holey perforated duodenum, batman!
Well, I had my doctor’s appointment this morning. My ulcer has returned. The doctor said “You just gave a perfect, textbook description of a duodenal ulcer.” So now I get to go see a perfect, textbook digestive specialist and get a couple of perfect, textbook scope procedures and hopefully not need a perfect, textbook surgery.
Oh, and I got stuck with a big needle and had to surrender six or seven vials of blood, which I’m pretty sure I needed.
Can you tell I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself? Looking forward to HobKnobbing tonight, and then returning to the house where I fully expect some serious pampering from Christopher. Prep the fuzzy robe and Moose Tracks, babe.
GTD and boundaries
I’ve been turning and burning today on getting back on the GTD wagon. Mainly, because I need it to preserve my sanity. I mentioned to a coworker last week that a year ago, I had probably almost twice as much “stuff” on my plate, and half as much stress about it because I was keeping things processed in the system.
So today I had a big A-HA moment regarding the best way for me to implement GTD at work (and I find that once I have my “stuff” together in one area of my life, the rest of the ducks quickly fall into line behind Momma.) And in doing that, I realized that processing your “stuff” is basically defining your territory. Defining your territory, the stuff you’re responsible for, is important because you can’t defend what you can’t define. And not knowing whether or not you’re covering the ground you’re supposed to will make you crazy. Welcome to anxiety central, population me.
You can’t defend what you can’t define. Wow, there are a LOT of areas of life where that little catchy sentence applies, aren’t there?
It reminds me of my good friend K, who is in fact probably the best Bible scholar I personally know. In his class on Ephesians, about the full armor of God and spiritual warfare, he kept pointing out that all we’re really required to do is stand. Stand firm, hold our ground, and defend our two-by-two spot in the formation. We run into trouble when we break formation and start trying to defend ground that isn’t really ours to defend. When we do that, we leave ourselves exposed.
Which reminded me of Boundaries, by Cloud and Townsend. Maintaining good boundaries in relationships is about knowing the difference between “knapsacks” and “boulders.” “Knapsacks” are the small things that are an individual’s “stuff” to carry. Their ordinary, daily, personal responsibilities. When we try to carry someone else’s knapsack, we’re keeping them from being responsible for themselves, and we weaken them. Carrying our own knapsack is how we build up strength of character.
Boulders are different. Boulders are situations that we’re not supposed to carry alone. These are those huge, hard situations that teach us that no person is an island, and drive us to admit we need help, we need community, and we need God. We run into trouble when we either refuse to carry our own knapsacks, insist on carrying someone else’s knapsack, or refuse to ask for and accept help with our boulders. Or when we can’t tell the difference between a knapsack and a boulder.
Boundaries define the knapsacks and boulders that are ours, and those which belong to others. They help us define the territory we’re responsible for defending. But we get overwhelmed with all the “stuff” in our lives, and rather than sort through it all (process it) and decide what’s ours, what’s someone else’s, and what we need to ask for help with, we just avoid it. Try not to think about it–and in doing so, end up thinking about it at a low level constantly.
The stuff we refuse to deal with becomes this constant mental noise, cutting us off from the real signals. And we get stuck. Immobilized.
Which is where I’ve been for a while, and I don’t like it one bit.  Time to get unstuck. Wish me luck.
blogtastic
Yeah, I know. I said I was going to point the new domain to the old blog, not vice-versa. But when it came right down to it, the blog really needed a total overhaul. And it was just easier to do it this way.
While I was overhauling, I pulled a new theme together out of two really good ones that I couldn’t decide between: Exhausted 1.0 and Dream On by Small Potatoes. I loved the color scheme and fonts from Dream On, but I also loved the sidebar and nifty tabbed menu from Exhausted. So I Frankensteined them.Â
While I was at it, I added a message board/forum, updated all the pages, and the blogroll.
So assuming you all forgive me, welcome to the new blog. If there’s anything you desperately long for from the old blog (besides the posts and comments–they’re all here) then just let me know and I’ll see what I can do.  I’ve still got some room in the sidebar for a few more goodies like the Flickr badge or the Ajax Shoutbox.Â
football fable
You know, lots of people can tell you what they were doing on September 11, 2001. I’m probably one of the few who can remember almost as clearly what I was doing on September 10, 2001.
I was watching a Colts game.
With the Colts finally going into the Super Bowl next week, I find myself remembering September 10, 2001. I’m not a huge football fan, but that particular Colts-Jets game was unusually memorable, thanks to a 280 pound defensive end named Chukie Nwokorie.
It was an oddball game all around. Quarterback Peyton Manning had a fumble recovery and a tackle, of all things. Terrence Wilkins dropped a punt. Jets quarterback Vinnie Testaverde got tangled up with another player at the 2 yard line, and dropped the ball entirely.
Which brings us to Chukie.
Chukie grabbed the ball after Testaverde’s fumble, and took off for the end zone. Well, “took off” probably implies a lot more speed than was actually seen. For those readers who really aren’t into football, 280 pound defensive ends are not made to run the ball. They’re made to keep people from running, in a very forcible way. And the end zone was 95 yards away.
Testaverde caught up to Chukie and attempted to get the ball back, with no luck. He might not’ve been the fastest guy on the field, but Nwokorie was possibly the most stubborn. Towards the end of his run, two or three other Colts players appeared to be pushing Chukie bodily towards the end zone.
In the end, Nwokorie set a team record, collapsing at the end of his 95 yard … well, maybe “amble” moreso than “run,” but still.
