How long do you take to respond to an email? Or rather, are you INCREDIBLY back-logged on personal emails, like me?!
At work, I make sure I ALWAYS respond to emails directed to me with in a day, if not within the hour. But when it comes to my personal emails, it seems to take me much longer to respond, especially if the email is highly personal chit chat, which a lot of mine seem to be.
If it is something crucial, or quick, I will respond right away. But something about reading a long email, and writing a long response back… tires me out? Or something? I love exchanging long emails back and forth, but I want to give them the thought and concentration they deserve when I respond, and I feel like I rarely have the time to do that. So they just build up and build up and build up… and I have an email box with 30+ “marked as unread” messages, so I avoid it…
It just makes me feel bad. I feel bad that I am running around writing posts, leaving comments, and living my life, but not responding to emails right away. I’m trying though. And I almost always respond back (because it’s kind of rude not to ever respond at all!).
I was flipping through an old issue of SELF magazine (July ’08) at the gym last night and felt like the blurb “Prevent summer letdown” was speaking directly to me:
(In fact, that entire page – front and back – may have been speaking directly to me. The article next to it was titled “How I stopped cursing a blue streak” and the one on the back side of the page was “Be a good gossip.”)
I spend a lot of time during the winter and spring fantasizing about the summer. A LOT. Steven can back me up on this because he’s had to listen to me talk about it all winter long.
What am I fantasizing about? Weekends spent at the cabin in Guttenberg (Iowa), boating, swimming, eating, lounging… and also nice summer days, with long runs in the warm sun.
Steven and I have coordinated our schedules so we have a quite a few 3-day and 4-day weekends this summer. But, who’s to say that we will be able to stick to our plan of getting away to Guttenberg 100%? I know we won’t. We already have weekends filling up with plans that require us to stay home over the weekends, and who knows what the weather will be like anyway. Oh, and it would be good to get some chores done and not abandon Data completely.
The article recommends keeping an element of reality in your fantasy. And isn’t that good advice for any fantasy? I would say so. It seems our fantasies become more attainable (and turn into goals!) when we DO give them a sense of reality.
So I am going to follow some of the tips when I feel like I am “stuck at home” this summer. We have an amazing forest preserve system in the county I live in that I have really been wanting to explore. We have a grill, and neighbors we like to spend time with. And we do live “close” to that wonderful city of Chicago – there might be something to do there!
Maybe I should have saved this for a Friday Question (since I seem to have trouble coming up with them), but do you have summer fantasies? Do you usually see them out? Or do you need to prevent summer letdown as well?
Life
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beach, cursing, Data, Fantasy, free time, Friday Question, gossip, gym, Outdoors, Reality, Self Magazine, Summer, sun, swearing, time off, Vacation, Work + Design
If you could “fast forward” through something in life, would you? What would it be?
Have you seen that Adam Sandler movie, Click*? Adam Sandler buys this universal remote and finds out he can use it to fast forward through all of the un-pleasantries in his life. He uses it joyfully, to skip the hard work required for his promotion, but discovers an awful side effect – he misses out on what is going on with his family during that time. He becomes distant and removed and ends up losing them.
I used to want to fast forward through all the time and hard work it takes to lose weight and just get to the “after” picture. I felt like I was stuck in “before” land.
But then I realized two things – that once I got down to my “goal size”** I would have to work hard to maintain it anyway. and that arriving at that “goal size” didn’t guarantee my happiness.
So I got over that. But I still fantasize about “fast forwarding” through things. That’s me, always looking to the future, struggling to live in the moment.
I have scheduled pay increases that would be great to fast forward to – not because I am struggling, but because I am greedy. It would be great to fast forward to the summer and some frickin’ warm weather. It would be great to even fast forward to our half marathon day, because I am so excited about it!
But I think I would rather live through the struggles… even though I continue to fantasize about skipping forward.
*One of the few Adam Sandler movies I can actually stand to watch.
**Not even sure what that is anymore, or how it could possibly exist.
Friday Questions, Health + Fitness
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If your high school had a ten-year (or any year) reunion, would you/did you go? Why or why not?
Heck no, I wouldn’t go.
My high school was kind of in a crappy part of town, filled with crappy students. I probably can’t remember more than a dozen of their names. I don’t think there would be much “catching up” to do if I went back. I don’t think I would be able to relate to many of them.
What is your opinion on wearing a uniform to work or school? Would you be upset if you had to wear one, or happy?
Last week, I was discussing work attire with two coworkers, and one of them asked me what the dress code was at Steven’s office. I told them that Steven wears a long-sleeved button-down shirt with the company logo and his name on it almost everyday, every week.
