now, if i could only follow my own advice

January is winding to an end, and I have told Lee (my supervisor) that I would send his some writing by the end of the month. I am working towards having a draft chapter finished by the end of the week, and I think I'm finally feeling the need to live up to the deadlines I set for myself. This past week, I had to have a difficult conversation with one of my students, who had yet to submit two assignments for my class, both of which had been due in the fall. It turned out that she had completed the assignments, but had refused to submit them out of fear that they were not good enough. She's a high-achiever and clearly a perfectionist. Her predicament and her self-diagnosis of "self-sabotage" was all too familiar. I had plenty of advice for her, and fortunately, she appreciated my support and submitted both assignments within a day of our conversation. I won't go into the details of the advice I shared with her, but truly, I need to heed my own advice and keep going with my writing and avoid sabotaging my own success.

I started my spinning class last week (the cardio-box class is not fitting into my schedule so well), and it was awesome. I had taken a spinning class two years ago, and I loved it. I should have never quit. It wasn't the same without my sidekick Brigit, but it was really great all the same. I'm going to look into adding a second class to my schedule, if I can find one with the same instructor that works with my timetable.

My weekly adventures in cooking haven't begun for 2010. When we came back to Toronto after Christmas, Phil cooked up a load of curries and sauces to go with rice and pasta, and we've been working our way through the freezer ever since. We're nearing the end of the seafood marinara, so I may start up again in February, which is only a week away. I've alreadt flagged the recipes from my new cookbooks I want to try.

Well, I'm at the coffee shop I discovered last week, Holy Oak. It's a quiet spot with great coffee and free wi-fi. That being said, I will now get back to my thesis. Thanks for checking in.