Various and Sundries

I really want to go to church this Sunday. Not just because it's the Christmas season, but because I feel really disconnected from my beliefs. For a number of reasons, it's become vital this week that I reengage before the void I feel becomes any more pronounced. I know I've written some diatribes about the lack of relevance the church can seem to have for someone in my particular situation (unmarried woman in her 30s), but I've tried not going, and I don't think the trade-off is worth it.

I've been a machine at work for the last few weeks, but yesterday and today were especially good. After the best spin class in weeks (lots of driving beats and good jumps), I hit the ground running at the office.

[sidebar: Had coffee before spin this morning. Have discovered that drinking coffee before exercising makes the workout kill. I had water during, too, of course.]

Back to the office. Some kind soul had already warmed up the colour copier by the time I went upstairs, so some pages I needed to insert into my manuscript prior to comp release were completed with minimal drama. Then I spent the rest of the morning approving digitals, responding to e-mails, and closing loops.

By 11 or so, I settled in with the lessons I needed to correlate and was only minorly distracted by the fact that I really wanted to hear from Sarah how her flights had gone. She called once she landed at her first location, but I always worry whenever anyone I love is traveling--I hoped the second and longest leg of her trip would go equally well (it did).

A quick text message to my former thesis advisor around lunch time yielded good news. His letter of reccommendation got to the assistant director of admissions at my prospective university--my application is now complete and can begin moving through the process. The application deadline is still the better part of two months away, so it's not as if having everything in so early will mean that I find out any sooner than I would have, otherwise, but at least now I don't have to think about it. It's fortunate that my big project at work will be wrapping up right at about the time when the committee will be making its decisions. The spring will be rejuvenating and will hopefully mean good news for my academic future.

In lieu of new podcasts to keep me entertained and informed, I listened to my iTunes library on shuffle. That is always such a revelation. I have that song? I thought more than once today. Listening to the music in a random context reinvents it too. I have little pet songs and playlists that I gravitate to so I end up ignoring 90% of my collection most of the time.

Speaking of playlists, I am going to make one purely for spin. There is one spin bike in the main section of the gym for individual use (outside of the class context). It's my new challenge to come up with a routine for myself in January. this will require quite a lot thought--I basically have to choreograph a workout. My first self-imposed assignment of 2008. I don't feel alive if I don't have a project.

So, with that in mind, a schema for the first quarter of the new year:

Lose final 10 pounds
Get short-ish [razor] haircut with highlights
weekly manicures
Resume 5-day weeks at gym
(travel in November derailed me somewhat. I derailed myself the rest of the way)
Church attendance--regardless of my "issues" with it
(they have nothing to do with the faith itself--just the social construct)

Doable, I think.