Week 4: Rest your eyes

Guess what, guys?! On Tuesday of week 4, I started my new job! I am absolutely loving it so far. The people I work with are funny, welcoming, and supportive. The work itself, from what I've seen so far, is right up my alley. I can't wait to finish my training period and get my hands dirty in the world of nutritional counseling! The dietitian I worked with this week taught me a lot about how to put clients at ease and ask questions in a way that gets you honest answers. I loved observing her and hope that I get to work with her much more in the future.

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In lieu of the traditional 9-5 schedule, I'll be working 10 hours per day for 4 days out of every week. That means starting work at 7, which means leaving the house at 6:30, which means waking up at 5. I'm not so much a morning person (or a night person, either, really... I like to joke that I'm a "noon to 4pm" person). Considering this, along with the fact that I've been jobless since the end of October and not really on any kind of schedule, I knew that waking up each day was going to be a challenge. The only way I could do it, I reasoned, is if I got enough sleep. This seems to be different for everyone, but for me the magic number is between 7 and 8 hours. As such, goal #4 was to go to sleep by 10pm at the latest each night of this week.

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Even though I love sleep and don't need a whole lot of convincing to get into bed, this goal turned out to be a real challenge. My commute and lunch break add at least an hour and a half to my 10-hour workday, so I'm away from home for at least 11 and a half hours per day. Between the job, giving my dog enough attention and exercise, and trying to stay fit myself, I found that I didn't have much time for anything at all this week.

So, did you do it? Honestly, my saving grace was how tired I was at the end of each day. I think that if I hadn't been a veritable zombie by about 9:15, I would have tried to accomplish more in the way of everyday tasks, like answering emails and running errands. As luck would have it, come 9:30pm, my eyes were closing on their own. This made accomplishing goal #4 easier than expected!

I gave myself a free pass for the weekend, which was good as I definitely wasn't asleep by 10pm either night. On Friday, I met up with a friend from many, many moons ago and he gave me a little bar-crawling tour of my new town, including The Praying Monk, Mabel's on Main, Dos Gringos, and Kelly's. On Saturday, he invited me to celebrate a friend's birthday at a great restaurant called O.H.S.O., which was absolutely delicious. I also got to see another old friend on Sunday morning for brunch at NCounter and a little romp at the Desert Botanical Garden. As an added bonus, we didn't have to pay the $18/person admission since she is getting married there in March! It was such a fun weekend, and I'm really glad we reconnected. Thanks, A & C, for making me feel at home in my new city.