Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2016-11-29 10:19 pm
edenfalling) wrote2016-11-29 10:19 pm
stuff done: Monday-Tuesday
1. Finished my Not the IRS paid skills training (...for now).
2. Made two political activism phone calls. Granted, this only involved leaving messages on answering machines, but still. I dislike calling strangers on the phone as myself. Making phone calls as Employee of Company X is a different issue. That's a role; it's impersonal. I can also make phone calls to schedule appointments (both medical and job interviews), because again, those are roles with a set script and I've been through that scenario dozens of times before so I know, viscerally, that everything will be fine. Politics is an inherently higher-emotion thing, plus there's unfamiliarity, so making these calls is a more spoon-intensive proposition. I will probably try to make another one or two on Friday, though, because one does what one can and what I have to give right now is time rather than money.
3. Vacuumed my apartment, after which I cleaned the vacuum's filters since that needs to be done periodically.
4. Paid my December rent.
5. Photographed my peppers. Also photographed my narcissus. Yay plants! :)
6. Got a flu shot! Vaccines are important, particularly for people in customer-facing jobs. If you interact a lot with the public, it is both to your benefit and everyone else's for you to get immunized.
No weird reactions this year, just an ache in my left shoulder like somebody punched me hard. It's been slowly fading through the day and should be gone by Wednesday morning.
7. Did two modules of NY state tax continuing education. Fourteen more to go... *sigh*
8. Attended a live Not the IRS continuing education class on Tuesday night. I also tried to attend a course on Monday night, but it turned out that one had been cancelled for low enrollment, and for whatever reason, the standard cancellation email had not been sent out. Nrgh. The Tuesday course was pretty good, though, and Monday wasn't a totally pointless trip, since I got my flu shot at Target before walking over to the plaza office.
9. Boiled eight eggs.
10. Bought another loaf of cheddar chive sourdough at CTB, because apparently I am on a fancy bread kick this week. *shrug*
11. Took my compost to the bin, and the bin to the curb for pickup tomorrow.
12. Began the holiday card process, by which I mean I made a list of everyone I need to send a card to, got an updated address for the one whom I knew had moved during the year, chose the relevant cards, and set them (plus stamps and return address labels) in a pile on my coffee table for me to sign and address some other day.
13. Exchanged wish lists with various friends and family members, by way of planning our holiday gifts to each other.
14. Enrolled in a health insurance plan for 2017. I had been automatically re-enrolled in my current plan (Medicaid), but that was on the basis of last year's income and I have a more stable, better-paying job now so I figured I should submit my new information. I went through the entire application process, and lo and behold, I have graduated from Medicaid to... the absolute rock-bottom cheapest health insurance plan that still involves me paying money to an insurance company instead of the government shouldering everything. Like, I will be paying $20 a month. This is so cheap I can't even get a tax credit for it. But still, I feel somehow more adult than the past two years. *wry*
15. Wrote one fill (to get away from it all, MCU, Laura Barton/Clint Barton) for this year's Three Sentence Ficathon before heading out to my tax course tonight. This is the first proper piece of fiction I've written since the NFE at the very beginning of September.
(Let me clarify that. I consider my tiny comment!ficlets from an October meme response more of a meta post with examples than any kind of functional story, and the few hundred words I've attempted toward a Cotton Candy Bingo prompt fill haven't gone much of anywhere since I got that prompt in August, so. Like I said, the first proper writing I've done in nearly two months.)
I burned out pretty badly earlier this year, creatively speaking. Actually, I probably burned out in late 2015, but I kept walking on broken legs for quite some time. Eventually, though, I realized that attempting to shove through was doing me more harm than good, and (with gritted teeth and a bunch of lectures on how this wasn't being irresponsible and lazy and useless) gave myself permission to take a fucking break until writing no longer felt like a dreaded chore.
Writing started to feel thinkable again a couple weeks ago, but until today I'd only managed some speculative outlining for Yuletide and the Daredevil Secret Santa exchange (which is going to be a bitch and a half, because my recipient wants big, emotional, tropey genre romance fics and what I am capable of writing is... not that *wince*) and the aforementioned unproductive noodling for the CCB prompt fill. So it feels really good to dip my toe back into the pool.
I am not sure how many more prompt fills I'll manage for this iteration of the ficathon, but what the hell, anything beyond that first one is gravy. :)
2. Made two political activism phone calls. Granted, this only involved leaving messages on answering machines, but still. I dislike calling strangers on the phone as myself. Making phone calls as Employee of Company X is a different issue. That's a role; it's impersonal. I can also make phone calls to schedule appointments (both medical and job interviews), because again, those are roles with a set script and I've been through that scenario dozens of times before so I know, viscerally, that everything will be fine. Politics is an inherently higher-emotion thing, plus there's unfamiliarity, so making these calls is a more spoon-intensive proposition. I will probably try to make another one or two on Friday, though, because one does what one can and what I have to give right now is time rather than money.