They were very excited about this.
“Wow, that sounds great! I would love to wear a company shirt and a pair of khakis each day!”
“It would be so much easier!”
I thought about it, and although it would be easier and save time, I think I might miss wearing “my own” clothes after awhile. I don’t have great style or anything, but it might get old to see everyone wearing the same thing, day after day.
Now that I think about it, this question should be asked directly to my dad, who is a mechanic, and wears those blue Dickies almost 365 days a year, and has as long as I can remember.
What personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble?
Those traits would be being loud, a bit outspoken, and a habit to say the wrong thing at the wrong time – not a good combination.
When I was young, my best friend stopped inviting me over as much as she used to. I asked her why and she said, “My parents don’t like it when you come over because you’re too loud.”
Ouch.
I unfortunately haven’t gotten much better, although I am more conscious of it now. I just… express excitement and happiness very exuberantly.
And I am not even going to go into all of my tales of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Chances are, if you know me in person, you can remember a few of those moments!
Is it harder for you to eat healthy or get exercise?
Last week a friend told us he had lost 40 pounds since the last time we saw him. We asked if he changed his diet and started exercising, and he kind of laughed, saying he was just eating healthier, not exercising.
Of course, that got me thinking…
Whenever I start on one (ha) of my healthy lifestyle quests, I always start by eating healthier. For me, that is easier. I can’t even begin to think about exercise until my body feels a bit healthier/lighter.
Even now, if I eat something crappy during the day, I feel awful when I am exercising at night. That’s kind of where I am right now, getting my diet back on track so I can start exercising 5+ days a week again.
If you could receive one non-tangible item for the holidays, what would you choose?
I would like my train to be on time, every night.
No more “mechanical problems,” “signal problems,” “accidents not related to this train” (yeah, that was an excuse for one of the delays on Tuesday), no more leaving the station late, no more sitting on the train not moving, with no explanation…
Yeah, I know that is too much to ask for. I think my train is on time in the evenings 20% or less of the time when I take it. I think if it is ALWAYS going to be late, they should just adjust the schedule to accommodate the later time. Then I wouldn’t get as upset, because I would expect it to arrive at that later time.
This may seem like a dumb answer to this question, but it takes me a long time to calm down from the anger the late train causes. Steven can attest to that! It’s silly to let something like that upset me, but it does. I have limited time in my evenings, and I want to make the most of them. So, I would love to get rid of that anger, and anxiety, of wondering when I will EVER get home.
I love riding the train, I really do. But I hate feeling like my evening is out of my control when I get stuck on it. (I hate feeling like anything is out of my control…)
Do you save your favorite thing on your plate for last or eat it first? In essence, do you “save the best for last”?
I sure do. I eat my veggies first, then my boca burger. Even if it means it gets cold. I eat my fruit, then my pizza. Okay, I just eat my carbs last. Ha.
Brian Wansink, a food researcher of sorts, wrote about this in his book Mindless Eating. He did a study on who eats their favorite thing last, and who eats it first.
He concluded that people who ate their favorite dish first were more likely to be from large families or be the youngest child. People who ate the favorite dish last were likely the oldest or an only child.
His reasoning is that the oldest or only child had the luxury of saving their favorite dish for a reward, knowing it would still be there. The youngest, or person from a large family, ate it right away, because they were used to competition in the family growing up – they didn’t know how long it would last.
I have four siblings, and I am the second-oldest, and I still eat it last, so I guess your research isn’t correct for me buddy (although I DO understand the competition thing!). Is his research correct for you?
(In Wansink’s defense, he used this study as an example to illustrate that your childhood eating habits follow you into adulthood. I defintely agree with that!)
When you take your socks off, do you always use your hands to do it, or do you ever your feet?
Yes! Another foot-related question! Let me explain.
On Sunday night, I went to bed with my socks on because I was so cold. I rarely do this because I always end up with them off anyway. I asked Steven what percentage chance he thought that I would still have my socks on when I woke up (he thought 2%).
Then he asked me, “Do you get up in the middle of the night to take them off?”
“No! I use my feet to take them off while I am sleeping!”
“Who uses their feet to take their socks off?!”
“Everyone!”
“No they don’t!”
You get the idea. I had to demonstrate to Steven how it is done (you can either stand with one foot on the floor and use the other to stand on its sock from the front and pull the foot away so the sock comes off OR, if you are talented like me, you can bend your toes and use them to hold the back of the socks while you pull the other foot out). Then he continued to tell me that everyone uses their hands to remove their socks and I am just strange. So that is where the question came from!
(And they WERE still on when I woke up!)
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