Coffee Talk: It's Been a While

I was having my morning cup of coffee the other day when it dawned on me that it's been a while since the last time we had a coffee talk. In fact, when I looked it up, it's been since September. Bearing that in mind, we definitely need to have some coffee and chat.

I was lax and didn't put up my usual weekly post, but I had a good reason: I've been quite busy this week. I work at a University and a few weeks ago, classes started up for the new semester. I have been swamped since then taking care of the myriad of things for our faculty and for the department that my days have been flying by. I actually enjoy being busy because time goes incredibly slow when you're bored and because the weekends come that much quicker. 

At home, I've been busy, too. Mainly, I've been working on some short stories for my newsletter and for a project (more on that to come later). I've also made a conscious effort to cut way back on my social media usage, so I've been reading a lot, both at home and on my lunch breaks at work, as well as watching documentaries on topics I have an interest in. 

Another thing I've been getting back into is preparing and making food. It seems so trivial, cooking food, but between depression and not wanting to do anything after getting home from work, my and my kids' diet had started to consist mainly of easy, processed junk. So, I restocked my pantry and now make a good, healthy meal every evening that I can also take to work for leftovers the next day for lunch. I won't go into a lot of detail about this as I'll make a post about it later.

The other week, I had lunch with a co-worker from my old position on campus. She knows about the class I'm planning to take and asked me if I knew about the SAC Fund. I had no clue what that was, so she filled me in. Apparently, the SAC - which is the Staff Advisory Council - had started a pilot program to offer staff a chance to take elective training or classes in the name of professional development. Since the class I'm taking does relate to my current position, I applied. I was thrilled to find out that I was awarded the funds to pay for that first class. It's not much in the scheme of things, but it's tremendous for me. Not only does it help me out financially, but it really helps to boost my morale, as well. 

I have to say that I'm really looking forward to the weekend. I have some fun, simple plans and the weather is supposed to be nice. January is the hardest month to get out and hike on the weekends, so I'm looking forward to getting out on the trails again. I haven't forgone the trails entirely this month, it's just been more of a challenge. The temperatures have been warm enough that hiking in the snow is akin to trudging through sand. It's difficult and not that much fun if I'm being honest.

My newsletter will be coming out in the next few days and it will include a new short story series. This means if you haven't already, that you should sign up for it. You can do so by clicking the menu button in the upper left-hand corner. 

Happy Friday!