Strike while the iron is hot

It had been so long since I had logged on here to blog, I actually could not remember my way around. Talk about embarrassing! That certainly did not make me feel good about following through with things. That’s always been a struggle of mine, and one I’m especially not proud of because 20 something years later and the problem has only gotten worse.

I recently had two months that flew by in about 6 days. I was working more than usual and I reveled in the excuse that I had no time to [insert pretty much anything here]. Now that I’ve caught up, I am feeling really motivated to improve myself. I’ve started studying Japanese again, picked back up on my volunteering, and hopefully will get back to writing more often.

No.

I WILL get back to writing more often.

I read an article that said if you’re dieting, don’t say “I can’t eat that”, but rather “I don’t eat that”. A/N: Have I mentioned how amazing psychology and language are? Sociolinguistics for the win! Our attitudes have such a profound effect on what we perceive is happening to us and how we react. Any time you want to make a major life change it starts in your mind, in your heart. Whether it’s losing weight, learning a new skill, or creating good habits, you need to believe in yourself or you will fail.

So I will relearn Japanese and exceed my former knowledge now that it cannot affect my GPA. And I will keep up my writing, on blogs, fiction, etc. And I will totally get a little bit more fit, preferably before Halloween so I can pull off a super cute costume.

After all, nothing says successful adult like coordinated Halloween costumes.

#GiveIt100

I’m a bit proud of how productive I’ve been today. Maybe not productive compared to an actual, successful human being, but for me it’s not bad. I didn’t binge out of boredom (thank you Sims, for the distraction), I worked out (almost made it 2/3 of the way through an awesome pop Pilates session), wore a retainer, wanted to rip the teeth from my head because said retainer HURT LIKE HECK, and fixed a job application I MAY have messed up yesterday. Okay, did mess up. But it’s fixed, and that’s what matters!

So why today? Because I vowed to try to be a better person for 100 days. Not spiritually or morally better, mind you. But more successful. 100 days of working out, 100 days of not pigging out, 100 days of trying to make myself pretty (see retainer), and 100 days of working towards some sort of career (blogging counts). I mean, that should be plenty of time to create a bona fide habit, right?

A wonderful habit like waking up early to prepare a delicious, nutritious breakfast and Irish coffee every morning.

I was pretty much inspired by this chick. She participated in something called giveit100, only I think she’s trying to take it a step further and continue her project for a full 365 days. What’s cool is the variety of things people will dedicate 100 days to achieve. (Seriously, browsing this website is a pretty cool waste use of my time.) So, I’m planning to do something similar. Only, never one to aim for a realistic goal, I’m trying to do a bunch of things for 100 days. And I don’t think I want 100+ videos of myself doing menial tasks floating around on the internet, so I’m not going to go through the website, which asks users to upload a video daily, as cool as I think it is.

My 2014 resolutions all had a similar theme. Apparently, I want to be a trophy wife. I want to be fit, I want to be organized, I want to learn to cook, etc. Hopefully, my 100 days will help me get closer to that illusive, probably fictitious version of trophy wife (complete with a dream job) I’m hoping to become.

100 days of:
-Working out
-Eating better (or just less)
-Cleaning/organizing (even just cleaning up after myself will be an improvement)
-Taking care of my body (wearing a retainer, flossing, little stuff like that)
-Writing/blogging
-Spending quality time with the fur kid
-Finding and documenting (finally a use for Instagram!) something small that makes me happy

Something like watching my fur kid have the time of her life trying to catch water from a fountain

Making a Summer To-Do List

This summer will be the first since I graduated high school that I won’t have a job and/or take classes. Unless I decide to take classes. But I really don’t want to. I don’t know what the eff to do with my degree, but if I add classes (especially science classes) I’m afraid I’ll drag down my GPA. But if I just graduate, I’ll be graduating Summa Cum Laude bitches!!! (Don’t you dare say a word about my majors being ‘easy’. They weren’t the hardest, but I also worked and volunteered. It’s not like I screwed around.)

So anyway, I decided I didn’t want to waste what might be my last free summer. Ever. *gulp*

The original plan was to take a vacation, but I only wanted to go to the most expensive places, and decided I’d rather save the money to go to Japan or England next year than spend it on a cruise or trip to NYC this year. Priorities! (Side note: Youtube just played an ad for something called Contiki vacations while I was writing this. We are being watched!)

