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Terms of the Duel

New-Year's resolutions have a pronounced and infamous tendency to fall by the wayside by, say, the 1st of February. Perhaps, however, that is because they are resolved upon, adhered to, and discarded, by solitary individuals. Perhaps what's needed is some good old-fashioned competitive spirit.

The participants:

  1. Ilya Gandelman - desk jockey from 9-5:30, Monday thru Friday. Free time activities include, but are not limited to, writing, reading, watching tv/movies (very selective in this area!), eating Meredith's delicious food, playing with Gizmo, spending time with family and friends.
  2. Meredith Gandelman - also a desk jockey, from 9-6, Monday thru Friday. Free time activities include, but are not limited to, reading, watching tv/movies, cooking/baking for Ilya (and others), snuggling/playing with Gizmo and spending time with family and friends.

The resolutions:

  1. To read more books
  2. To watch less television
  3. To spend less money (by reading library books, and by making our way through unread volumes gathering dust on the shelves)
  4. To spend more quality time together with a shared interest

Therefore, the challenge proposed: who can read the most books in a year? On one side the wife, on the other the husband: who'll get the most volumes under her or his belt before 2015?

The rules:

  1. Books will be chosen independently. Any genre or subject is eligible.
  2. No second thoughts once starting a book. An uncompleted book is not counted, except of course as time lost. We shall have to choose carefully; and if a book seems to be disappointing, best to soldier on through to the end!
  3. A 300-page minimum. However, books briefer than 300 pages may be combined with others to count as one entry in the Duel.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Sometimes life just gets in the way

Pages read Yesterday, 1/8/13: 132 for Meredith, 7 for Ilya

Yesterday was just a bad day for me.  A long day filled with a bunch of unpleasant encounters.  One of those days where I actually wished there was a way to time travel.  Time travel, though, in a way that would allow me to actually change things without some kind of catastrophic consequences for the future.  Alas, this isn't possible.  We just have to roll with the punches in life and try to find a way to learn from our mistakes and become better people in the process.  And actually, on second thought, from everything that happens to Henry in The Time Traveler's Wife as a result of his time travel (or in connection with), I think I'll just stick with the punches from life.
Anyway... by the time I was done with the long, bad day at work, was done with my overtime work at home last night, Ilya was done with his writing and we actually sat down to do some reading, we were both so exhausted that we passed out in a matter of minutes.  My decent page count for reading was only because I had extra time in the morning and had time to read on breaks and lunch at work. 
Ilya didn't have those opportunities, as he was using his free time for last minute preparations for his interview (which he says went well, he just wished he had been a little farther along in the timeline of interviews so he wouldn't get lost in the shuffle).
Today is a new day, though.  I have dusted off the debris from yesterday and am determined to have a better day today, and Ilya and I both have big plans of getting in some quality reading time tonight.
Happy Thursday!
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