2025 if I don’t complete enough continuing education credits, and there are some others I’d like to earn while I’m on this vacation. I’ll figure it out.

Yes, I’m still calling it a vacation.

  1. I love trying new foods. This doesn’t always agree with my digestive tract, which still hasn’t quite forgiven me for spending five years in Indiana (or maybe it’s only still pissed at me for blowing out my gallbladder in 2005). I reserve my trying new food experiences for occasions when I don’t have to rush somewhere afterward, especially when I’m not at the house. ↩︎
  2. I recognized the brand name as “too expensive to make bread pudding sauce with,” which has been my primary experience with brandy. Side note: I discovered that cherry chouffee can work in Black Forest Cake if I can’t find any kirschwasser. I was going to try cherry lambic, but I couldn’t find any of that either. ↩︎
  3. I burned the batch of Orange Sparkle Cookies I made. They were fine for us, but not pretty enough for other people, and I was too aggravated at myself to bake the rest of the ones I’d planned to make. ↩︎
  4. “Struggling with” = I skipped them because I wanted to use the time to stage dinners, getting things cut up and/or into rubs or marinades, so everything is ready to go when it’s time to start cooking. I’ve always hated the idea of spending hours on Sunday prepping meals for the week, but I appreciate getting to spending an extra hour every couple of days or so getting my pre-mise en place on for a few dinners at a time. ↩︎

In absentia, Refactor

At 5-ish o’clock on Friday, I shut down my work laptops for the last time and packed them up to take back on Monday. Having to drive in to return them instead of shipping them back is inconvenient but unsurprising: I saw enough signs during my tenure to understand that a month’s notice might not be enough time to tie up all loose ends, especially with a holiday falling within that time frame. That my actual separation will only be one business day past my official departure date (and still within the “I can make myself available during the last few days of December” buffer I tacked on to my notice) is great, and that it’s only for two here-you-go-check-here-sign-there tasks1 seems like a win.

Of course, that’s only solving one side of the equation. The other side involves refactoring the absence of work work and fully integrating myself with everything otherwise. Past sabbaticals on this side suggest I’ll have the daily domesticity under control within a month and at least a good start on getting the overdue maintenance taken care of within the next quarter. I have no idea yet how long the other familial wrangling will take and what it will look like while we go through it.

Then there’s the remaining business, the for me business. My hobbies did creep back into my life after I shoved all of them aside and finished the degree, but except for the occasional day lost to installing and playing a video game2, I haven’t given any of them much elbow room. I read fifteen minutes a day during the week and thirty on weekends. I poke at learning German for ten minutes a day. I try to solve a mini-crossword puzzle on my phone in under a minute every day. I stab canvases with a needle when I get the chance (admittedly more frequently when my hands remind me that I’m using a keyboard too much and should do something else with them). I play in the dirt far less than I have been, but I think that … should … automatically … get better?3

I have a new former co-worker who insists I start writing again. She Has A Plan, namely that I come up with one and use her as an accountability partner.

I don’t know what to think about that right now, or even if I want to pencil in when I want to think about that.

  1. Hey, I know this process isn’t always easy. Ask me about the time I spent on a project to automate offboarding tasks for a government agency … or better yet, don’t. ↩︎
  2. …followed by my getting disgusted with myself and uninstalling everything again. I just went through this dance with Sims4, which I hadn’t played since 2023 (another day lost, another round of disgusted uninstalling). I will not do this with Skyrim ever again. I’m as done with it as I am done with multiplayer: I haven’t logged into one of those games in over ten years. ↩︎
  3. I cleaned the extra computer peripherals I was using for work — all mine — off my home office desk today and noticed how sad my collection of succulents on the plant stand in the corner has gotten in the past … uhmNotSure. I’ve been in this room with them for hours on end several days a week, but I can’t honestly say when I last invested more than the muscle memory required to dump some water on them. ↩︎