I’m my own worst enemy, when it comes to scheduling myself.

Half of the challenge the last couple of months has been the fact that whenever I have free time—that is to say, evenings and weekends, I have foolishly overbooked myself.

Honestly, I like coming home at the end of the day, cooking dinner, eating dinner, and then relaxing for an hour or two before crawling into bed at a respectable hour – say 9:30 or 10.

However Berlin is full of distractions—whether it is hanging out with Yelli, going to the movies, or whatever – and I end up feeling vaguely stressed and short of sleep.

For example, this week my gym days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – but because I had dinner with a colleague Monday, I shifted Monday’s gym session to first thing in the morning, instead of after work. This isn’t a great idea because I like to do 50 minutes or more of cardio, but I feel guilty spending time on the cardio machine instead of being at the office (of course, I show up late, I stay late—but my mind still feels guilty).

Dinner was excellent – good food, good beer, good conversation, and dessert of two caipirinhas. Needless to say I was a bit drunk at the end of this and had a trip home that took about an hour using public transportation.

I arrived at work, consequently, a bit later than I intended Tuesday—I’d struggled out of bed, then made cookie dough, and then headed to the office where I worked until it was time to go visit Yelli, catch up with the family, and watch some quality television together. I like doing this because they are wonderful people and it makes me make food for more than one person. We baked some cookies (which were excellent) and I managed to get home before 10 and was out by 10:30.

Wednesday, a gym day, was tricky. Two weeks ago I’d scheduled myself to give a presentation between 10 and 12—which was fine, except for the fact that I discovered that a cool movie was playing Wednesday evening. Thus it was impossible to go to the gym before giving the presentation, so I went in the afternoon, before dropping my dirty clothes at home and heading off to join Snooker in Berlin on the east side of Berlin.

Now, about the movie: The Perfect Host – go see it. This is a gem of an independent film about a bank robber who has troubles getting away and ends up forcing his way into a house owned by a man who was, uh… a bit strange; strange enough to make the bank robber look normal. This film was very complicated with a lot of layers—stories being told simultaneously. I would tell you what film it most reminded me of, but that would end up giving away a lot about the film.

The film finished at 10:30, and, like Monday night, it took me about an hour to get home.

Today, happily, was a lot more relaxed. I went to work, got work done, and then went off for my monthly haircut. I love my stylist. He absolutely fucking rocks.

After, I came home, did some laundry, baked the rest of my cookies and… well… took the time to blog.

Life is good.