woolcovered

Wow, so I guess time flies when you're having fun, right? Yeeeeeah...fun. Things have been pretty crazy here in the North York. My typical weekdays seem to go more or less as follows: I wake up earlier than I'd like to (I've made a habit of getting up an hour before my first class, no small feat for me), go to a morning class (usually starting around 10am), have a group lunch meeting for one of my seven group projects, do most of the reading for my next class, then go to said class.

After those end in the late afternoon (usually between 3-4pm), I generally briskly walk home, change into the workout clothes, then head back exactly where I came from to work out at the school's gym. I'm usually there for about an hour and fifteen minutes (1 hr. weights, 15 min. cardio), but it never quite feels like enough and I'm usually rushing towards the end of my sets to not waste too much of my night there.

I usually walk home around the late evening, shower and try to prepare a meal, though I'm usually distracted by an assignment or some other fun distraction. Before I know it, its 10 p.m. and The National is on. If I have something due the next day (usually the case), I'll turn my attention to schoolwork after the lead stories but keep Mansbridge on in the background. I basically have to keep current on events for my program, so this is like part of my homework in a sense. At 11 p.m., I get my fun taste of the news, and am entertained by John Stewart and the Daily Show. I love having the comedy network, because by watching it an hour earlier (its on at midnight on CTV, for those who don't follow) I'm not quite as tempted to stay up for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

At 11:30, I usually skip The Colbert Report in favour of trying to finish whatever homework and reading I've got to do. Finally, when I'm either done or can't take anymore reading, I fix myself a decent lunch and throw it in the fridge for the morning. Somewhere between 12:30 a.m. and 2:30 am I usually finally pick my morning wake-up playlist and pass out.

Repeat.

Now, why did I bother detailing this (I hope it wasn't too boring)? Well, for those who haven't read my manifesto of sorts a few weeks back, I've been trying to implement a number of changes in my life: namely, a healthier lifestyle by eating better, getting regular exercise, and sleeping for a decent number of hours. Also, I've made a commitment to break my slacker student habits of my undergrad years, not pulling allnighters to study or write papers that I've put off 'till the last minute. I'd like to believe that if I had've smartened up in those WLU years, I could've made Dean's List. But now I'll never know, so all I can do is try and improve the present. I was fairly content with my marks before I started really giving it my all, so this year I'm trying to surprise myself.

For the most part, these changes have been going fairly smoothly. This is the first night in awhile I haven't worked on schoolwork (because of a cancellation I have no class tomorrow), so I indulged myself a bit and caught up on torrents and watched Colbert, South Park, and Conan. Finally, I also visited the Jane+Finch Mall (and lived to tell of it!) because it turns out that's where the closest drugstore is located to my place. Oh, the irony! Anyway, as far as eating goes, I've been doing well during the week, not quite perfect on weekends. So, its getting there. Thanks to the weight set and treadmill in Co's basement (where I seem to wind up when I'm not here in N.York) I'm averaging about 5 workouts per week. I'm debating intramurals (dodgeball or floor hockey?), but would feel like a bit of a loser there if I'm the only one there in my twenties. So we'll see on that.

This routine has become pretty important to me; I try to get happy about all of the things I used to feign apathy for, the little things tht motivate me to get through the day: running just a little bit further in my set time on the treadmill, weighing just a little bit less on the scale, chosing a marginally heavier weight for my sets than last time. And outside the gym, getting some good feedback from a prof or going up and feeling like I've nailed even the most informal, impromptu presentation seem to be my metaphorical pats on the back in the classroom. Finally, eating the fruit of my labors while watching other folks herd themselves into and out of greasy food eateries reminds me why I started this modified diet in the first place. I wanted to take full advantage of my automony now that I'm back out on my own, and I seem to be slowly taking full control of my life. That alone is a comforting feeling, but when it starts to stray from my memory, I just try and use those little reminders to keep me going when I want to just go home and go to sleep after class or give up in some other way.

Anyway, hopefully I can work 'blogging dilligence' back into my routine, as there's a few other tangents I was going to post on but never quite got around to.