Discipline update: Week One

Okay, so it’s been about a week since I’ve made a resolution to be more disciplined, and I think tracking it will help keep me more accountable. I think by disciplined, I mostly mean that I want to be less lazy in all facets of my life and stop procrastinating so much. Of all the seven deadly sins, sloth is by far the one I have the hardest problem with. People used to joke that in college my default mode was sleep, and it’s true—I used to sleep in the front row of my sociology 101 class with my jacket over my head in full view of my prof. What was I thinking??!! I would have hated me if I were her.

So I’ve been pretty good about going to the gym when I have a free night, but I’ve also been good about not having the gym take over my life—for instance, last week I forewent my favorite hip-hop/step duo of gym classes to exercise my brain and attend a screening with a friend of this documentary of playwright Tony Kushner, and listen to a Q&A with him afterward at the 92nd St. Y. Boy, can Tony talk. And talk. And talk. And talk some more about what a raging liberal he is. There is definitely no middle-of-the-road for him, and the documentary focuses a lot on his political activism. Overall though, the Q&A and Tony himself are quite intriguing. I didn’t know he also wrote some musicals and books. But I felt the documentary was only okay—it was a little slow at times.

I’ve also been trying to be more disciplined at work by surfing the Net less, trying to answer e-mails right away, and space my work out so I’m not in a last-minute crunch (like now, but I count this as a result of activities that I did or did not do prior to setting my resolution. And technically while I’m writing this I could be doing real work, but it’s 2 am and my brain is fried). I stayed till after 10 pm today to write a story and did NOT IM all day. That’s asking a lot of me. Of course, I didn’t finish, so I’m planning to wake up really early tomorrow and get to work before everyone else (Ha.)

But here’s a sign that I still need a little help. While eating the half of my Saigon Grill Bun Xao lunch that I didn’t finish for dinner, I realized I was getting fish sauce on my fingers. Instead of walking the 50 feet to my work kitchen to get a paper towel, I took a blank sheet of paper off my desk and used it as a napkin. I even used it to wipe the fish sauce off my face when I accidentally pushed the cap down too hard on the little container, sending a spray on me.

Eventually though, I did haul my ass to the kitchen cuz I realized fish sauce don’t smell so good when you use only 8.5 X 11 20-lb paper stock to get it off. You actually do need a wet paper towel. There’s hope for me yet.

In other news: Does this mean I only view Clive Owen as a fling, while Orlando Bloom would be my husband? At the very least, it does explain why I think manly pretty boy Wentworth Miller is a perfect 10.