Michael and Melanie

It’s nice to see Melanie posting again! We’ve been pretty bad at keeping everyone up to date with what’s happening, huh? Well, where I last left off, Melanie was on her way back to Canada and I was back at my parents’ place in Wisconsin. Initially we had planned on her coming back in 2-3 weeks (so, now), but it seems like the better option was for her to wait and come back toward the end of the month. It sucks now, but it means the next time she goes back she won’t have to stay in Canada for nearly as long. It also has the added benefit of her being back home for her mom’s birthday, something she hasn’t been able to do for the last couple of years now. All in all, it’s sad we have to be apart for 5 weeks, but it’ll work out in the end.

Things have been incredibly busy State-side lately. I recently accepted a contract-to-hire position doing web development at EPIC Creative. I shadowed a developer last week Friday and officially begin working this coming Monday. Not sure how Reba’s going to be left by herself while my mom is at work. Here’s to hoping she doesn’t destroy anything! On top of that, I’m still going full steam ahead on StageBloc. It’s not ideal that I pick up a full-time job on top of it, but until we’re bringing in steady income from it, I need to in order to pay my way. Throw into the mix half a dozen freelance/side projects and I’m quite busy! This would all be a lot more easily managed if I was better organized.

For years I’ve tried to get myself on a good system, or in an efficient groove that would allow me to focus on what needs to get done and stay sane under higher work loads with minimal stress, all while still having time for myself. The problem is, I get distracted. I don’t sit down and focus on what I need to be doing at the time, and so things don’t get done – or they get half finished – and I’m left with a bunch of loose ends that become more and more frayed the longer it takes me to complete them.

The biggest helper in this area so far has been Melanie. I’m definitely getting better, and in no short order thanks to her pushing me to do so. I know I get frustrated sometimes when she pushes me, even though it’s exactly what I need! So I really appreciate her sticking through it and pushing ahead to help get me to where I want to be – and really need to be if I want to have a comfortable, healthy, happy lifestyle.

In addition to her nudging me in the right direction, I started looking at a tool called Remember The Milk. This is something I’ve heard about for years, but never really looked into. It’s not perfect, and I’m still getting used to it, but it might be something that will help me stay focused at times and assist in prioritizing what needs to be done and when. There’s are browser extensions for it that integrate it with Gmail, but they’ve been having some compatibility issues with it this week, so it’s something I’ll check out in the coming days/weeks.

With the right mindset, good tools at your disposal, and a helping dose of encouragement from those around you, getting focused and organized is definitely an attainable goal. Sometimes the hardest part is realizing you need to make a change, but once you take that first step, if you keep moving your feet, eventually you’ll reach your destination – you just have to pace yourself and go at a speed you’re comfortable with.

Saturday I dropped Melanie off at the Greyhound station in downtown Milwaukee. For those who don’t know yet, USCIS only let her stay for one month this trip, instead of the planned three. Initially they wanted to deny her altogether, then made us fight to get the one month issuance. For whatever reason they seem to thrive on making people suffer and plead for some reasoning before they give you a sliver of what you want.

At any rate, it’s always sad having to say goodbye see you later to someone you love, but this trip was especially difficult. You’d think that after doing it so many times, you’d almost get used to it in a sense. The key difference this time is that we’ve spent literally every day of the past year together, whereas before we’d see each other for one week, maybe two if we were really lucky, before having to be separated again. We’re not giving up, though. Far from it…

We’ve been coming up with things for each other to do, ways to keep ourselves busy so that the three weeks we’re apart will hopefully fly by. After all, it’s hard to believe that we were back in the States for four weeks already! Time just flew by, largely due to how busy we were – which is both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. It’s nice keeping busy, seeing people, and otherwise just being active and productive. However, it is nice sometimes to just sit around with nothing in particular going on.

So, over the next few weeks expect more updates as we keep ourselves busy and occupied while we await the time when we’ll be back together again. Hopefully the updates won’t stop there.