I was going to title this "If it's not one thing, it's another" but that sounds more complain-y (yes, I made that up-lol) and I don't want it to sound like that. Yes, I am tired. Yes, I am sore, but there is nothing unusual about those things. I was just looking over my calendar for the week and realized how much I burn the candle at both ends (voluntarily) and how little I take time to take care of my self. That was made very apparent these past few months.
When Jim asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him -among several ideas-that I wanted a gift certificate for a massage. He trekked up to the local Therapeutic Massage clinic that I like and bought me an hour. When I opened my lock-box to put the gift certificate away, I found another gift certificate that I had received years ago that was long expired. I contacted the clinic and they offered me half credit for it as long as I booked the appointment right away. I went for that massage and while it was divine and I had a significant increase in range of motion, it kicked off the "bruised" feeling of a Fibro flare due to how hard she had to work to get the knots out of my neck and shoulders. That pain has subsided over the last two more visits but I know that it's my own fault. I have always carried my stress in my neck and shoulders and it showed that I haven't been in for a massage in far too long. As I lay there on the table, in the quiet, as she worked the knots on my knots on my knots out, all I could think was "You REALLY need to take better care of yourself!" When I went for the second and third appointments- we slowly got most of the heavy knots out but each visit is a reminder that I need more than just down time at home to recuperate.
Currently I work, I go home, I cook, I snuggle with the pups, do housework, repeat. I try to cook good meals but when I am overly tired I fall back on less healthy options. I don't make it a point to take care of myself the way I need to. In the Fall, I will be adding even more to my plate. In addition to an even earlier Haunt season (we start prep in August!) I have also registered to go back to school and finish my degree. I am easing back in- taking one class I am dreading- Speech- and one I am really looking forward to-Stage Makeup- but it means that I will be in class from 4:15-5:30 and 6-7:15 on Mondays and Wednesdays on top of my regular schedule. Then, we add back-to-school Rush at work and then haunt season and that means that from August to November I will be crazy busy.
As I sit here, at the beginning of May, Commencement is tomorrow, we start the first Summer Session Tuesday and after this week, things will settle down. That means that it is the prime time to start making positive changes. Step by step, if I get in some new good habits, I have time for them to become ingrained before things get crazy again. First things first- I always, always get up at 4:30am. The husband goes to work at 6. I am hoping I can get him to get up a bit earlier so he can stay home with Fenway and I can take Auggie for a walk in the morning. She tends to freak out a bit when he goes anywhere without her and she HATES the leash so I want Jim to hang out with her so she's fine while we are gone and Auggie and I can get a good walk in. If not, I guess we will ease into our walks-start small and go a little further each time so she gets used to it. Auggie will be thrilled- this I do know. He loves his walks and won't mind the break from his over-enthusiastic little sister. Next goal- dinner!
It's time that I stop getting so caught up in the day to day that I neglect myself in the process. It's time that I start treating myself like I would someone that I care about. it's time that I be good to myself.
