Good morning! Today is Monday, my day to myself. Which means that I won’t put on clothes until I have to, I’ll move aimlessly from room to room until my attention lands on something interesting, and then I’ll do that thing until the day is completely over. At least that’s how my days off usually go. I have plans today though, so I should probably think about putting some clothes on before too long… eh, it can wait.
Let me tell you about my life! Since I wrote last, Adam and I have moved into a new place. It’s in the Fall Creek neighborhood of Ithaca, just around the corner from a very precious (if a bit “brandy” and expensive) coffee shop called Gimme! Our house is a duplex, and the neighbors are very nice. Our landlords live in the house next to us, which is great because they’re two of the quirkiest, coolest cats we’ve met. His name is Rit, and hers is Jeri. Their front yard is literally completely covered in ivy, and their house is full of thrifted treasures. They feel like family.
I’ve also started a new job. I’m the Agency Administrator at the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes––a nonprofit that’s been in Ithaca for like thirty years or something. I’m one of five staff members there, and we’re all new. I think the person who’s been there the longest is our Executive Director, who’s only been there for a little over a year. I work partly with the Client Services team, developing strategies for reaching new clients, facilitating support groups, managing our boutique and appointments, as well as a lot of relevant admin stuff. I also help on our Events and Marketing Committee, doing some design work here and there, and coordinating with the rest of the team to make sure everything is running smoothly. And on top of that, I am the Volunteer Coordinator, and we have about 60 volunteers.
That might sound like a decent full-time job, but I actually am only allowed to work 32 hours per week, so it’s a lot. Also––and I don’t think any of them would mind me saying this––we’re not very organized! Since the whole team is new, we’re basically creating new baselines of operation. Like, I literally wrote the Volunteer Handbook. We’re starting to keep track of things that were never tracked before. Data entry alone takes up hours every week. Not to mention, on average, I get about 50 unique emails per day. My to-do list is two full pages long (font size 11, single spaced), and growing!
My stomach is tensing, just writing this down. :P Anyway, my job is stressing me out, and stress causes cancer, in case you hadn’t heard… I’m trying to figure out ways to calm myself down. Last week, I started setting alarms for myself to remind me to breathe and say little mantras for a few seconds. I’m not sure if it helped, but it didn’t hurt, so I’m going to keep doing it.
One thing that’s been difficult for me is that I’m an empathetic person, and I really enjoy/need to have interpersonal bonds with my coworkers, so when they come into my office to chat, I drop everything and listen. But I can feel the clock ticking, and my inner mean boss glaring at me with one raised eyebrow… I just can’t win! If I tell my coworkers, “Hey, I’d love to chat, but I actually have a ton of work to do, can we catch up sometime later?” not only could that sting a little, but it also deprives me of valuable bonding time (which makes work life less stressful).
I dunno. My boss Jen is a gem. She understands where I’m at, and is super sympathetic and gracious with me. She keeps saying, “It’s not cancer!” And we both chuckle like we know what that means, and I guess what she means is, “Don’t stress about work like you would about cancer,” but… my work is cancer! Or rather, helping people with cancer, which is really important! There’s someone in a support group I facilitate who’s in hospice right now, and probably only has a few more months to live. I could be spending time making her feel loved and cared for, but instead I have to sit at my desk and answer dumb-ass emails for hours every day. It’s duuuuumb.
That being said, when I do get to care for people with cancer, it is my favorite thing. I love getting to talk with them and listen to their stories, ask them questions about how they’re dealing with their diagnoses, and give them a compassionate ear. It makes the stress of the rest of the job all worth it.
Anyway, enough about that. Let’s move on to… what?… Well, let me tell you more about the house. We haven’t come up with a perfect name for it yet. It’s on Yates Street, so we’ve tossed around “the Yates Hotel” but tbh it’s not that compelling to me. I don’t even know the reference. Our duplex neighbors call it “the Pink House” which is… on-the-nose. Anyway, it’s a two-story, three-bedroom, with a basement and an attic. The living room is coming along nicely––we just found a lovely low, gray couch which fits in well with our mid-mod aesthetic. We also found a nice, TALL and sturdy bookshelf that holds all of our books (Adam’s on the left, mine on the right). We’re still on the hunt for a record cabinet/credenza/tv stand.
It’s a three-bedroom, technically, so Adam and I both have a studio in addition to our shared bedroom. We’re also sharing the attic and I have an extra bed up there, for when I’d prefer the doghouse or whenever we have couchsurfers or visitors. My studio is all set up and ready for action, but Adam’s is still packed up because painters are going to be fixing his ceiling on Wednesday. We’re both looking forward to when he can get settled in there.
This post is so boring, I’m falling asleep just writing it. Yeesh! What are some more interesting things I could write about? Umm
I joined Bumble BFF to try and make some friends, and it’s been a pleasant experience so far! I’ve met two lovely people, and am going to meet another one this week. My favorite place to show people is Bar Argos––an art nouveau-themed bar inside a historic hotel in downtown Ithaca. At first I thought it was too expensive, but then remembered that you can order off-menu drinks for just the price of the shot, and my bank account is much happier.
What else. I’m joining a therapy support group in October, so that should be interesting. I’m also hopefully getting a one-on-one therapist soon too. Adam and my couples’ therapy is going well. He felt weird about my last post, and politely asked that I not share any more about our marital struggles on my blog. :silence:
I’m still doing Noom (the weight-loss app). My weight really fluctuates (I think everybody’s does), but I’m averaging about five pounds less than when I started. If I let myself, I can wallow in self-pity about how hard it is to lose weight, and how grotesquely hideous I am, but I’m trying to keep my focus on what I’m doing, not on myself. I have to constantly remember that it took me years to get this big, so it’s going to take years to get back to normal. And that is A-okay!
Ooh! I got to take a long weekend vacation with my friend Shereena! We met up in Chicago and lazed around on beaches for four days. It was magnificent. All I want to do is laze on a beach, guys. That’s all. I think there’s an Office quote in there but I can’t remember it…
And speaking of the Office, Art Office is starting up again soon! I’m excited, but also nervous for some reason. Like, I don’t know if I’m still an artist? We’ll see. Also, I’m not sure if anyone will join this session, since I’ve not really been present on social media or anything over the past year. I also don’t have access to the Adobe Creative Suite anymore, so I’ll be creating my graphics in… Procreate, I guess. I think there are decent free vector programs out there, I’ll just have to find one that will work on my ancient computer.
Man alive, this post has been utterly boring! I’m surprised if you’ve made it this far. I think I need prompts to write about. Got any prompts for me?
carlabaudrons.art 