And the moral of our little true sports fable is be persistent, look for unexpected opportunities, and don’t get boxed in by what you think you’re not good at.
bad day update
Well, all things considered, coulda been worse.
After my last posting, my granny found out that she was not, in fact closing on her house today (which seemed a bit fast to me anyway, being as how they’d only shown the house a week ago.) And it wasn’t for the amount she remembered the realtor telling her.
Granny was not a happy camper. Anyone who knows my granny also knows that anyone in the near vicinity was also not a happy camper. But it’ll be fine; the buyers are pre-approved and the real closing should happen within three weeks.
Then Maddie apparently decided to audition for the Blue Man Group, coloring about 2/3 of her body with a blue marker she found. Chris thinks she was preparing for a Pentium commercial. Fortunately, it was a washable marker, so after a bubble bath she was back to her usual hue. Mostly.
As for being sick, I crashed out with a fever and chills about 3:30 (this would be when the marker incident occurred) for about an hour and a half. Fever broke about sixish.
So now things are more or less back to normal. As normal goes around here.
Edited to add: We’ve now heard back from Chris’ mom. His dad is now out of surgery and doing well.
never rains but it pours
Last night I got a call from my uncle and grandma. The good news? She’s sold the house we’ve been looking after for her. The bad news? They’re closing today. Which means the 100 or so odd little sundries we still had left there need to get moved pronto. Okay, no big deal, we’ll just get it done this evening after work, right?
So this morning I wake up with a raging stomach virus. So I make the call to stay home, and since Chris is joining me in viral misery, we figure we’ll get the stuff moved (the house is two blocks away) in between visits to the great white porcelain throne. Not an ideal day, but still, nothing we can’t manage.
Then Chris checks the bank account, to discover that we’re overdrafted (or would be when the bank opens). Again. And it’s Tuesday. And I won’t get paid till the end of the month. But — my Grandma had offered to pay us back for the electric and water bills we’d been keeping up on her house for the last several months.
So I log onto my work email account and see an email from our H.R. person. Apparently, my insurance premiums hadn’t been deducted from any of my checks, so they were planning on taking them ALL out of my next check. Which would have more than cut it in half. So I made a somewhat desperate email (and follow up call) to ask if we could please spread out the repayment a little. Which they said was okay. Which is good because I was about to have a coronary episode which probably would’ve extended my sick leave far beyond one day.
Then Chris’ mom called. His dad went to the hospital with dangerously low blood pressure yesterday. They sent him home, he got lightheaded coming up the steps, fell and broke his hip and now will need surgery.
On the positive side, once again, in the midst of all this chaos God keeps providing. On the negative side, I’d rather chew a roll of aluminum foil than relive just the first five or six hours of this day.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment with John.
short n’ shallow
I love the new Volkswagon commercials.
“Vee Dub. Representing da Deutschland.”
name that blog!
I am looking for getting a new pointer domain for this blog, as I really don’t want people backing their way up to my old company site.
There are a few options I’m leaning towards, but I wanted to take a straw poll. Here’s what’s available:
thecopykat.com
katinafrench.com
katfrench.com
thisnewlife.net
oh-thedrama.net
… also, I’m open to suggestions.
work sweet work
I’ve gone through my blog in the last couple of days, and did a little selective editing.
I may do some more, but at this point, I’m ready to be a bit more public about the company I work for. It’s good timing, too, because we’ve just recently launched a completely redesigned company site, and with it the team blog (which I’ll be posting on from time to time). We’re also starting a podcast (I’ll be on it in July). And there’s now a Flickr page with pics of the gang (I’m in the pictures, but not named in the captions–so you’ll have to play “Where’s Waldo” with me.)
The designers did an awesome job. As did the programmers who added the Scriptaculous wizardry on the menu. I wrote some of the copy on the home page, as well as the most recent press releases.
So without further ado, here’s where I get to do that copywriting thing that I do: LeapFrog Interactive. (No, we don’t make the toys.)
on a roll
I have just recently deleted all the links in my blogroll. It’s not because I don’t like you anymore. I do. But the times, they are a’changing around This New Life, and so the blogroll, it got a’edited.
In my vocational life, I work in the web. The company I work for (which shall, for the time being, remain nameless) just started a company blog, to which I will happily, if infrequently, be contributing. I’m their copywriter. It would probably be a bit weird if I didn’t write on the blog.
It was mentioned in passing that they’d eventually like any contributing employees who don’t have a myspace page or other personal blog to get one, and they’ll eventually be linking to them from the company blog.
Now, none of this was said in a way that makes me think that they’re going to expect immediate action. But it would be dumb of me to disregard it till it becomes an urgent matter. And honestly, all it really did was slap me in the face again with an issue that has been simmering on the back-burner of my mind for a while now.
I like this place being my personal, in the true sense, online journal. The place where I “work stuff out” among friends, family members, and whoever it is that keeps viewing my site from Latvia. (I occasionally view my stats. The one hit from Latvia every month or so just floors me. Why are you here, dude or girlfriend? They don’t have philosophizing Christian psychology geek bloggers in Latvia? But I digress…)
So anyhow… this blog is most likely going to become a more public venue than originally intended. And it probably is already a more public venue than some of my previously linked friends might have realized (i.e. Latvia Guy and Hong Kong Person).
So if you would like to be linked from my blogroll, by all means, zip me a line and say so. I’ll add you back in double quick. But I figured as some of my friends are a bit more private than I am, the considerate thing to do would be to start over on my blogroll, and make it an opt-in.
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