Can You Believe It's Already November?

Nov 012010

On December 31st, I declared my New Years Resolution:  Make monthly resolutions.

I was on my hiatus when October rolled around, so I never did make any goals for the month.  I do, however, have some good ones for November!

  • Read 1 book – I know, my track record sucks for this one, but I have honestly been doing great with reading. In the last 2 months, I have completed 3 books! I’m currently working on “The Girl who Played with Fire” and am really enjoying it. I honestly think I’m going to finish this one!
  • Drink More Water – Last week, I discovered that drinking lots of water during the day isn’t so hard.  I have my water bottle, and I can fill it as many times as I want at a nearby drinking fountain.  Sure, I have to get up approximately four hundred times during the day to go to the bathroom, but I suppose the health benefit makes the bathroom breaks worth it.  Plus, getting up so much helps keep me alert throughout the day!
  • Apply, apply, apply – Leading up to now, I have been updating my resume and my profiles on various job websites.  Jobs are opening up, so I’d better take advantage of it!
  • Decide on my bedroom setup – Almost all of my apartment is decorated now (pictures will come soon).  Well, all except the bedroom. It consists of nothing but my bedframe.  I don’t have the cash to furnish it now, but I wouldn’t dare start furnishing it until I had a game plan. The game plan is what I want to figure out.
  • Track all expenses – I’ve avoided doing this for years, but this is the month I will finally do it.  Le sigh.
  • Don’t use my credit card – I need to let go of my dependence on this thing.  I know that Black Friday is this month and it’s going to be tough, but I think I will be better for it.
  • Paint my bedframe – Like I said, I’ll be deciding on a bedroom setup this month.  I think I will want to stick with white furniture since I like the “light” and “airy” feeling bedrooms.  My bedframe is currently black, so I plan on painting it white… or any other color I deem appropriate at the end of the month.
  • Go on a date – I KNOW, RIGHT?! I think I’m ready for this.  Now, by date, I certainly don’t mean a relationship.  I’m finally learning to do things on my own, and I like the idea of being comfortable doing things solo.  However, things are getting a little bland, and I wouldn’t mind going out to dinner on a Saturday night.  Of course, this totally implies that someone will want to go out on a date with me soooooo this goal will either result in a happy Heather… or a very depressed “Agh no one likes me, I am such a loser” Heather.
  • Complete NaBloPoMo (again) – November is a big month in the blogosphere (what a silly term). Don’t ask me why… but with NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo going on, you’ll find a lot of people stressed out because they’re not meeting their word quotas. I’m going to do NaBloPoMo, but I’m going to complete the Thirty Days of Truth challenge… so it shouldn’t be too bad since I have 30 days of prompts. More on that tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to the end of the year and the beginning of a new one!

Additionally, for those of you participating in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and/or NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I wish you the best of luck!

I'm Ready for the Best Jetlag of my Life

Sep 092010

In approximately 36 hours, I will embark on my trip to the Philippines. I apologize for the late notice in this: I have only known about it for about a month now. I have also had only about 1400 chances to write about it.

I was excited about it a few days ago, but now that the day is here and it’s finally “go time”, I am more stressed than anything. I get fun travel perks because I work for an airline, but at the same time I have to remember that I can only get onto flights that have some open seats available. I hate the possibility of getting bumped from a flight. I hate knowing that we might have to end up doing some fancy, last-minute maneuvering to get to where we want to go (or to sleep in an airport for a few nights). While I know I need to stop whining about it… ugh… until I am on the plane and it is taking off into the sky (or I drink approximately 3 margaritas), the little knot in my stomach is going to hang out with me and make me worry about everything.

ANYWHOOZLE~

My Mom and my friend Brad (otherwise known as Don Keylips) will be going with me! My Mom’s side of the family is in the Philippines so I get to have a fun meet & greet with all of them. My Mom is, of course, excited to see all of her family and old friends. Brad loves to travel, so he’s pretty amped about a local experience.

I wish I had more exciting/awesome to say. Like I’m going to climb coconut trees or step on sea urchins or something (I did that when I was a kid). Buuutttt I’m just gonna take some deep breaths, chill the F out, and get ready for a fun vacation.

I plan on doing as many video blogs as I can, so get ready to see some AWESOME VIDEOS of me having nothing to say in a public area where everyone thinks I’m weird for talking to a camera :-D

Catch ya’ll on the other side of the world!

September's Goals

Sep 022010

On December 31st, I declared my New Years Resolution:  Make monthly resolutions.

I went to bed last night thinking there was something I was forgetting to do.  My resolutions!  DUH!!

Soooo August’s goal was deceiptively simple.  Figure stuff out.

