Looking back on Ramadan and forward to Eid

I suppose I should update this thing My blog is about to enter the mode of “I will update it whenever I can” due to my impending busy schedule that is about to hit me very hard starting Sunday when I have an all day work call so we can put a set together that must be in the theatre in a week. Yes, that’s correct, we just started building it because the designs were just finished to a place where I could proceed this past week. I’m beginning to wonder when my department will realize that the way we are operating is not effective when we do not have a full time shop or a person who is working full time in the shop. I’m just thankful that my stress will enter after Ramadan since I now have a clear focus of how to eat right, how to seek out knowledge and I have clearly established friendships that I will be maintaining. My only hope is that I can learn to say no, which has been a hard thing for me to ever do because I hate telling people no when deep down I know I can do something. For example, the other day I had to get a little firm in our production meeting because I needed to get started building the set for my own sanity so that I could maintain my own personal life outside of this job and if we continued to change the designs of the set, I was not going to be able to. I’m sorry, but this job is not taking all of my life – I will have a social life, I will develop friendships & I will not allow anyone in my job to do to me what I have been doing the last two years. If I must, I will allow a show to suffer. I’m sorry if that disappoints anyone.

At least I’m doing something I didn’t do before. I’m ignoring emails more often when I don’t need to answer them. I’m not always picking up the phone when someone calls me, I’m making myself less available on purpose.

However, one good news that came out of this week was that I’m pretty sure I was finally able to get all of my teaching load on the same days which means I have two full days of teaching & a half day of meetings and then the rest of the time is up to me to schedule as office hours, shop hours, personal time. Since I don’t have to teach on Mon, Wed & Fridays, maybe I can get myself into a class sometime during the day – now that would be just fantastic & I would be the first in my department to do so since any of them started to work here and not be required to.

So, outside of work, I’ve been reading a ton. I have been able to read a little each night of Ramadan except for one when I was forced to choose between working out, sleep & reading and could really only do two and still function the next day so I chose to work out & sleep. But, that means I have worked out every day of Ramadan & it is starting to show. I feel better, I look better. A pair of pants that during the summer was tight is now so big that I think after this week I’m going to retire them. And the ones I bought at the beginning of the month must now be held up with a belt. I can only hope that I can keep going, even if it’s not every day. Do I have the motivation to now continue it?

I have also done well in having no fast food all month & it feels great, I don’t feel bloated, wasted or fat. I don’t feel like there is something huge sitting in my gut. And what was great is that I was only tempted once to eat it this month and that was a couple days ago when my lunch was ruined for leaving my mini-fridge in my shop open for 3 hours allowing all the coldness to disappear, but I went to a sub place because I figured that was a good alternative to possible food poising or bad tasting food..lol.

Tomorrow, I shall mow my grass, wash my dishes and clean my house. I’ll try to do some grading and get caught up in some of it, plan out the week a little more in terms of classes & prep myself for a very very busy week.

I will end the day with a bunch of friends that I have asked to join me to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr and the end of Ramadan. I’m not sure if tomorrow is officially the end, but it was the best day to get everyone together so it will have to work. A few of my friends haven’t met each other, so it will be fun to see if any of them become friends, I hope they do because they are all fantastic & filled with their own culture that I love. Some of them are bringing their boyfriends/girlfriends, though a few of them are not since they either have to work or the thought of celebrating a Muslim holiday they know nothing about makes them uneasy. The only downside to the evening is that our celebration will occur almost at the same time everyone will be going out to eat following our first home football game. Yeah, great planning right? lol.

Well, that’s it for my personal rants, raves and future plans. I hope everyone is having a fantastic life and may you all have a wonderful Eid

Related posts:

1. An Update on my Ramadan
2. So much for working today
3. Frustrations on the job
4. I hate this..
5. These days can be draining