Here I am...
...and the year is 2011. I'm not entirely sure where the past two - almost three - years have gone. I feel like I'm still in a holding pattern; I haven't moved forward at all in this time. At the same time, I am content. There are things I want and need in my life, but I am also good with where I am. Well, except for one glaring problem, but I'm working on that. I don't generally do New Year's resolutions; as I told a friend on Facebook, I'm really more of a September resolutions. Ah, how school has marked me. Today, however, I am feeling excited about making new beginnings or some such, so I'm going to throw some of those ideas out here. They're not resolutions precisely, just a cataloging of things that I always mean to work on to improve my life / myself.
First, however, because I failed to update here much at all last year, I will write a quick summary of last year. I am still living with my sister and her family. My niece is still horrifically cute. Early in the year, I got promoted to lead cashier at the store. That came with more hours, more responsibility, and a pay raise. More importantly, it looks nicer on my resume. Then in the summer, the store lost their lease with the mall and we closed down. Since then, I've been on unemployment. While I've been looking and applying for jobs in my field since I defended in October 2009, I have definitely stepped up the effort since the end of July. Of course, this is in part because I have to prove that I'm actively looking for work in order to get my (pathetic) weekly check. Sadly, while I've been getting some more positive responses to my applications, I still haven't gotten even one interview.
In more fun things, I have continued having a great time doing things with The Family. Along with small outings around town (zoo, aquarium, etc.), we did a joint birthday party with the next door neighbors for the two girls, both of whom turned three this year. My best friend moved down to Oregon for grad school, but it's close enough that we get to visit back and forth. She came up for Thanksgiving, and I (with another mutual friend) drove down early in December. Got to see my parents a couple of times, including a brief visit in the airport after Christmas when they were on their way back from Hawaii. Stayed home for Christmas and BIL's parents came up to visit. Be glad I haven't been blogging 'cuz you all would be sick of the complaining by now. In sad truth, I've been enjoying being a house "wife" for a while.
All right, here's some things I want to try to do better:
(in no particular order)
1. Eat better. Okay, this is probably on 95% of people's lists, but it is a constant intention for me. As I am at home during the day, I really should be more proactive about cooking meals. I also want to be more adventurous and creative about cooking meals. I've recently been picking up cookbooks here and there, so I think my subconscious is telling me that it's time to work on that.
2. Keep up enthusiasm for working out. I switched gyms last spring - Gold's has better hours and much nicer facilities than Curves could ever dream about. I've been pretty good about exercising this past year; and I got a new workout buddy shortly before Christmas, which has really made me enjoy going to the gym more than ever. We actually do cardio days, upper body days, and lower body days. It's awesome. Thus, working out isn't something that I need to start doing or do better than I'm doing right now. I just want to make sure that I don't let that momentum die like I did a few times last year.
3. Watch my finances. Obviously, I have very little money, and I'm deeply in debt. That situation is going to remain until I find a job...and probably last for a while after. I am not completely irresponsible about my spending, but I think I should be / can be more careful than I am. Right now I swing back and forth between good and bad. I need to stick more to the good side with only small splurges few and far between. I must stop looking at increasing my debt as "eh, it's a drop in the bucket..."
4. Stop buying so many books. Yeah, this is related to #3, and is the main cause of the "bad" swings. Well, books and DVDs. Anyway, I have once again created a fairly large "to-read" shelf, so I will have plenty of books to read without buying so many. I even use the library, so I'm really not going to run out. I'm not going to say that I'm not going to buy any books because that would be unrealistic. Besides the actual action of shopping for books is pleasurable for me, which is part of the problem but not something I want to give up. I am going to allow myself to buy books in a more planned manner and not just every time I have time to waste or feel depressed or bored. The same goes for DVDs, so I'm not going to list them separately.
5. Finish writing my second journal article. I've got it started, I just need to keep writing on a more regular basis.
6. Read more science and engineering stuff. It's been a while since I used my brain; I should really do something to keep it in practice. Also, any knowledge that I can pick up that would help me get and / or do a job is a nice bonus.
7. Get a job. Okay, this isn't something I need to do better. It's just something I need to do. I actually hesitate to put it on this list, 'cuz I really am trying. I'm not sure if I'm trying hard enough. Or rather, I'm not sure if there are other techniques and approaches that I should be trying. I've heard all the most common advice, and I'm either already doing those things or can't make the advice apply to my situation, but I have that unsure feeling that really I'm just missing the magic trick. Except I know that there's no magic trick. Ugh.
8. Clean my room more. I know, what am I? Twelve? Seriously, though, while I'm fairly neat in the rest of the house, my room is sty. That is, in part, because I don't necessarily have places to put all of my stuff. A big apartment just doesn't fit in one bedroom all that well. It's been over two years, though, and I just need to figure it out better. I really am too old to have a room that looks like that.
