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Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone celebrating it today!
Here is what is new in my life lately:
Festivus Geekiatum
Last October, Long and Short Reviews released a Wednesday Weekly Blogging topic about which new holidays participants would like to invent.
My friend Michael Mock responded to that question by inventing Festivus Geekiatum:
Festivus Geekiatum is a day to indulge your favorite interests. Work on that knitting project, watch that anime, re-read that favorite book, perform in — or attend — that one play. Reconnect with your hobbies, re-engage your interests, work on your projects.
I will be participating in this on February 26 and am talking about this in advance in case anyone else would like to join in on the fun.
Career Change
I’m gearing up for a career change and job hunting in the near future.
If any of my readers happen to excel at job hunting, interviews, or making career changes and have experience doing so within the last few years, advice is appreciated.
For everyone else, I’d love some good vibes and encouragement if you have any to spare.
It will be interesting to see how this goes.
Getting Back Into Exercising
I started feeling sick around New Year’s Day. My cough eventually lead to me developing costochrondritis, a benign but uncomfortable inflammation and injury to the chest wall. My covid tests were all negative, and I did have covid and flu boosters last autumn. Whatever bug I picked up in late December was not a fun way to begin this year by any means.
Exercise other than the occasional slow walk was really difficult because every sort of movement hurts when you have this condition: breathing too deeply, coughing, laughing, carrying anything heavier than a pound or two, sneezing, bending over, rolling over in bed, etc.
The good news is that this is something that generally heals on its own with rest, patience, and ibuprofen as needed. I am just now trying to slowly increase the speed and length of my walks when possible.
Not exercising at all for well over a month was a huge change for me as I was previously someone who enjoyed 30 minutes of formal exercise most days of the week (weightlifting, kickboxing, dancing, etc.) and then usually another 30-ish minutes of brisk walking that was usually broken up into a few minutes here and there as I walked to errands, appointments, and other necessities of life.
So I am really looking forward to being able to get back into my old workout routines. I miss them so much.
That’s about it for me at the moment. I look forward to hearing about what’s new with everyone else.
I’m tweaking it a little because from what I have observed there’s already too much pressure to work for free in a lot of interests that attract people who are passionate about them. If you are a woman and belong to certain niche groups, the pressure can be even stronger due to stereotypes about women being inherently kinder and more generous than men (speaking again here in my experience. Your mileage may vary!)