I actually did something this weekend instead of just lounging around, which felt good.
Cleared enough space in my room that I can actually walk in it, not just hop (sometimes unsuccessfully) over boxes and piles of clutter
Organized tons of magazine clippings in a binder
Adjunct to above: was scandalized by office-supply prices: $14 for a binder and thirty flimsy paper dividers!
Finished two good books of short stories:
Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity
Harumi Murakami’s After the Quake
I would recommend them both. Erik also read Personal Velocity and liked it. They’re both well and imaginatively written; plus, short stories are terribly convenient for when you’re strapped for time and can’t devote the time you would to a novel.
Rented and watched The Station Agent with Erik, Mommy and Shra
Disagreed with Mommy and Erik about its merits (I liked it more than they did)
I can feel my stagnating mind coming back into life after some good reading, and time spent with Dana and with Erik.
I’m currently a few chapters into Arlie Russell Hochschild’s The Time Bind, and am looking forward to the rest of it. It’s a thoughtful study, by a respected, talented researcher, of the modern conflict between work and home.
This speaks particularly strongly to me at the present. Now that I’m working full time, and thus getting more of a peek into the working world, I’m appalled at what I see. I make no secret of my animosity toward the corporate world, but what disturbs me most is the amount of time people spend at work. Granted, I work at a startup with only four full-time employees excluding Shra and me, so I’m not exactly glimpsing the American standard, but I don’t think what’s going on at Apneon is so far off from the norm.
Just from my own experience, I’m seeing the way work takes over one’s life. I’m at work nine hours a day, Monday through Friday. I’ve only been doing this for six weeks so far, and already I want a vacation–and I don’t even have family responsibilities; I hardly have any responsibilities of my own! Mommy, bless her, is doing all my laundry and even cooking most of my meals (I’d do these things myself, but she does without my asking, and I’m grateful). My room is a mess. I don’t know how people can stand to live like this. (I quote Amanda: “I think you would need a wife.” She was commenting on having kids while in grad school, but still.) I hope to goodness I’ll never have to sell my soul this way. Life is so short as it is. Spending more of my awake hours at work than at home seems like such a horrid waste. There must be a better way.
[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
i know. it scares me too.
i was just talking to mommy today during our walk about something related. she was saying that we don’t get enough sleep. so i told her about how i was made fun of at school for having an 11pm bedtime. nobody sleeps that early! and she was like don’t compare yourself with them. it’s not healthy! so i was explaining that nobody except you to get that much sleep when you’re in school. which is like work. you’re supposed to spend all your time with your job and have no other life. how sad. =P i mean, i spent so much time at the library last year and it was good because i studied and all but then i missed out on so much other stuff. i have like… no friends now. haha. okay well not true but you know what i mean. but i guess at least we’re aware and don’t want to be like that. that’s always a start.
~Shra
[…] a few more chapters into Arlie Hochschild’s The Time Bind (see last Sunday’s entry) and I’m even more horrified, which is saying quite a lot. I’ve been reading about […]
[…] that truly fulfill us. Woah! But this is like a clarion call for me; for years I have been disturbed at the amount of time and energy most people put into their jobs, and I’ve always asked […]