Wednesday, February 28, 2018

February 2018 Reflections


February is always a bit of a rough month for me.  It is so short, but it just drags every year.  I am so glad that it is finally over.  Here are my reflections for the month.

The Good

Staycation – The best part of the whole month was my staycation week.  This year was not as good as prior years because I have the CPA looming over my head.  I felt the need to focus some of my time on studying, and I had general anxiety creeping into everything during the week.  Even still, I managed to pack some fun into this week.  I had a massage at The Red Door Spa.  I saw The Greatest Showman in the theater.  I read two books, Lies She Told by Cate Holahan and Lean In:  Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg.  I went shopping.  I ate at several yummy places including Eggspectations, Coastal Flats, The Silver Diner, and Cupcakes Actually.  I managed several really long, lovely naps.

Wardrobe Reorganization – My one home project for the staycation week was to work on reorganizing my wardrobe.  This was not so much a physical reorganization of the space as I did that during last year’s staycation (and it has mostly stayed organized).  Instead, I am working to create a coherent stylish wardrobe that changes with the season.  I am taking inspiration from the capsule wardrobe crowd by trying to streamline my colors and styles to make everything more mix & match.  However, I am not participating in the whole minimalist trend that capsule blogs seem to encourage (who wants to wear only 15 pieces of clothing for the next 3 months?).  This round of project was mostly about organizing my clothes into the 4 seasons and taking stock of what I own.  Over the next few years (as budgets allow), I can start making strategic replacements.  The end goal is to feel classy and confident in my clothes without feeling so overwhelmed by them.

Hiking – During my staycation week, we had a couple of extremely nice spring days (70s and sunny!).  Of course, I took the opportunity to do my first hike of the year.  I went to Manassas Battlefield Park.  I hiked the First Manassas Trail.  This is a 5.4 mile loop trail around the area where the first Manassas Battle was fought.  I purposely cut off the Stone Bridge Loop, which shortened my hike by a mile.  However, I messed up my directions around the Matthew’s Hill Loop area, and ending up adding half of that mileage back.  In total, I walked about 5 miles on relatively flat grass paths.  It is the longest hike I have done to date though not particularly strenuous terrain.

The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte – Last month I mentioned that I had previously read The Desire Map, and that I was using the associated Daily Planner this year.  This month I started working on some of the exercises in The Desire Map.  I have only just begun, but I am excited to keep going.  I am currently working on the Rapid Fire Questions, which push you to quickly answer questions with your gut.  Part of the Desire Map work is to create Core Desires.  I have not actually gotten to that part of the workbook, but I did come up with some current mantras to use until I actually work through the exercises.  They are 1) Work with a passion, 2) Be healthy and strong, and 3) Feel calm in my own space.  Of course, these might change drastically as I actually do the work to figure out how I want to feel.  For now though, they give me some focus when trying to do my planning.

Ballet Burn – I have continued to do the Ballet Burn class, and I still love it.  The class is very challenging for me.  I am sweaty and tired at the end, but I also feel great.  My muscles remember some of these exercises so well.  I am pretty inflexible and clumsy now, but I am hoping this improves over time.  My work is canceling the Pilates class that they were offering, and I really want to add the Ballet Burn instructor’s Monday Pilates Barre class to my schedule.  This would put a further crimp in my husband’s dinner plans though, and he was already annoyed over the first class, so I do not know whether I can.

Book Club – It was my month to host.  We enjoyed a power brunch complete with Bloody Mary’s.  Well, I passed on the Bloody Mary, since I am not a big drinker or a fan of tomato juice.  We read Lean In:  Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg.  All of us that attended are working professionals.  We all basically agreed that the book makes some great broad sweeps about things women can do to keep their career moving forward.  We all also agreed that Ms. Sandberg leads a life in an entirely different ecosystem than most women, and some of her examples and solutions were hard to translate to those of us with less money and social connection.  The book itself was a quick enjoyable read, and book club this month was a great chat.

The Challenges

CPA Studying – I did continue to study during February, but I did not do as much as I originally 
hoped.  My biggest problem is sheer brain power.  When I get home from work, I am tired and spent.  Although I pushed myself to do a section most nights, I do not feel like I always absorbed it well.  On the weekends, I was trying to get 6-7 sections in each day.  I never could manage it.  My brain just stops after a certain point.  As such, I am swiftly approaching my test date, and I am not completely through the study material.  I was hoping to have the last week to test and study weak spots, but now I am just trying to get through the remaining sections.  I am very anxious about my ability to pass.