Unfortunately, I’m not able to say whether or not I succeeded.  And admittedly, this goal was probably really stupid because there was no way I could come out of the month saying I accomplished it.  At the time, I was having this huge internal struggle regarding what to do with my relationship with Dan.  I made my decision, and while I suppose that means I technically “figured stuff out”, I don’t really have a game plan.  Nothing is really figured out.  I am sitting in an apartment lobby with a few strangers eating oreos and writing in my blog.  Not so exciting.  And to say I achieved this goal implies (to me) that it’s all set in stone and life may commence.  To fail at this goal implies I made no progress toward getting what I want (whatever that is) and am sitting stagnant.  And so, dear readers, I will not be claiming victory or defeat.  But things are good with me and I am happy :)

Regarding September’s goals, here is what I have planned

1) Read 2 books – I am totally stupid for making this goal, but whatever.  I am going to the Philippines this month (have I mentioned that yet?) and that means LOTS of plane time.  If I can’t finish at least one book, I give up on life.

2) Make at least 1 video blog – I enjoyed making my video blog when I was in Peru earlier this month.  Ideally, I think it would be cool to make 1 video blog a day while on vacation to show you a little of the country I am in, but I think that’s a pretty hefty goal.  ESPECIALLY when I have no way of knowing how reliable my internet connection will be.  So at least 1 would be perfect :)

3) Stop multitasking so much – I watched a movie tonight.  Not “surfed the web and watched a movie”.  Not “wrote up a blog post and watched a movie”.  Not “cooked and watched a movie”.  I just watched a movie.  It was glorious.  It was also probably the first time I have done that in years.

4) Wash my face every night before bed – I am awful at this, and I really need to get better at it.  So a goal it shall be.

5) Write a blog post more than once a week – I enjoy my attempt at trying to make things interesting that really aren’t interesting at all.  Like when I went to the self-serve gas station.  Or stupid things that happen at work.  More uninteresting blog posts, here I come!

6) Have a great birthday – I might be spending my birthday this year alone.  I tried to arrange a trip to Wicked with some girlfriends, but that didn’t really work out.  I am accepting that this year maybe my birthday won’t be the special day it typically is where I am showered in gifts and love… and instead I have to just kind of chill by myself with a positive attitude… and that’s okay.  23, I’m ready for you.

And that, my friends, is all I have.  Happy September!

July Goals

Jul 032010

On December 31st, I declared my New Years Resolution:  Make monthly resolutions.

Okay… July… this one is going to be good.

  • Begin learning a new calligraphy alphabet – I’ve done very well with the formal italic, so it’s time I start something new.  I haven’t decided what yet… we’ll see.  Katharine left a few comments on my blog, and she has a calligraphy website (calligraphy-skills.com) that I plan on learning from!
  • Finish my book – I am such a disgrace to literate people everywhere.
  • Get to know my new Little Sister – I joined Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I met my new Little yesterday!! She seems really sweet, so I’m excited to get to know her.  I hope she likes me too :)
  • Call my old little sister – By old, I mean… you know… related by blood.  I love her to death, but we don’t talk much. We should catch up!
  • Continue teaching Prandtl to roll over – I’ve been working on this for a few weeks now, but she is S-L-O-W… if I push her over, she gets the idea, but she still won’t do it on her own. I would say “teach Prandtl to roll over”, but I don’t really have a lot of faith in her learning (or my teaching) abilities.
  • Participate in Bloggerstock – It is basically a big blog-swap that I’ve been wanting to do for a few months.
  • Save $700 – $1000 just seemed unrealistic with my student loan bills.. and $500 didn’t seem like enough.
  • Get more sleep – I have been tired nonstop for the last 2 weeks… so I really need to do something to get my sleeping schedule back on track.

Admittedly, I didn’t make this too tough on myself.  I don’t really have too much going on right now, and in August I’ll be moving and this list will be full of fun home improvement projects.

Maybe I should take  bets on whether I will finally read one complete  book (… 7 months into the year)

3 out of 8? This Is Getting Worse & Worse

Jun 302010

On December 31st, I declared my New Years Resolution:  Make monthly resolutions.

How did I do for June?

  • Read 1 Book – I’m 50% through… I have been reading “Eating Animals”… but I didn’t finish this one :(
  • Run 3 miles 3 times -  and I didn’t run 3 miles once.. so I failed. But the point of this goal was to get myself to exercise regularly. I have been through tennis walking etc, but I just didn’t run. So while I achieved the point of this goal, I didn’t achieve the goal exactly.
  • Do/See 5 touristy things in the twin cities - Done! There are so many great things here!!
  • Post pictures of my trip to Peru – Done!!
  • Re-de-credit card debt myself – I don’t even know why I kept this one… I had no shot at this. Not even close.
  • Paint my end table – Uhh… no… I could think of excuses, but I won’t.
  • Apply to 5 jobs – I looked a lot, but only ended up applying to 2 or 3 since I wanted to stay in the Twin Cities. So… Nope.
  • Organize the closet by the bedroom – I did it! And let me just say… it looks damn good in there.

