Things have been crazy busy as of late which has lead me to not have as much time online as I would like.  Lately I have been going through a spell where I am trying to find balance in my life with everything in it. 

I have been trying to balance the roles of rehabilitation director / therapist, university professor, friend, family member, etc while trying to have a healthy balanced life style.  Unfortunately I haven't found that healthy balance yet and sometimes I feel that I am a jack of all trades and a master of none.  That is not to say that anything bad has happened in any of my roles--it is more of a self imposed stressed as a reaction to the stress of it all.

One of the roles I have added in the last several years is that of a sports fan and I really didn't think that role would be tough to add into my life.  Well April is both and exciting and tough time to be a fan of hockey and baseball.  We have the opening of the baseball season and this year I have a partial season ticket plan to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (the AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies) and we have the playoffs in hockey.  This year the Reading Royals (AA hockey affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins where I have a full season ticket plan) made the playoffs.  Their season wasn't bad but they didn't place first in their conference and many believed that they wouldn't make the playoffs.  Not only did the make the playoffs but they made it past round 1 and now have swept the Florida Everblades to advanced to the American Conference finals.  So that means my hockey season is not over.  On the NHL front the Pittsburgh Penguins, my favorite NHL team, have advanced to round 2 of the NHL playoffs so I am trying to catch their games on TV too.  I know, boo hoo, like that is so stressful.  It really in and of itself isn't but it seems the last few Royals games have been during the week.  Normally it takes an hour to get from home to the Sovereign Center in Reading where they play.  Trying to get to a 7:05 game on a weeknight means being in rush hour traffic.  So I have to go into work early to get all my work done because I can not endanger my job of course (it pays the bills!), getting out of work at 4:30, driving the hour (and a half due to traffic) to Reading, having a blast at the game, getting home around 11 PM, and being up for work the next morning.  Do more than one of those a week and I'm exhausted! 

Work is hectic as always and there has been more stress as of late so I find myself worrying a lot at night (not healthy) about work concerns.  I find myself getting angry at peers who are in the same level of position who leave work on time daily and don't seem to sweat the small stuff like I do.  In fact I shouldn't be angry at them and should try to emulate them so I can be less stressed like they are.  At work I have been trying to pick up weekend shifts to earn a little extra $.  Theoretically this has been a good idea but getting up early and working six days a week instead of five has lead to some extra exhaustion and less time to be able to do the fun stuff that helps me de-stress.

So this past week I was off from work.  I did a bad job this year managing my vacation time.  My anniversary at work is the first week of May and that is when I get my vacation time for the following year.  The catch is you can only carry over 40 hours from one year to the next.  As of April 1st I had 96 hours.  So I took 2 days off in the beginning of the month and then I took this past week off.  I got a LOT done this week (although I wish I had more time to get more done).

I went to the gym 5 days last week, got my SUV's maintenance done, went grocery shopping, got a haircut, did spring cleaning in my place including the hot tub room (I hadn't cleaned my place in months).  So now I feel pretty organized and ready to take on the world a bit better.  I find when I'm organized I can get things done much better (DUH right? lol).  So now I have a renewed vigor--I'm refreshed and ready to tackle the world again.  Yesterday (Saturday) was the last class of the semester at the university and I'm off until the middle of May when I teach a Summer session class.  I'll be spending that time working on my syllabus and setting up the online portion of the class which should be fun. 

So that has been what I've been up to.  I do have 3 more hockey games coming up in early May but 2 of them are on a weekend! (yay).  I have a few Iron Pigs games coming up too which will be fun as well.  Despite my stress I am happy to say that physically I am doing well with my new wellness program.  I have been doing well with my exercise and diet (with 1 cheat meal a week).  There have been some noticeable changes and I'm really happy about that.

Well that is my rant for the day!  Thanks for listening!