Work – It was not the quarter, and I still struggled.  I was hoping that the staycation would refresh me, but I still feel as unmotivated and frustrated with work as before it.  When I sat down at my desk on Monday, I felt like crying.  I am just exhausted.  There is a huge (I mean huge!) transaction coming through that everyone is arguing about how to handle, which means that we never seem to get started on it.  I am afraid it will still be an open mess by the end of next month, when we plunge into the fiscal year end.  I also was informed yesterday (by someone other than my boss who has not yet bothered to mention it) that I am on a list of people being assigned to implement the new Leasing Standard.  While this is not unexpected, it is just more work that I do not have to time to do.

Tooth – I am having a crown replaced.  Of course, it is not going smoothly.  My dentist is replacing a crown in my mouth that has been irritated and bleeding intermittently over the past year or so.  On this first visit, we removed the crown and we should have taken scans to make the new one.  However, my gum around the tooth was bleeding so badly they could not do the scans.  So now I have an antibacterial rinse to use for a couple of weeks to try to get the gum to heal.  When I go back, we will redo the scans and then of course I will need to have the new crown installed.  The gum irritation is part of the reason we are replacing this crown, but apparently it was much worse underneath than he realized.

Husband – My husband went through with quitting his job.  February was pretty brutal on the frustration charts for him.  He came home practically every day fuming about things that supposedly happened.  I still do not have a very clear idea of how much of what the company did was unreasonable and how much is just unreasonable expectations on his part.  Although I am a little anxious about his unemployment period, I am glad to be done with the crazy ranting every evening.

Diet – I tried to make further changes to my diet this month, but I really struggled to follow them.  I wanted to cut my soda intake a bit further, to about 1 a week, but this remained at 2, sometimes 3, in a week.  That is still better than where it was originally, but no improvement over last month.  I wanted to cut my breakfast down to about 300 calories.  I managed this very well some days, but not others.  I am especially struggling on weekends, because my husband and I prepare bigger breakfast meals that are hard to quit.  Finally, I am working on restricting calories on one day of the week.  I am considering trying the 5:2 intermittent fasting method, but I have not committed to that.  For February, I just tried to restrict calories on Tuesday to 1200.  This was the one goal that I actually did accomplish every Tuesday of the month.

The Future

CPA Exam – March 3rd is my REG exam.  I do not feel ready for it, and I have pretty much run out of time to learn new things.  I am just going to take it and see what happens.  If I pass, then I will move on to taking FAR.  If I do not, then I think I am probably looking to switch jobs before I attempt again.

Hiking – I set myself a goal of doing twelve hikes this year, increasing length and difficulty.  I made a good start this month with the First Manassas Trail hike.  I have high hopes of doing one with my husband this coming weekend on Sunday.  As the weather warms up, I will feel more motivated to get out there.  I really need to prioritize hiking over other activities though, if I want to meet my goals.  Ultimately I hope to do a full day hike, something in the 10-12 mile range.

Husband Home – I am feeling very anxious about my husband being off work.  Surprising, I do not feel that anxious about finances yet.  I make a good salary, and we have a decent amount saved.  I know we can survive several months even if we made zero changes to our spending habits, longer if we are more careful.  However, I am very worried about him being home by himself all day.  He does not do so well being alone.  Although the first few days have not been so bad, the longer he is here by himself, the more I worry he will start to be impossible to deal with at night after a long day at work for me (kind of like a puppy that jumps all over you the minute you walk through the door).  I also am a bit worried that the thinks too highly of his skills and he will pass up good opportunities by trying to go after jobs more senior than he is qualified to do.  While I am not worried about finances yet, I also do not want to get to the point where I have to worry about them either.

Easter – I am hoping to go home to PA for Easter this year.  I am still trying to coordinate between work and my family, but I think I can figure something out.  It will probably be a quick trip, just three days over the weekend.  I really want to see my sister and baby T, but my schedule just does not seem great over the next few months.  I finally decided Easter seemed like the best option.  Otherwise it would probably be the end of June before I could get up there again.

There you have it, my month in review.  See you next month!

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