3 out of 8? This is getting really bad…

June Resolutions

Jun 022010

On December 31st, I declared my New Years Resolution:  Make monthly resolutions.

When I made my May resolutions, I forgot to factor in that I would be leaving on vacation for two weeks.  I also didn’t forsee that I would be sick approximately 1 week before leaving and a few days after my return.  That vacation/illness pretty much trashed nearly all of my resolutions.

Due to the special circumstances, I didn’t think it was necessary to make two posts regarding the resolutions.  I also didn’t consider it necessary to think up a whole new list of resolutions.  Instead, I’m going to repeat the month of May like it never happened (at least as far as my resolutions are concerned).

I’m kind of beating around the bush here.  What I’m really trying to say is that I’m going to be repeating my May resolutions for June.

  • Read 1 Book - Oh yes – the resolution that will never die
  • Run 3 miles 3 times - I ran 3 miles last month, but I waited until the last day and FORCED myself to do it (despite running only twice prior… 3 weeks earlier). I figure that doing it three times will require more of a regular workout regimine.
  • Do/See 5 touristy things in the twin cities - I’m still new here, and the weather is getting nice enough for me to be outdoors. It’s time I embrace my new home and see what there is to see! I’m not sure exactly where I’ll go yet though.. (suggestions gladly welcomed)
  • Post pictures of myself without makeup on the internets - Admittedly, this one is kind of a freebie for myself… but this is going to take me some guts anyway. I have a blog post in mind that will require this goal to be completed… look out for it soon! Post pictures of my trip to Peru
  • Re-de-credit card debt myself  - You can thank my loyal commentor Don Keylips for the wording on that one. Bye bye debt (again)!
  • Paint my end table - I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile now, and now that the weather is warmer I can finally go outside to do it.
  • Apply to 5 jobs - It’s no secret I don’t want to hang out at this job forever, so my goal is to apply to at least 5 this month. And I don’t mean ANY jobs… I’m talking about inserting myself into a career I really want to be in.
  • Organize the closet by the bedroom - That place is a wreck. PLUS I totally love The Container Store.

Sure, maybe this is cheating, but I honestly had no hope for doing any of these last month.  Well, aside from read the book – believe it or not, I really did read!

May Resolutions

May 032010

On December 31st, I declared my New Years Resolution:  Make monthly resolutions.

OOPS! I didn’t forget to post for this month, but time just kept slipping by and before I knew it the 3rd crept up on me. For May I’d like to:

  • Read 1 Book - Oh yes – the resolution that will never die
  • Run 3 miles 3 times - I ran 3 miles last month, but I waited until the last day and FORCED myself to do it (despite running only twice prior… 3 weeks earlier). I figure that doing it three times will require more of a regular workout regimine.
  • Do/See 5 touristy things in the twin cities - I’m still new here, and the weather is getting nice enough for me to be outdoors. It’s time I embrace my new home and see what there is to see! I’m not sure exactly where I’ll go yet though.. (suggestions gladly welcomed)
  • post pictures of myself without makeup on the internets - Admittedly, this one is kind of a freebie for myself… but this is going to take me some guts anyway. I have a blog post in mind that will require this goal to be completed… look out for it soon!
  • Re-de-credit card debt myself  – You can thank my loyal commentor Don Keylips for the wording on that one. Bye bye debt (again)!
  • Paint my end table - I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile now, and now that the weather is warmer I can finally go outside to do it.
  • Apply to 5 jobs - It’s no secret I don’t want to hang out at this job forever, so my goal is to apply to at least 5 this month. And I don’t mean ANY jobs… I’m talking about inserting myself into a career I really want to be in.
  • Organize the closet by the bedroom – That place is a wreck. PLUS I totally love The Container Store.

This is going to be the month I finally get all of these things accomplished. I can feel it!!

Has anybody else made resolutions for themselves this month?

April Resolutions... Le Sigh

May 012010

On December 31st, I declared my New Years Resolution:  Make monthly resolutions.

I think that most of you know the drill by now. This April, I made myself some goals. Lets see how I did!

  • Run 3 miles by the end of the month - DONE! I will be completely honest, though. I ran a total of 3 times this month. The first time I went a little over a mile. The second time I went two miles. The third time? Well that occurred about an hour ago just so I could say I did this. I am going to regret it tomorrow when I can’t even get out of bed tomorrow because the pain is so intense.
  • Post more often – Uhh.. NO. It’s tied. After this post, I will have posted 13 times this month. In the month of March, I posted 13 times. The goal was to post MORE (not the same)… so this is a fail.
  • Eat 1 fruit a day - ABSOLUTELY! And everybody told me this goal was kind of lame. But whatever. This goal was the only thing that got me to eat fruit on some days.
  • Continue to stay credit card debt free – I forgot I made this a goal……. and I totally FAILED :(
  • Build savings – COMPLETED. Please don’t rob me.
  • Read 1 book – … If I said FAIL would anybody really be surprised?
  • Keep my google calendar up to date – COMPLETED. And it definitely saved me once in awhile, too.

