Time management

I'm bad at it. In fact, I suck at it!

this semester has been the first ever when I have school and work at the same time and it's a bit challenging. Going to school full time and getting homework and all the presentations done on time is hard as it is, add work to that and it's almost impossible! LOL!

Being on crutches is making me slower than usual, so that takes time but it's not the challenge. The challenge in the morning is NOT to surf the net...NOT to watch the shows I taped...NOT to blog when I could be doing my homework or research for presentations or papers. And before you know it, it's time to leave for work. In the spring when I started I was told that I could do homework at work. Since the director change, we are a lot busier than anticipated so I have less time for homework. If at all. Obviously during class you can't do homework.

I have classes from Monday till Wednesday and I work the whole day on Thursday. The classes are night classes so I don't see T all that much those days. When she picks me up we might have a dinner together and watch a little TV before it's bed time. On Wednesday's we're home (after she picks me up) at 11pm which means NO time together. So the few hours I do get to spend with her those days, I don't wanna do homework.

On Thursdays I usually am really tired after getting home from work. The night before I just come home and crash. My co-worker Aditi picks me up on Thursdays at 7:15 so I wake up and basically leave. By the time I get home, I'm ready for a nap. Thursday is usually also our dining night out so neither one of us has to cook. During the weekends we are usually pretty busy, our dance cards are filling up fast and unless T needs to go somewhere by herself, I'm not doing much homework then. Sunday is reserved for football so unless there's really boring Jets and Giants games on, I'm not doing homework. Occasional article reading but nothing too heavy.

This leaves me with Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays I have the whole day till about 6:10pm when I have to leave for school. You would think that 9 hours prior to that would be enough? I'm sure it would be but my focus doesn't last that long. Friday's I have totally off but after the 4 day week at work and school, I need to unwind a little before getting into it. Surfing, catching up with my shows, domestic duties...And everybody knows how much I love TV! Since I'm not seeing my shows when they actually air, and when me and T are home together I want to spend that time doing things with her, it's only logical and natural to watch those shows when I have time alone...

So what should I do? Make a timetable for myself for those days? 1 hour for surfing. 2 hours for TV. 5 hours for homework? Combine these with cooking, eating and laundry...?

I/we obviously have very little time for friends during the week which is one of the reasons weekends are so busy. Unless T sees her friends in the city before coming home, she doesn't have the time or the energy to drive around after work. If you exclude one of her cousins and few of her friends from work who live about 20 minutes away, it takes almost an hour to see anybody else or more! So you need to plan these things in advance or like we did on Sunday with Shari, Dre and Brad, meet in the middle. Well, middle for us and Shari, Dre and Brad were over 7 hours away from home. We met for brunch in Lambertville, NJ for few hours before we came home and they went back to Shari's. Andrea and Brad live in Virginia so it's not everyday you get to see them. Last time we saw them was in June when they came here to celebrate pride parade with us.

We might not see them often but it's always good times! We were laughing through the brunch! It's not about how often you see each other, it's about how much fun you have when you get together. I have met most of the people I call friends here through T and they have been very open and accepting towards me. My friends are back in Finland and I obviously don't see them as often as I would like or even get to talk with them all that much because of the time difference and how much it costs to call but when I here from them, it always makes me smile. But I have my life with T, they have their lives with their significant others, kids and work and that's how life goes. Things change all the time, you just have to adapt and make most of the time you have with your friends and loved ones.

I miss my family back in Finland.
I miss my friends back in Finland.
I miss my friends here in the states.
Hope everybody has a great day.
I'm going to work now...for few!
Later