So, I didn't handle my most recent challenges as well as I'd hoped. I screwed up my schedule, my eating habits, my self-care routine, and other things too I'm sure. And it's taking me a lot longer than I'd hoped to get any momentum after switching tasks. My focus has been terrible the last few days, and I'm sure that's because I haven't actually given myself room to decompress after deadline stress. Instead, I tried to get started on my next task right away. Someday, I'll get the hang of this, I swear.

Where are things at, generally speaking?

• I might get summoned for jury duty. I guess I'll find out soon. I'm very interested in participating and also worried about how disruptive it will be if I'm chosen.
• I just finished writing one of the most complicated chapters for my story. There aren't that many chapters left, and it's weird to think about the fact that this thing I've been working on for so long (too long, thanks to various factors) will finally be coming to an end. I have some very mixed feelings about it.
• The year is almost over, and the natural inclination is to go into a depressing retrospective spiral of some kind, which I think I'm going to do my best to skip this time around. That time will probably be better spent cleaning my refrigerator and preparing to file taxes.
• I've almost, but not quite, hung all my pictures on the wall since I moved here in October. I just need to finish moving in before my lease is up. I'll do it, I swear.
• I finally put linux mint on my old thinkpad, which I'm very excited about. I've gotten so sick of fighting with Windows, and this is the first step towards being less dependent on it. Aside from that, I've been messing around with some very introductory Romanian lessons.

I have hope that I'll be able to improve my work-life balance soon. Hopefully I'll have a lot more room for things like this little site in my life once that happens. In the meanwhile, I'm going to go... clean my kitchen and stuff to hopefully give me a bit of a mental reset.

Wishing you well, wherever you are and whatever you're up to.