mistressofmuses | Misc catch up...

We have internet again!

We're expecting an apparently near-identical storm this Sunday into Monday again, and I hope this time we dodge the power outages and lasting internet outages.

Cy is still doing well. He had one really wobbly day on Tuesday, but we think that was more a loopy gabapentin high than anything else. He finished his antibiotics today. In a little over a week we'll go back to the vet for his follow-up. The biggest struggle is that he still doesn't understand why he isn't allowed up on the bed at night, so I usually have to get up and tuck him back in to his bed a couple times overnight. (Spoiled monster.)

Went a little nuts on Backerkit's "Pintopia" event. Lots of cool enamel pins if you're into that kind of thing, which unfortunately for me, I am. That's my indulgent purchase for the next couple months. My art friends are included this year! There are also a lot of other really cool projects. I backed several, and wish I could back all the ones that caught my eye.

Apparently my company is cracking down on mandatory lunch breaks. For the most part I don't take them (and honestly prefer that, because it's meant I get to leave early one day a week in order to avoid the overtime I'm racking up by not clocking out midday, lol.) BUT now I have to start taking them, because they don't want me leaving early anymore, but even more they want to make sure that they don't have to pay out any overtime.

They're referring to the lunch breaks as ~clarity breaks~ and sending out chat reminders to "remember to take your clarity break!" and I fucking hate it, lmao.

Now I need to figure out what to do on these breaks, lol. It'd be very easy to just do a social media scroll for 20 or 30 minutes, but I don't really want to do that. Ideally I could use that chunk of time to work on something - writing, by preference - but I probably can't use a computer. If I stay at my desk, I will get dragged into working over the break, and if they want me to clock out I will not be doing that. I could bring my laptop with me and sit somewhere else, but that feels silly for just 20 minutes. I will continue contemplating.

Between the scare with Cy and then the days without internet, I feel like I lost another week+ of Stuff I Was Supposed To Do. Unfortunately, I keep wildly overestimating just how much oomph I will have after I get off of work. Like, yeah, I could do a cleaning project, and work on an editing project for a friend, and try to actually work on my own writing again someday, and find a way to get a little bit of reading done... but what if I just want to play a video game I don't have to think about? :(

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Managing energy levels after/around work is so rough :(

I wonder if your lunch break could be used for 20-30 minutes of reading?? It sucks they are extending your day to avoid paying overtime (and giving it such a twee name, too...). I wonder if buying a cheap keyboard for your phone or something could work to make it into writing time?? Good luck finding a way to make it work for you <3

The inability to manage things around my work schedule is one of the most frustrating things for me. I have plenty of things that I want to do... but so rarely the energy (or even just time) to get to them all. It seems like every plan I try to make winds up far too ambitious in comparison to the time and energy I actually have available!

Reading is a good thought for the break. (Though I know I'll resent it if I get super into something and then have to put it down, haha.) I realize that the mandatory break thing is a legal compliance thing, and I'm grateful that those laws exist... but it's still annoying to have to take unpaid time every day, and basically have to spend *more* time at work!
The twee name just feels like insult to injury, haha.

i hope you find something you'd like to do on the breaks if they're mandatory. writing longhand maybe, or reading or doodling. ideally something that destresses you rather than the opposite.

Thank you! I realize it's a good thing to have mandatory breaks (since that means the employer can't forbid those breaks), but I'd personally rather spend less time at work without a break than have longer days with a gap in the middle. Ah, well.

Writing longhand is probably what I'll end up doing most of the time. I'm not a fast writer by hand, but once I've settled on a project to work on, that's probably the best way to spend the time. (Or maybe reading - I AM always looking for reading time - though I'll forever be frustrated when I have to go back to work and interrupt my book, haha.)

Sucks that you can't leave early anymore, just that one day a week. Maybe when the weather gets nicer you can go for a walk? (I don't know if you work someplace where it would be nice/safe to walk?) Even if you can't full out write, maybe you can jot down ideas so you don't forget them, or to keep the story moving along in your head? I'm always up for a game of solitaire or reading. *g*

Right? Leaving a couple hours early made that one day per week feel like I had so much more time! Alas.
A walk on a nicer day might be nice, if the nearby construction dies down. Getting some sunlight would probably be good for me, haha.

I also might try writing longhand. I'm not fast at it, but once I have a project in mind to work on, it might be worthwhile to get a bit of work in on it.

And reading might be nice. I know I'll hate getting interrupted when I'm getting into a book, haha. But I AM always complaining about not enough chances to read!

Glad Cy is doing better!

Pintopia sounds cool.

I hope you find something good to do with your breaks, have them be actually helpful in some way.

Me too!

The Pintopia thing is neat! There are a ton of cool projects and artists. Part of the event is also that the artists are paired up, so if you back both members of a pair, you get extra exclusives from them. I guess they did a similar event last year, which I don't remember hearing about. (I just wish I could say yes, gimme to basically all of them, ha.)

And thank you. I also hope to find a way to make the breaks work for me, if I've gotta take 'em.

Yay for Cy doing better! And yeah, they do NOT understand when they can't sleep in the bed with you (and therefore jump up and down whenever they want through the night). It took Katie a while before we'd let her sleep with us again when she had that pinched nerve.

And ugh. CVS did that to Kathy (well, and all of them) - made lunch breaks mandatory, and my sister hated that. Not that she was trying to get overtime but she just hated to have to stop what she was doing for 30 minutes and lose momentum to eat.

I'm very glad Cy is doing better. We do try to let him sit on the bed with us if we're just hanging out, watching TV and such. But overnight we're just too afraid he'll try to jump off the bed and hurt himself. So he paces and whines and nudges me throughout the night... he's good if I do take him back to his bed and put him back under the blankets, but I know he wants to be on the bed with everyone else.

I understand that the mandatory lunch break thing is a legal requirement, and it's mostly a good thing! If a company isn't forced to require breaks, they often will do anything in their power to disallow them, and that's on the whole a worse outcome. BUT. Same: I'd rather not have to interrupt my workflow just to clock out, and ultimately have to spend *more* time at work. I'll hopefully find a way to use the breaks in a way that I enjoy, but for now it's just kind of an annoyance, ha.

Fingers crossed for keeping power and internet this time!

They're referring to the lunch breaks as ~clarity breaks~ and sending out chat reminders to "remember to take your clarity break!" and I fucking hate it, lmao.

UGH.

Thank you, I definitely hope this storm doesn't suck too much!

RIGHT? "Clarity breaks" sounds so... twee and weirdly culty, lmao.

Misc catch up...

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