Done for the Week: Heading Out Again

Once more, this morning, I am entering another of my customary liminal states--this time, the between-ness of getting ready for a trip but not yet having departed.  So I'm not really here or there, in my head.  And having just finished Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes, I haven't fully returned from the disturbing world of her story to my own everyday concerns.

And I am on the cusp of a new week--looking back at what I did with the last one:

Done for the Week:  Sept. 5-11, 2011

1. Continued 5K training with my youngest son, in preparation for his first race--Finished Week 2 of 9 Week program
2. Ran 3 times; biked once 
3. Began strength training
4. Signed up for tap dancing class
5. Finished Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult
6. Continued to work my two part-time jobs 
7. Provided technical assistance to nonprofit organization
8. Published 3 blog posts
9. Attended 2 yoga classes
10. Continued significant work on current clients' projects
11. Attended Peace and Justice workshop at the Islamic Center, in observance of 9/11
12. Attended jobs meeting on transportation barriers to employment
13. Booked trip to New Orleans to visit family
14. Did laundry
15. Took my dog to the dog park, with husband and both sons
16. Continued reading Elizabeth George's In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner aloud with my husband
17. Went out for Happy Hour with my husband
18. Arranged for my asthmatic son to be seen and treated for acute bronchitis
19. Squeezed in lunch and a late night dog walk with my overworked, jet-lagged husband
20. Attended 3 hr. meeting at grandson's co-op preschool, with my daughter
21. Attended Task Force leaders' meeting, to discuss organization's website

The most important thing I got done last week was finally booking flights for this week's trip to New Orleans.  The cost of air travel these days makes it difficult to bite the bullet and ante up--to employ just a couple of metaphors.  Add to that my crowded work schedule, my husband's continual travels, and my daughter's pregnancy--which will require me to be at home on standby from October on--and scheduling this trip needed an algorithm I don't seem to have downloaded yet.  But my aging widowed mother and my best friend/sister live a thousand miles from me.  Seeing them with any frequency means biting this bullet, anteing up, and tackling the algorithmic challenge several times a year.  And once again, I (finally) did it.

Last week's focus goal was to "stick to my plan of publishing three blog posts."   I am happy to say that I met it.  But the pace of life and change, and my almost complete lack of day-to-day routine mean that keeping to my intention of posting Monday through Thursday, except for holidays and trips, will meet with frequent obstacles.  This week, I will be traveling from Tuesday through Saturday.  Thus the second week of "blog reform" is a write-off.  So I will have to resume my posting regimen next Monday, after a week's interruption.  

Of course, the habit change literature would recommend that I post this week, despite being away.  But I have little enough time to spend with my mother, and I plan to be a good Buddhist, and a good daughter, and to be fully present for our visit.  Which is my goal for the coming week. . .