3. Vacuumed my apartment, after which I cleaned the vacuum's filters since that needs to be done periodically.
4. Paid my December rent.
5. Photographed my peppers. Also photographed my narcissus. Yay plants! :)
6. Got a flu shot! Vaccines are important, particularly for people in customer-facing jobs. If you interact a lot with the public, it is both to your benefit and everyone else's for you to get immunized.
No weird reactions this year, just an ache in my left shoulder like somebody punched me hard. It's been slowly fading through the day and should be gone by Wednesday morning.
7. Did two modules of NY state tax continuing education. Fourteen more to go... *sigh*
8. Attended a live Not the IRS continuing education class on Tuesday night. I also tried to attend a course on Monday night, but it turned out that one had been cancelled for low enrollment, and for whatever reason, the standard cancellation email had not been sent out. Nrgh. The Tuesday course was pretty good, though, and Monday wasn't a totally pointless trip, since I got my flu shot at Target before walking over to the plaza office.
9. Boiled eight eggs.
10. Bought another loaf of cheddar chive sourdough at CTB, because apparently I am on a fancy bread kick this week. *shrug*
11. Took my compost to the bin, and the bin to the curb for pickup tomorrow.
12. Began the holiday card process, by which I mean I made a list of everyone I need to send a card to, got an updated address for the one whom I knew had moved during the year, chose the relevant cards, and set them (plus stamps and return address labels) in a pile on my coffee table for me to sign and address some other day.
13. Exchanged wish lists with various friends and family members, by way of planning our holiday gifts to each other.
14. Enrolled in a health insurance plan for 2017. I had been automatically re-enrolled in my current plan (Medicaid), but that was on the basis of last year's income and I have a more stable, better-paying job now so I figured I should submit my new information. I went through the entire application process, and lo and behold, I have graduated from Medicaid to... the absolute rock-bottom cheapest health insurance plan that still involves me paying money to an insurance company instead of the government shouldering everything. Like, I will be paying $20 a month. This is so cheap I can't even get a tax credit for it. But still, I feel somehow more adult than the past two years. *wry*
15. Wrote one fill (to get away from it all, MCU, Laura Barton/Clint Barton) for this year's Three Sentence Ficathon before heading out to my tax course tonight. This is the first proper piece of fiction I've written since the NFE at the very beginning of September.
(Let me clarify that. I consider my tiny comment!ficlets from an October meme response more of a meta post with examples than any kind of functional story, and the few hundred words I've attempted toward a Cotton Candy Bingo prompt fill haven't gone much of anywhere since I got that prompt in August, so. Like I said, the first proper writing I've done in nearly two months.)
I burned out pretty badly earlier this year, creatively speaking. Actually, I probably burned out in late 2015, but I kept walking on broken legs for quite some time. Eventually, though, I realized that attempting to shove through was doing me more harm than good, and (with gritted teeth and a bunch of lectures on how this wasn't being irresponsible and lazy and useless) gave myself permission to take a fucking break until writing no longer felt like a dreaded chore.
Writing started to feel thinkable again a couple weeks ago, but until today I'd only managed some speculative outlining for Yuletide and the Daredevil Secret Santa exchange (which is going to be a bitch and a half, because my recipient wants big, emotional, tropey genre romance fics and what I am capable of writing is... not that *wince*) and the aforementioned unproductive noodling for the CCB prompt fill. So it feels really good to dip my toe back into the pool.
I am not sure how many more prompt fills I'll manage for this iteration of the ficathon, but what the hell, anything beyond that first one is gravy. :)
no subject
And you just reminded me that I need to make sure my address book is up to date before sending out my own cards. I've got them designed and printed but still need to find time to cut, fold, and write them all. Sigh.
no subject
And oh my gosh, you make your own cards? That sounds way more intense than I have the spoons to do -- I just buy reasonable-looking sets of 16 or 20 pre-made cards and sign them. (With a few people, I also write one line to personalize them a bit, or maybe doodle a star or a candle or a pine tree or something above the pre-printed good wishes, but that's all.) Are you sending a 'this was my year' letter along with your cards, or are you just making them in cool shapes for the heck of it?
no subject
I've been making my own cards for about 10 years now... started with crafty ambitions (there was a popup card one year) but now I've just gone with trying to draw a card (by hand, and then redone on the computer) and printing them out. Sometimes I think it's easier to design the card than to come up with holiday messages that aren't repetitive! And no letters with the card, just a short Christmas greeting. :-)
no subject
Anyway, I am very impressed by your craftiness!