It’d be nice to go back. Maybe this time with clothes appropriate for snow! (That’s what I get for listening to the weather channel.)

Besides, I’ll spend next semester literally living at Disney World, the happiest place on Earth. I may work a ton of hours, but it’s not like I won’t be able to have fun. I mean, I’ll get into the parks for free. That’s kind of a vacation!

Me, my boyfriend, and our best friends from high school at Epcot.

So now I’m going to make this summer productive. I have the usual: lose weight, make sure I can pass my lifeguard test when I get to Disney, etc.

But I also have some special things I want to get done, and I figure if I publish them for all to see (though I know few will see it), then I’ll just have to do them.

I need to get scuba certified. Not because I’m itching to go diving, but because an internship I want requires it.

I have a goal to either freelance at least ONE paid article, blog post, or… I don’t know, whatever else I can freelance and/or finish a serious writing project. Like, one that has the potential to pay. As in a novel, a children’s book, or at least I could make the move from wordpress.com to .org on my rescue blog so I can get some revenue from ads and such. (Anything I got from that would fittingly go to rescue causes, rather than my own bank account, but that’s definitely a win in my book.)

But it’s got to be better than the children’s story I wrote for one of my classes this semester. Which shouldn’t be too hard. I wrote is as if I was ten. I set the bar pretty low.

I have another goal to get a decent list of topics to write about on my rescue blog while I’m at Disney, because I certainly won’t be able to foster during that time, and I refuse to have Dream Big, Bark Loudly go under. Even better if I can write a bunch and save them as drafts to publish when I get busy.

This is the actual banner for DBBL. The title in my computer says “Death Row to Dream Homes”, because that was the original title, but the bf insisted it was a bit too macabre.

And my final goal (well, the final difficult goal) is to learn to sew or crochet or something. I wanted to start a little business where all proceeds went to rescue, but I lack the skills to actually make things. Hopefully I can change that soon and get to work!! I’ve been planning it since March and I’m itching to get started!

I had the idea to sell my paintings, and then I realized only my family would buy my paintings, if this was as good as they were going to get.

And I thought maybe I could sell my beautiful homemade ramen, but the mail person didn’t look pleased when I asked if he could ship soup very carefully.

So hopefully this summer will be both relaxing and productive! And of course, I hope the same for each and every one of you. If you have kids, I especially hope you get to spend some time doing crafts and playing games with them. =)

It’s straight out of a horror film

My new passport photo, that is.

Let me tell you about my day, and the lessons I’ve learned. It was a busy, learnin’ day. The first thing I did today was get my passport application turned in and take a picture for it.

Good Lord, let me tell you. Don’t take it with wet hair – blow dry it and drown it in hairspray. Volume, volume, volume. Wear stage make-up, or it won’t show up! The internet told me it didn’t matter what shirt I wore, but it really did. A unisex shirt (Captain America ftw!!) on broad shoulders did NOT look fantastic. Add that to me feeling worse than usual about my weight (as demonstrated by my round freaking face) and you have a major disappointment. Why don’t they just save our pictures in some sort of system? My driver’s license picture was the best I will EVER do on one of those things. I feel it should be used for every ID I need in the future.

I’m no model, but this is better than… you’ll see

Ew. THIS will be the first impression airport workers and cruise terminal workers have of me. Someone too lazy to bother drying their hair before they take a photo that will haunt them for years… It’s like a flipping mug shot!

So I learned THAT.

Then I went to complete a couple of extra credit experiments for class (because it would be a shame to slaughter my GPA in my last semester). And I learned not to trust Burlington Coat Factory. Or Nine West. But my Nine West shoes still work, so I kinda wanna say this was Burlington…

I got to carry my bag in my arms all day. I’m pretty sure I looked like an idiot…

So, after that and a meeting with my academic adviser (about the Disney College Program), I got to take my foster dog to the groomer. He looks much better now, but the drive was a nightmare. Not only because I got incredibly lost (I was never blessed with a mental map), but because foster (Brody) saw me stressing and started to grow anxious as well. He finally couldn’t take the tension anymore and he crapped in my car. So I rolled down the windows and I cried the rest of the drive to the groomer. Because dogs relieve stress with poop, and I do it with tears.