4 out of 7 accomplished. One of these days, I will be able to say I completed all of them.

I Ran 1.32 Miles Along the Mississippi, and All I Got Was This Stupid McChicken Sandwich

Apr 042010

Yesterday, after a grueling 2.5 hour work day, I felt inspired to run.

So I put on my running shoes, mapped out a 1.32 mile path, put Prandtl on a leash, attached my house key and a plastic bag to her collar (in case she had to… you know… GO) and left.

If you didn’t notice from the list above, I DID NOT bring an mp3 player. My reasoning is two-fold.

  1. My shorts have no pockets and Dan yelled at me when I considered attaching anything else to Prandtl. He shouted something along the lines of “She is not a pack mule!” But for the record, she’d be cooler if she was
  2. Thanks to four years in marching band, my feet still move with the beat of the music. God forbid “Overnight Celebrity” by Twista is followed by 3 songs that just so happen to be dance remixes. I will throw up. No doubt about it.
  3. Okay, I just thought of one more. I ran 4 years of high school track and cross country without an mp3 player. I find that I am a lot more comfortable without it. I like hearing what’s going  on around me. Plus, I have to constantly reassure Prandtl she’s doing a good job and I want to make sure I’m not trying to yell at her above my music. It’s kind of pathetic how sensitive she is.

The run wasn’t so bad. Admittedly, we did have to stop for a few seconds – Prandtl had to pee at the halfway point. But besides that, we moved at a pretty consistent pace and I know that I probably could have pushed myself to two miles if I had really wanted to. But I was proud of myself! I haven’t ran in over a year (maybe more), have not worked out a single day for the last 2+ months, and I was still able to go over a mile. Pardon me while I pat myself on the back. And don’t worry – I congratulated myself that that evening with two McChicken sandwiches loaded with mayonnaise. And a coke.

And today? Well, today my legs hurt any time they move. Tying my shoes is painful, and so is picking things up off the floor. Past experience has taught me that the best way to help sore legs is to exercise a little to loosen then up, so I went hiking in the woods with Dan and Prandtl, but that was the most painful hike of my life. And past experience has also taught me that tomorrow will probably hurt more than today. UUGGHHHH!!

I really believe that the 3 mile goal I set for myself is going to be easy. I could probably do it by the end of next week if I really wanted to. And now that I typed that for all the world to see, it is going to rain nonstop for the next three weeks and I’m not going to succeed at that resolution. Awesome. And I suppose I could up the resolution to 5 miles, but I really don’t see the point in running that long. I lose interest. Worst case, 5 miles will take me about 50 minutes to run. That’s almost an hour of running. Impatient people such as myself have trouble coming to terms with that. We like to believe we have better things to do (even though we are pretty aware that we really don’t).

So, while getting in shape and being able to go up a flight of stairs without having to catch my breath is the goal, the McChicken sandwiches are the biggest motivation. Is anybody else guilty of congratulating themselves on a workout well done by eating deep fried food or ice cream cones full of fatty things? Maybe my definition of “healthy” is a little different than everyone else’s.

April Resolutions

Apr 022010

On December 31st, I declared my New Years Resolution:  Make monthly resolutions.

April will (hopefully) find me completing the following:

  • Run 3 miles by the end of the month – I know I have been AWFUL about working out the last two months, but maybe I’ll somehow pull 3 miles out of my butt (uhh.. that statement makes me uncomfortable. I could delete it, but it’s so weird, I feel the need to keep it)
  • Post more often – March was an off month for me and I barely kept you people updated with kind of lame stories about people I work with and awkward situations at full service gas stations. But don’t worry, it’s my goal to post more often. I don’t want to quantify it since I feel that requiring myself to do it X times a week will just have me posting garbage (Nablopomo anyone?). So “more” is where this will stand.
  • Eat 1 fruit a day – Healthy eating has basically been, for lack of a better word, CRAPPY. Plus, I super love fruit :)
  • Continue to stay credit card debt free – YAY!
  • Build savings  – I’m a firm believer in having some emergency money
  • Read 1 book – This resolution is staying around, even if I never accomplish it.
  • Keep my google calendar up to date – I tend to get kind of disorganized at times. I start with good intentions, but eventually taper off. Things might get hectic for me this month, so I need to make sure I don’t forget stuff.

 Happy April everybody!

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