9. Try and LJ more. I know, I've mentioned this one before and I continue to suck at it. I really do miss having the entries to go back and look at, though. I considered putting a specific requirement on my LJ entries, but I think that would be setting myself up for failure. Sadly, the biggest reason I don't update much is that I don't do much. For the little things I do, the Facebook one liner is usually adequate. Incidentally, if you're on Facebook and you know my real name, feel free to come find me. Same with Goodreads.
Alright, I think that's enough for one night. Happy New Year to all of you!
First, however, because I failed to update here much at all last year, I will write a quick summary of last year. I am still living with my sister and her family. My niece is still horrifically cute. Early in the year, I got promoted to lead cashier at the store. That came with more hours, more responsibility, and a pay raise. More importantly, it looks nicer on my resume. Then in the summer, the store lost their lease with the mall and we closed down. Since then, I've been on unemployment. While I've been looking and applying for jobs in my field since I defended in October 2009, I have definitely stepped up the effort since the end of July. Of course, this is in part because I have to prove that I'm actively looking for work in order to get my (pathetic) weekly check. Sadly, while I've been getting some more positive responses to my applications, I still haven't gotten even one interview.
In more fun things, I have continued having a great time doing things with The Family. Along with small outings around town (zoo, aquarium, etc.), we did a joint birthday party with the next door neighbors for the two girls, both of whom turned three this year. My best friend moved down to Oregon for grad school, but it's close enough that we get to visit back and forth. She came up for Thanksgiving, and I (with another mutual friend) drove down early in December. Got to see my parents a couple of times, including a brief visit in the airport after Christmas when they were on their way back from Hawaii. Stayed home for Christmas and BIL's parents came up to visit. Be glad I haven't been blogging 'cuz you all would be sick of the complaining by now. In sad truth, I've been enjoying being a house "wife" for a while.
All right, here's some things I want to try to do better:
(in no particular order)
1. Eat better. Okay, this is probably on 95% of people's lists, but it is a constant intention for me. As I am at home during the day, I really should be more proactive about cooking meals. I also want to be more adventurous and creative about cooking meals. I've recently been picking up cookbooks here and there, so I think my subconscious is telling me that it's time to work on that.
2. Keep up enthusiasm for working out. I switched gyms last spring - Gold's has better hours and much nicer facilities than Curves could ever dream about. I've been pretty good about exercising this past year; and I got a new workout buddy shortly before Christmas, which has really made me enjoy going to the gym more than ever. We actually do cardio days, upper body days, and lower body days. It's awesome. Thus, working out isn't something that I need to start doing or do better than I'm doing right now. I just want to make sure that I don't let that momentum die like I did a few times last year.
3. Watch my finances. Obviously, I have very little money, and I'm deeply in debt. That situation is going to remain until I find a job...and probably last for a while after. I am not completely irresponsible about my spending, but I think I should be / can be more careful than I am. Right now I swing back and forth between good and bad. I need to stick more to the good side with only small splurges few and far between. I must stop looking at increasing my debt as "eh, it's a drop in the bucket..."
4. Stop buying so many books. Yeah, this is related to #3, and is the main cause of the "bad" swings. Well, books and DVDs. Anyway, I have once again created a fairly large "to-read" shelf, so I will have plenty of books to read without buying so many. I even use the library, so I'm really not going to run out. I'm not going to say that I'm not going to buy any books because that would be unrealistic. Besides the actual action of shopping for books is pleasurable for me, which is part of the problem but not something I want to give up. I am going to allow myself to buy books in a more planned manner and not just every time I have time to waste or feel depressed or bored. The same goes for DVDs, so I'm not going to list them separately.
5. Finish writing my second journal article. I've got it started, I just need to keep writing on a more regular basis.
6. Read more science and engineering stuff. It's been a while since I used my brain; I should really do something to keep it in practice. Also, any knowledge that I can pick up that would help me get and / or do a job is a nice bonus.
7. Get a job. Okay, this isn't something I need to do better. It's just something I need to do. I actually hesitate to put it on this list, 'cuz I really am trying. I'm not sure if I'm trying hard enough. Or rather, I'm not sure if there are other techniques and approaches that I should be trying. I've heard all the most common advice, and I'm either already doing those things or can't make the advice apply to my situation, but I have that unsure feeling that really I'm just missing the magic trick. Except I know that there's no magic trick. Ugh.
8. Clean my room more. I know, what am I? Twelve? Seriously, though, while I'm fairly neat in the rest of the house, my room is sty. That is, in part, because I don't necessarily have places to put all of my stuff. A big apartment just doesn't fit in one bedroom all that well. It's been over two years, though, and I just need to figure it out better. I really am too old to have a room that looks like that.
9. Try and LJ more. I know, I've mentioned this one before and I continue to suck at it. I really do miss having the entries to go back and look at, though. I considered putting a specific requirement on my LJ entries, but I think that would be setting myself up for failure. Sadly, the biggest reason I don't update much is that I don't do much. For the little things I do, the Facebook one liner is usually adequate. Incidentally, if you're on Facebook and you know my real name, feel free to come find me. Same with Goodreads.
Alright, I think that's enough for one night. Happy New Year to all of you!