how good life can be

The weather has changed here in Montreal.  Frost overnight, and hats and mitts are a must, though I still see people braving it out in layers of sweaters and leather jackets.  It is the season of cute toques and fingerless gloves.  Fur-flapped hats and fleece-lined wool mittens are still ahead of us.

Sometimes fingerless gloves are even required inside.

 

I am trying to live more in the moment and am probably mostly failing, although I am succeeding in moments here and there.   I am also trying to recognize certain patterns so that I can learn how to say no.  There is not an endless amount of time in the day.  Anything I take on in addition to work (evening class: I am looking at you!) is something that is going to take away from my writing, especially if it is accompanied by extra time commitments (homework, rehearsals, projects, interviews) that encroach on the weekend.  Things that actually make my life better: choir and knitting night.  Things that make it worse: take-home tests and freelance writing assignments involving anything besides books or fiction.  Going forward, I plan on organizing my life accordingly.  Free tuition and extra experience/income notwithstanding. 

Staying on top of everything that needs to be done doesn’t leave any time for living.  And that needs to happen, too!  Not just for me, but for the people I care about.  I need to leave more time for cuddling, cooking, laughing, listening, and planning.   Not to mention reading and writing. 

The other night I let go of the homework I needed to start, the emails I needed to send, the reading I needed to do, and the writing I hoped to get back to….and I spent time with my family, doing what they needed.  This is not such a rare occurrence that it needs to commemorated here (I truly hope!), but it was so enjoyable and so right that I want to remind myself of, well, how good life can be when you have time for it.   (I do recognize how bad this sounds….it depresses me to write it out that way, but this is the takeaway message.)

In other news, great news last night on the U.S. election front.  My favourite headline is this one from Jezebel:  

Team Rape Lost Big Last Night

secrets of highly successful people

Some of the freelancing I’m doing consists of personalizing some rather dry bio profiles of several very impressive people. 

Although I’ve been a little intimidated about the conversations (I wouldn’t say I’m overawed by position in general, but it’s safe to say that I don’t interact with a lot of CEOs on a daily basis), I’ve actually been enjoying them more than I would have guessed.

Successful individuals tend to have great people skills – so it’s not surprising that most of them were patient, congenial, curious, and passionate.  But I was also interested to note that most have also had at least two or three very different kinds of careers, as well as a lot of professional training along the way.  Many of these individuals have also spent time teaching in their area of interest(s) at one point or another.

Also, curiously, all of them have cited snowshoeing as among their favourite outdoor activities.  Now, is this just a wholesome, non-elitist winter sport self-consciously selected to humanize an extraordinary individual  in the eyes of a general Canadian audience?  Or will my prospects in life improve once the snow falls and I can get out there on snowshoes again? 

To summarize, here is what I have gleamed from my conversations with some very successful Montrealers:

Secrets of highly successful people

• Be who you want to be
• Follow your interests, both inside and outside of work
•  Get involved in those areas
• Connect with like-minded individuals
• Have a good, hard work ethic
• Enjoy snowshoeing

juggling

I am still trying to strike a balance between writing about my life and my writing life, since they are so inevitably (hopelessly? thankfully?) intertwined.  Even when the writing is not happening, there is a corresponding anxiety about it not happening…that I’m not meant to be emailing prospective graduate students at my day job, or watching television (possibly true), or going for a walk at lunch time instead of squeezing in an hour of reading or writing (this one is truly a toss-up…healthy body/healthy mind and all that).  It’s a constant inner dialogue, and since so much of my time is spent trying to arrange or rearrange things in my own life to facilitate more writing, I can only conclude that this space is going to include some words about things that may not, on the surface, appear to be about writing.   

That’s a long disclaimer. 

If all this has a slightly panicked flavour, it’s because I’m doing a little more juggling than usual these days.  I’m supposed to be editing, but every day when I come home from work, the towering piles of boxes are beckoning me to do just one more.  Even leaving aside all the oh-so-necessary items* lurking inside them that I need access to, I don’t want to compromise our living space for any longer than I have to.  Of course, every opened box means finding space for the items inside --- no small challenge in our apartment.  And besides the novel, I have three other deadlines for Sunday and Monday (freelancing things, plus an essay I really want to submit to an anthology that promises to be exciting and excellent), which means buckling down, no Osheaga, no more unpacking even, for the next few days.   

Okay?  (Okay.)

I do, however, intend to fit at least one of these cones into my weekend, courtesy of Kem Coba, the magnificent ice cream place next door to my old apartment:

A trio of yumminess

*many of these items are of dubious necessity

this and that

I’ve been slowly updating the list of links in the sidebar. Since becoming a blog slacker, I’ve been relying exclusively on my wildly disorganized (or formerly organized but now ossified and only marginally useful) set of folders on Google Reader. Meanwhile, check out the new additions!

Exchanged some more emails today re: a freelancing payment I am still waiting on from something I wrote back in August. In this case, and upon request, I had invoiced promptly – the very same day I filed the story. But such is the life of a freelancer. I am full of admiration for people who can survive on this kind of piecemeal salary, and no doubt those who are most successful at it have (one hopes) at least a few reliable gigs to bank on. But I am far too practical/anxiety-ridden when it comes to money matters to be able to try this at the moment.

The best thing I have read lately is a letter from John Steinbeck to his son on the subject of love. It has reminded me of grandness of Steinbeck’s heart, and it is good, warm, soul-expanding advice. I found it via the wonderful Classic Penguin tumblr, but it was originally posted on Letters of Note, a site I'm very happy to know about.

The best thing I saw earlier this week was the amazing Can Lit is Sexy tumblr. I hope whoever is doing it keeps it up!

And the last thing worth sharing is the great sale being run by ECW Press. Buy any Spring 2012 title and get the eBook for free. A terrific deal!