Feisty Radio Silence...

I am tired, my darling readers.  I am so, so very tired.  By that, I don't mean I'm tired of talking about my life (HAH!) or my food (double HAH!).  I just mean, I need sleep and I need an extra, oh, I'll take an extra 3 hours in each day.  See?  I'm not greedy.  I'll take just 3 more hours in a day, during which I could cook, clean up what I've cooked, study,...

This past weekend marks the first weekend, like, in I can't even tell you how long, that I didn't cook a single thing.  Leftovers made dinner on Friday night while studying for my exam on Saturday.  Saturday was mostly spent in school, then finally finally (would you tolerate seeing your girlfriend, whom you'd already been seeing only about once a week, even less than that? when you live in the same damn city and even the same damn borough?!) seeing the boyfriend for a bit, and Sunday was spent in Brooklyn at the 3rd Avenue Festival, part of the time at Robicelli's judging their sandwich contest (it turns out, I'm REALLY good at judging! Who'd have thought?!).  I had little time to breathe, let alone stand in my kitchen and whip up stuff to eat, even if it was only for the rest of the week.  (Well, I did manage to stand in my kitchen for an hour on Saturday, cleaning, so that was good.  Even so, I'm not done yet, there's still stuff to clean, ughhh!  When this happens, I sometimes put an embargo on my kitchen, ie, "No cooking until it's fully clean!" which really, really sucks for me, and I believe I'm about to do so once again.  My kitchen is filthy.) 

I've mentioned my school schedule before, and it's not that I'm complaining - I registered for my own classes, created my own schedule, and decided I could handle it.  And I can.  I know I can handle it.  It's the having-no-time-for-anything-else-but-school-and-schoolwork/studying that is killing me (I'm taking an English class and another writing-intensive class, and yet another class in one of the subjects that are very difficult for me).  I've never been that great with time management, but usually have had enough of it that it didn't matter if I lost a little sleep here and there.  Now, because I'm not budgeting my minutes wisely, things are slipping through the cracks and I hate that feeling.  It isn't pleasant.  I feel guilty for turning down plans to study, then staying home and not studying; I feel guilty for not bringing my lunch and spending too much money on it and then... the inevitable weight gain *frowns at waist* - I am going to have to start going to the gym again, but that takes time that I don't have,... I feel guilty for not spending enough time with my dog!  I feel guilty for everything right now, and you can joke all you want about good ol' Catholic guilt - but I didn't grow up experiencing guilt.  I was one of those people who rarely felt guilty even when she did something wrong.  (MOCK ALL YOU WANT BUT IT'S TRUE!)  Bah. 

And of course, have I mentioned that, with the wonderful help of Jenn at Not Exactly Bento, feistyfoodie.com was launched?!  I recently passed 3 years as The Feisty Foodie (I food blogged intermittently for about a year, year and a half before that, but under a different name) and celebrated by launching the site finally after I'd said in January that I would do it this year!  Whoops!  It's pretty much operational and so purty, just a lil backend work needs to be done (so if you play around with it, let me know if there are any issues you come across, please!).  So go look and tell me if you like what you see :)

So you see how my time is all squished up and just... yeah.  I'm sorry I don't have a bento today, and because I didn't cook all weekend, I probably won't have one for a while :(

But you know, here are some pictures of my lunch on Saturday, between classes.  You'll see these pictures again when I post a product review I'm working on over at Feisty Foodie!  Almond butter and cherry butter on whole grain bread!  Pretty good, a new twist on the classic PB&J, yes? 

It just looks like I won't be bento'ing for a few days more, and I know it's been a while, but I wanted to keep you all posted that I am not neglecting here, I just am barely able to eat between studying/working/schooling.  I am still here!  I am still trying to balance my time!  Anyone has any really good tips or suggestions on how to do this... I am ALL ears! 

In any case, perhaps especially because I can't... think outside the lunchbox!!! 

PS The reason Feisty Foodie is able to keep on with posts while I'm super busy is... whenever I have free time, I write posts and schedule them for the future.  Some of the posts going up are written nearly 2 months in advance (thus having ice cream posts when it's barely 50 outside...)!  Thankfully, before the latest blitz, I managed to schedule posts through almost all of October... phew!