I haven't been around much since the holidays. Pablo and I were in the UK (which was great fun though very cold) and then when I got back I had some computer problems which seem to be mostly resolved.
Much of the time in the UK was spent seeing family (and happily some friends too). But we did have some time alone and some privacy too. Much more privacy than we had at home, thanks to the generosity of some dear (and delightfully kinky) friends who loaned us their fantastic home while they were away.
To mark both our anniversary (December 29) and the start of a new year Pablo and I talked about what we wanted to do for the coming year. Um, in terms of me and my goals. Obviously looking after me isn't a full time job.
No really, it isn't.
The first and most obvious area was my work. I need to get a chapter of my dissertation done and polished in the next month or two. And I want to be finished by summer 2007. It's time for my life to move on from graduate school.
How it's been going: I've mostly been writing two pages a day 4X a week. Given that I'd been writing no pages a day for years, that's pretty good! Okay, it did take a couple of very painful session with the slipper and wearing my new uniform (more on that later) to get into the routine, but still. I even wrote longhand when I was computer-less. Pablo does help by switching me to my "school girl" profile which has parental controls so I can't get to the internet or any of the fun stuff on my computer until my pages are done. It's been great to watch them slowly add up.
The other was to continue asking permission about eating sugar. See Ivory Woes (all three parts) for more on this.
How it's been going: It's worked both in terms of keeping me healthy and limiting my impulsive sweet tooth. But man is it hard. Yesterday my slippage there and (semi) lying about it earned me a very hard hairbrushing at bedtime. Ouch.
The final is more effort from me in keeping things tidy and organized. I have a tendency (some might call it a gift) for clutter. It's not intentional, but I tend to move on from one thing before picking up the mess from the first. I also don't throw away papers and wrappers that should be thrown out.
How it's been going: I think Pab is easing me/us into this one. Though I've noticed a good deal of increased activity and his mentioning finding stuff and pointing it out to me. There's even been talk of a spoon or the like that would be kept in the kitchen just for this issue. Um, ouch.
We ended up underlining the "discussion" with a caning. I wore my school uniform (a new one bought just that day at John Lewis in Newcastle) and got caned bent over a school desk (I did mention these friends are kinky, right?). I'm not sure how many strokes there were but as I hadn't been caned in almost a year, I definitely felt each one. Maybe it's the haze left on my brain from the caning, but I'm not sure if the rather epic over the knee hairbrushing I got in that same place was part of that night.
So that's where I'm headed in this new year.
