The Funk

Here is a little Friday stream of consciousness for you... Happy weekend! :)

It is funny. All that time spent in graduate school has given me a new perspective post-graduation. While I am SUPER grateful to be done with homework, late nights reading articles or textbooks, or group projects, I am finding that this time after graduating has been fun and relaxing, but different. While life and work and normal responsibilities still are moving at a fast pace, I am finding that all the things I thought about doing post-graduation, I am lacking the routine or discipline to actually do them. I had projects GALORE I wanted to do once being done with school. All those nights I was writing or meeting virtually with group members on projects, I had a list of "man, I wish I was doing [insert some form of fun that doesn't involve schoolwork here]". I even wished I had time to clean...like clean your whole house clean. Now that I have that time, I am having a difficult time making a routine. Scheduling my days to accomplish something outside of normal work hours. Once I get home, I just want to watch tv. I have never been a big tv watcher, but now, that's much of what I find myself doing. My books I have from the library even remain unread. What is going on?!  I need to get myself back on track and find a good rhythm. When you are forced to do hours of schoolwork, you just do it. It is hard, not fun, but it forces productivity. I can't handle not doing something productive. Just sitting is so foreign to me it makes me feel almost guilty for doing it. I guess, like in all things, I need to find a balance. I need to balance sitting watching tv time with doing projects or other household activities. I mean, I have been keeping up with routine cleaning, etc better than when I was in school, but the extra projects seem to be just waiting to be addressed and I keep putting it off. I am not a procrastinator, for the most part. Why am I suddenly doing this? I need to get out of this funk. This "wanting to be lazy" funk. I need to get on a schedule...you know I love a good list:) looks like it is to the drawing board on "being productive post-school".

I'll let you know how this all turns out... :)

The first big thing.

So how’s it going? How’s life? It is May, you know! That means summer is RIGHT around the corner. WAHOO! AND big things are happening in May. I am excited:)

The first big thing happened yesterday.  For most, this would not be so big. But for me, it was awesome. The rest of the big things will be shared later...how do you like that for suspense? :)

So yesterday, I went to the library and checked out a few books.  Yes, you heard me. I went to the library to check.out.books….not read journal articles, do research, or write a paper. But I looked at the fiction, autobiographies, mystery and other “fun” sections.  This was a momentous occasion! Finishing school means I can read again.  Didn't I read during my entire time in grad school, you ask? Well, yeah. But research isn’t as exciting as a good novel. So I am PUMPED. :)

photo from here

As I browsed the shelves, I found some books that I am excited to read. I looked for some that others had suggested, but I couldn't find them. So I decided to go through and see what was sitting there, waiting to be picked up and the cover read. I decided upon three books to last me the next week or so. 

Here's the breakdown:

photo from here. 

The first, was the third book in a trilogy by Allie Condie called Reached. I have been reading this trilogy since last summer. I read the first one just before the fall semester began, then read the second one over Christmas (before the stomach plague of Christmas 2012 hit), and I am now able to read this third one. To me, there are similar to the Hunger Games in that they are easy to read, they are so creative with a futuristic type society, like in the Hunger Games.  It is really a good read if you are looking for a couple books to get sucked into on a lazy Saturday.

 

photo from here. 

The second book I picked up was called  Into the Wild by  Jon-Krakauer. It is about a man that hitchhiked to Alaska and left everything he had behind to live in the wild. I have heard that this book is excellent, so I am pretty pumped to start this one. AND, they made this into a movie…so it looks like I have another movie to add to my list of “need to watch”.

photo from here

And the last book I got was Jodi Picoult’s book that she co-wrote with her daughter called Between the Lines. From how understood the description, a teenage girl has been reading a fairy tale story but the characters are actually real. It shows her interactions with the characters and their struggle living in a fairy tale when they don’t want to be living it. I am excited to start this one!

So I have some reading ahead of me and I couldn't be more excited! I’ll be sure to fill you in J

What have you been reading lately?
~AMK