things I’d like to do, or not

So every once in a while I see someone doing something, or read about something, and I think, “hey, I’d like to be able to do that; that would be cool/fun/useful/etc.” Usually what happens next is I forget about them. Which is why I’m writing some down — so I can look back on them later (and laugh, most likely).

Stuff I’ve Felt Inspired To Learn/Practice Lately

knitting (It seems to require a fairly basic set of tools, would be useful if the world went to hell — you could store the knitting in the handbasket, obviously — and it seems winter-appropriate.*)

chinups (Because upper body strength is generally a good idea?)

prayer (Thanks a lot, Supernatural. On the plus side, so far prayer seems like just a really chatty form of meditation, which is super good for you but always makes me doze off.)

(*Am I the only one who read ‘The Ox-Cart Man’ as a kid and was left with the eternal notion that in the winter, one should make handicrafts?)

Stuff I’ve Not Been Inspired To Learn/Practice

cooking (Unless you count omelets and cheese sandwiches, which I’ve been eating lots of.)

veganism (Hard. Plus, it turns out that even though you *can* turn soy into just about any product imaginable, that doesn’t mean you should actually eat all of them.)

learning another language (Even though this would clearly be super useful *and* cool, I am not at all good at languages. Four and a half years of French, and all I can say is ‘Where is the bathroom?’)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Work(.!?) (because no one wants to feel competent *all* the time, right?)

Work is weird right now. Everyone seems kind of depressed, and I’m worried it’s my fault.

I’ve had the above two sentences sitting in this post for over an hour, without coming up with any follow-up. So there’s that.

And then there was this:
Work. Pissed me off mightily when someone else was in charge, but now that I’m the one supposed to be making things happen, I’m all “bwuh?” Because I love this job in a lot of ways, and it makes me upset to see how unhappy people are, and yet at the same time I have this feeling like “can you *please* stop your moaning and be grateful for what you *do* have?”

I mean, I don’t want to go all “there’s starving children in Africa and that’s why you have to eat your peas,” but it’s not as if there’s a plethora of jobs out there. One would think that it might be prudent to expend some efforts to stay employed.

(And a special note on timing: is this a good time to ask for a raise? Signs point to no. It’s kind of like saying, “hey, I’m thinking about doing my job, but you’ve been paying me to do less than my job for a while now, so if I’m going to do this for realsies, maybe you could give me more money.” Sorry, no. That’s why it’s called, oh yeah, Your Job.)

So I’m gripe-y, and we’re right back to the beginning — everyone seems depressed, I’m worried it’s my fault, and I’ve got no clue what to do about it.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.