thursdays

today is thursday.  thursday's are about to start changing for me around these parts.  and today is the first thursday of change.

are you a planner like me?  do you look at your completely blank calendar each month and anxiously await, with permanent marker pen in hand, the opportunity to fill it with fun events and social gatherings on every. single. blank. square?  well, i do.  i'm a planner down to my core.  i don't really know when i started over-planning, but it's become a really bad habit for me over the past few years.  i can't say no.  and worse yet, i don't really want to.  

lately, i've been over-booking myself all. the. time.  i can't even seem to help it!  even right now...  while looking at my calendar, i see that i have the weekend of 10.22 and 10.29 [halloween weekend] completely wide-open and free.  oh!  actually, that's a mistake.  i just remembered something i didn't put on there : a halloween party.  so, i actually do have plans on the weekend of the 29th.  and on the weekend of the 22nd [my free weekend], i have scribbled something down there.

apple picking / oktoberfest ?!

even though it's completely bare and empty and open, see what i'm doing?  i'm writing down ideas for things i want to do that weekend.  why?  why can't i just leave it blank?  because i realized that as part of my figurative "all the things i want to do before it's too freezing to do anything" list i've made up in my head, i really want to go apple picking and celebrate oktoberfest somewhere in this month of fall, before it gets too cold in november.  but... is that really necessary?  no, it's not.  but it's still there.  i still wrote it down there.

recently, i've come into contact with a lot of freelance opportunities.  at first, it was just one sort of small thing, and now it's turned into two semi time-consuming things.  but, they're two very great things.  and i was already half-assedly in the market for a second [part-time] job to earn a little more cash.  and the best part about these two new opportunities is, they're things that i already love to do :

1.) take photos. 

2.) find the newest and hottest restaurants and happenings in the DC area.

this almost feels like a win-win, doesn't it?  well, not exactly.  remember that time i joined the gym last week [and could barely type this due to my insanely sore arms from the complimentary personal training session]?  that's my third extracurricular [if you will] activity outside of working full-time at my current job.  and none of this includes : time with friends, boyfriend time, and most importantly : me time.

because i'm known to take on too much at once, and kasi, my wonderful boyfriend knows this and knows me so well [and knows that telling me to give up one of these things will not happen until i have reached my breaking point and decide that i need to let go for the sake of my own sanity], he has come up with some sort of a full-proof damage-control safety-plan for me. 

"set aside an entire day, one day a week, just for you.  no bloomspot, no gym, no blogging.  just you." he said.

well, aren't you just the genius boyfriend i picked up on new years two years ago while in a heavily intoxicated but smitten state of mind.

so that's what i'm going to do.  and you guys, it already feels hard for me.  but i'm going to really try and i'm going to start today.  thursday.  thursday's are going to be my day.

--

does anyone else struggle with this?  with never saying "no" and always saying "yes" and then running yourself ragged and regretting it later?  how do you balance it all?  i'd love to know!