Happy 2020!
It's Tuesday morning and I'm sitting at our table that has currently been placed in the living room from our Saturday night game night. I am in the middle of organizing our hundred blu-ray/dvd collection. I stopped to write down the entire release line up of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first 23 movies to organize them in order of release date. I wrote it down because I got new colorful gel pens for Christmas that I really wanted to use as well, plus now I have a place to find the list instead of always googling it. I'm also looking to start a 500 piece puzzle as well.
I have time off this week from work due to my second summons for jury duty. I picked this week, because I assumed it'd be one of the slower weeks of the year at the daycare club I work at. With the holiday rush over, where we had around 70 dogs by the week's end between daycare and boarding. I can check the Gingr software anytime, so I can clearly see they aren't very busy this week outside of the Style Bar appointments. To give this more context, I got a new job at a dog daycare place located in Mountain View. It was just good timing, because they were opening the first location in the bay area and I happened to be actively looking for animal related or just hourly paid work. I landed this job via Indeed. A few of my coworkers use Rover.com and Wag as a second source of income. Wag seems easiest, I've heard it compared to Uber for dogs, but it's dog walks that are in the area. Rover is for animal sitting, therefore I create a profile and the customer chooses me. I can set my hourly rate, but Rover takes a percentage. I started a Rover account prior to landing the Citydog Club position. Mountain View raised minimum wage to $16.05, therefore I just got a 35 cent raise. This helps my happiness given I felt a raise was deserved. The state/city forced it, which is fine with me. I'm going to need that given my hours currently average 30 hours/week with this week almost completely off. I might go in Thursday & Friday if I end up not having to do jury duty those days. I also want to take advantage of the time off and get braids put in. I don't want to spend too much on braids though, because we still need groceries & some toiletries.
I have to say that I still want to volunteer for wildlife, but I know I can't just keep changing my availability constantly. Volunteering would hinder me from working a selected day of the week every week. That's how it works, you choose a day and a time you can go in for 4 hours EVERY week. It's a commitment like any other job, except you aren't paid for your time there. I would love to choose 3 places, 3 different days of the week, plus foster animals at home if I could. The 3 places in this specific area would be Happy Hollow, Wildlife Rehab Center, & (SF Zoo or Oakland Zoo). I would foster domestic animals, either dogs or rabbits, whichever housing and set up best suits the home I live in. What I just described is my real dream. I could easily modify out of zoo volunteering and into sanctuaries, both wild animal and farm animal. I cannot volunteer in places that house a lot of feral and domestic felines, due to my allergies, but I'm pretty open to all other animal places. Shelters might be out though, they house a lot of kitties.
I am grateful though. I'm grateful for the privileged life I lead and that I've found someone I can spend the rest of my life with. He really is a gift, even when I nag him and call him stupid, I'd much rather have his stupid over any other man's stupid. I bet they're all the same sort of dumb that I can never wrap my head around. But most of them think that we women are too much, too emotional and too crazy, which when I listen to myself, we are. Like I got mad at my boyfriend last night for not making any advances, but truth is I was more upset I fell asleep for so long and the night was gone. He and I always seem to be on opposite schedules, whether it's work or our libidos. I don't know how to say sorry with more empathy. He's still asleep of course. I wake up by 8 at the latest. Even if I choose to not get out of bed, I've woken up several times throughout the night and morning, making it so I never get lasting sleep in the wee hours of the night, like 1 am & 3 am are times I tend to wake up randomly. Clearly my sleep patterns are all over the place, which leads me to what I need to do to make myself healthier.
I plan to purchase sea moss supplements monthly. What I am hoping comes from taking this daily is that I will see a healthier body emerge through my skin, hair, immunity, & energy. I'm hoping this will help me save money on hair and skin products in the long run. In tandem with the supplements, I am moving to motivate and discipline myself to exercise and prepare food more often. I currently need to grocery shop, especially for produce, because all of ours went bad and the remainder is mostly for the rabbits daily greens. I need more salad mix and add ins to make tastier salads, especially when eating processed foods. I need to stop worrying in the conventional western sense of what food is and how it looks on a plate. Most vegan/alkaline meals are Bowls. The foods mix together and you eat them with a fork or spoon. In addition to bowls, stews and pastas are also great ways to eat healthier vegan foods. All these "hot" foods require cooking, thus dishes and prep work have to be done in addition to the cooking and eating of the food. For a lazy girl like me, this is challenging to take on daily. Best part is that my 2 favorite ethnic foods, mexican & italian, are easy to make vegetarian/vegan. Speaking of vegetarian, I REALLY need to cut back on my cheese consumption. It's the only dairy product I keep consuming and it causes acne, constipation, bloating, and low energy. I really need to find better alternatives than what we currently purchase. Benny doesn't like the taste of vegan cheese, but likes the vegan butter. Therefore, I know we can find one we both can enjoy. Veganism is really taking off at a corporate level, so I do believe they'll find a comparable cheese soon. Cheddar is the one I want them to duplicate the taste of most.
I mentioned exercise. This one is simple, because I pretty much already know what makes my body look best at this point. It'll always include some weights to quicken the toning process for my arms and legs. The rest is hi & low aerobic exercise such as yoga, Pilates, the bar method, floor exercise, etc. Dancing hits both cardio and low intensity aerobic exercise. All of these I can do in my living room. If I walk dogs through Wag, I'll receive adequate exercise that way. I also stand when I'm at my job, sitting isn't allowed unless on break, so I don't suffer from total stationary work, sitting down all day at work and at home. Note: if I ever have a sitting job, definitely substitute work chair for exercise ball for at least a couple hours; do this at home as well. Actually that's a great idea for Benny to do while he plays video games because it engages his core. Luckily, Benny's bartending job is also not a sitting job, plus the added on labor from shaking drinks to cleaning and carrying heavy loads.
With a better mindset and a goal list, 2020 should be the start of an exciting new decade.
Signing off.