And finally, on the way home (after a cathartic cry, a clean dog, and some new stuff from Target) I also learned the new Butter Pecan Dunkin Donuts  iced coffee is freaking delicious. If you like coffee, go try it.

And a small was just $2.14!!

So after a busy day, I leave you with a few life lessons: You will probably regret not properly preparing for your passport photo, no matter how much you think you don’t care about what others think. Your dog feeds off your anxiety, so take a deep breath and relax! And finally, COFFEE!!!!

I learned a “grown up” lesson today

Eventually I expect to learn many adult lessons, but I wasn’t ready for this one. It was a bit embarrassing for me. (That’s life, I know, get over it.)

I returned home from class this afternoon to see a note on my door from the office of my apartment complex (AKA my bosses/coworkers). Did you realize it’s already the sixth? I didn’t. So I was late paying rent. Which, FYI, is SUPER humiliating if you work for the office.

So, the lesson I’ve decided to take away from this is to set an alarm in my phone for the last day of every month, reminding myself to pay rent. Because apparently my memory won’t take care of that for me.

Save yourself some humiliation (and a late fee) and consider this a lesson learned. I just did the work for you.  😉

Diaries

Exercise one in self-improvement.

I usually call my mother at least every other day. Nothing against my dad, I love him too, he’s just not much of a phone talker. Besides, I’m sure mom tells him everything anyway, which doesn’t bother me at all.

About a month ago, my mom basically said I was a drag, only sugarcoated. Apparently my venting is getting to be a bit much. She suggested I keep a diary.

Fun fact, I hate my handwriting.

So instead, I write a drabble every so often on the computer to try and vent. Well, it’s not exactly a drabble. Drabbles are short, fictional stories. Mine are short, but they’re generally not fiction. But, since I can’t think of the correct word, I’ll just call it that anyway.

I used to write and draw to get all the muck out of my head and it worked pretty well in high school, so I guess it should now, too. Don’t know why I forgot about that, I used to do it pretty much every day. And I was so mentally stable then (insert sarcasm font). We’ve all been angsty teens, I don’t think I was unusual. Well, not too much at least.

Anyway, the point of this post is that if your confidants are tired of hearing you moan and groan, write it down.

Help Others and Help Yourself, Too

It seems as though this blog is not my top priority, and that’s kind of true. I’ve spent a good deal of effort on my foster blog lately, which I finally feel is paying off. For the first time, I have readers from other countries! Just yesterday, my blog played in integral role in reuniting a lost cat with his owner. I had no idea that would happen! I was just hoping to find him an adopter!

But, as much as I love helping people (and animals!) with the other blog, this one is about bettering myself, and that is very important to me as well. If I’m not growing, then I’m stunting my own growth, and that’s just not acceptable. So, February’s goal (or one of them, at least!) is to update BOTH of my blogs. To help others, but help myself as well.

Hopefully all of you over-worked and under-appreciated employees, parents, students, whatever you are, can do this same.

Dinging in the new year

2012 is coming to a close and my vacation is ending. I’ve been spending my time lazing around my apartment imagining new year’s resolutions and simultaneously giving my soul to Netflix. (In case you were wondering, it’s worth it. Sherlock is very much worth my soul.) Anyway, when I got up this morning to take Lana (my dog) out to go potty, I saw a huge dent in my car. Like, a big one. On my nice car. It’s not BMW nice, but it’s nicer than my old car was. So naturally I was fuming upset, but I keep telling myself it’s just a car. And deep down I know that. (What I’m really upset about it the lack of apology, but whatever, what can you do?) So how is that related to my new year’s resolutions?

Well, this little accident feels so perfectly timed. For me to see this on the last day of this year makes me feel like I should learn something from it to apply to next year (yes, I believe in signs, if that offends you, suck it up and stop being so easily offended). I’ve got to learn to let the little things slide and not to worry myself over things I can’t change. So tonight, in an attempt to be an optimist, I’m not “ringing in” the new year, I’m “dinging in” the new year.

I am corny, I am super uncool, but I already feel better. A smidgen. But that’s better than not at all! So imagine me lifting my mug of Irish Coffee, if you will, as I say, “here’s a toast to 2013 – a year of being the best I can, preparing for life as a young adult, and painting my own silver linings, because they’re not going to create themselves.” I hope that you might consider your own goals this year, too.

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“Every man should be born again on the first day of January.  Start with a fresh page.  Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.”
-Henry Ward Beecher