Image Make Overs Are Overrated

This is NOT me, she even spells her name differently, so there. 

So it has happened. The undergrads are all back in the campus. In characteristic style, a large team of workers has taken it upon themselves to fully dig up the road outside the building where our classes are. They have blocked up about 3/5ths of the road. One can't drive, walk, cycle, or breathe forget about parking or anything nice like that. The campus is bursting at the seams, I swear.

I am getting that familiar Friday evening feeling of being bone tired, but in a good way. However, this I admit. I started the week thinking that I would transform myself a bit this semester. Image Make Over Baby! I kept telling myself. Vaguely defined, I admit, but I had a few thoughts:

• Wear sarees more often
• Be super organised with daily calendar and meetings
• Be ultra prepared for class with all fun things lined up
• Shoo off anyone who comes to see me without an appointment
• Be serious and firm about rules like the above
• No compromise on exercise + no junk

Let's see how it went and a bit of projection about what I expect to happen. On Monday I wrote a brand new saree and was well prepared for class. Actually I was over ambitious and could only cover ~60% of the material I had planned. No worries, 'cause I used it for Tuesday's class. The other classes went fine as well and I used coloured chalk and stuff.

I gave a talk outside campus - at a local college here on Thursday. I wore a gigantic saree. Traveled a long way. Gave my long talk, had lots of exercises planned which they (who are professors themselves) participated in enthusiastically. It was super fun. I excused myself from lunch and rushed back but traffic made me miss an informal session in lab I had planned.

Lots of people came and got signatures and asked "Two minutes ma'am" type doubts and the phone guy called tons of times to tell me he has fixed my new office phone. I had to be called frantically by my student for a meeting that I semi-forgot. And when another student called me a day in advance to remind me well in time about his meeting, I had a panic attack (almost) 'cause I thought I was late to meet him.

I suddenly discovered (seriously, this shouldn't come as a surprise) that I have Lab class. The lab is large, warm, toasty and dusty. It would be good practice to wear closed shoes to the class. Saree + Sneakers! UGH! So while I did OK on saree wearing and generally being decently attired this week, prognosis is not good. I am likely to fall back to my usual well worn pants and kurtas and stuff, specially with the house painting going on.

I was too zonked and had all sorts of pains Mon-Tue-Wed so I have essentially had three good exercise days this week so far. The cycle ride was fun as was the workout I cranked out yesterday on the terrace. And today I woke up extra early to make sure I got my workout - which was hard, but possibly not hard enough (lift to failure? Seriously, I need a better handle on that).

In short, my make over has ended before it even began. The future, it's bleak. I am me, and shall remain so. Messy, distracted, hair all piled up on my head, and wearing ill fitting clothes. Yep. Me.