Sorry I don't post as much as I used to; life is much more demanding than it used to be.
School is going well, for those of you who read about my decision to go back to school to become an interior designer. I'm learning there's much more I can do with this career field than I ever thought. My first day of class we discussed the different ways you can specialize in this career, and I was excited to hear that there is a specialization in physical and mental disabilities as well as in working with the elderly and aging. As someone with a psychology degree previously from college this seems like a place I would fit very well. Especially considering my past work with children who had more severe forms of Autism. It could be very fun and beneficial for me to specialize in creating rooms that are psychologically soothing to those who suffer from autism, as well as being able to work in communities for older adults from my studies of development in school as well.
The gym is really paying off. I haven't crossed off any goals yet, but I do feel like I'm on the road there. One of my coworkers last night asked me if I had been working out, and it makes me so much happier to know that my hard work is starting to show. I've noticed its becoming easier for me to move things at work and I have to ask for help less often which is also a big bonus.I should be due for my 6 week check in at the middle of the month, and we will see where I am at!
Pretty much all things in life are going well, I've got a car show to attend coming up at the beginning of October, with my boyfriend, and hopefully the Grand Prix will be fixed up by then so we have something to show when we get there. Unfortunately, it's a mad scramble to get it done the last weekend beforehand because there was so much to do and it wasn't started soon enough (though to be fair, I'm new to cars so I couldn't have told you how much needed to be done if I tried, so that's mostly on him).But anyway, that should be fun to do. It's my first time going to a car show, and also my first time helping out on a car build. though fortunately this one was only engine repairs and a few cosmetic fixes because he has had it a long time and taken good care of it (until the engine went up three years ago and caused all sorts of issues).
I've just recently purchased my first car on my own, a brand new 2016 Honda Cr-v, in rust orange. I miss my old car some days because of all the memories is had, all the college trips, my first job, all the great times with friends when we'd go out to dinner or the movies. But I still have those memories and it was time to move on to something that didn't have as much risk of needing costly repairs. It was 14 years old with 100,000 miles on it, and things were just starting to wear out, but unfortunately for me... it was always the expensive things. I'll always remember my old buddy, but it is time for some new adventures, and some new memories. I almost cried when I left the old car in the parking lot at the dealership though.
I'll try and get back to you guys soon with another update!
Until then,
3M
29 September 2016
24 August 2016
Huge Life Changes
I've begun to notice getting older affecting me in ways I'm not happy about in the last year or so. Yeah, yeah... I'm only 23. I'm no kid anymore though, and I'm feeling it. I'm getting heavier and curvier and forget eating whatever I want whenever I want without any effect. It's a battle I can't win without some major changes. Now, I've tried this before... and obviously it didn't go well because I'm back to try again, but this time I'm gonna get it. I have to, because I can't keep letting myself feel uncomfortable with how I look. This is not however a crusade to become skinnier, or lose weight. While that would be nice, I'm happy with both of those things and they don't matter to me. I need to be healthier and more active... That's all I want to change about myself. Replace some of the fat with muscle and make myself feel like I look as good as I used to before I had to give up dancing for medical reasons. Now that I have a better handle on all that it's important to me to get back into shape and go back to what I love. A huge part of health is happiness and it's important to me to enjoy not only my life but also to enjoy myself. I have a huge goal I want to achieve, but it will take diligence and hard work to get there, but this time I will make it. We all can do anything we put our minds to, and right now it's my turn to put my mind to it and get going.
About a week into beginning to work on this I decided I needed some more knowledgeable help, so I joined a gym, and teamed up with the personal trainers in order to get myself on track to accomplish my goals, as well as to grow my knowledge on what I should do to get where I'm going as well as maintain it once I get there. So here I am, spending 2 days a week in the gym, one with a trainer and one on my own with the trainer's notes to guide me through my work out.
You may be asking yourself what it is I want to achieve, well here it is:
I lost all my core strength and definition when I stopped dancing due to a chronic injury a few years ago, so my goal is to get at least most of that back.
Around the same time I began to notice problems with my balance and a lack of flexibility stemming from the same injury which I would like to fix.
I have a lot of back and shoulder strength, but not a lot of arm strength which I would like to change.
Along with that I need to build my leg strength in order to help keep my chronic knee injury and pain away.
I want to learn how to work with my body to get where I need to go, and how to keep it there once I get there.
But the most important goal is to be happy with myself and feel healthy.
I've had my first real session today with the trainer and so far things look good. I'm definitely struggling because of how weak most of my muscles have become, but I push as hard as I can to get where I'm going.
Join me on my journey into healthiness. Weekly updates to come.
About a week into beginning to work on this I decided I needed some more knowledgeable help, so I joined a gym, and teamed up with the personal trainers in order to get myself on track to accomplish my goals, as well as to grow my knowledge on what I should do to get where I'm going as well as maintain it once I get there. So here I am, spending 2 days a week in the gym, one with a trainer and one on my own with the trainer's notes to guide me through my work out.
You may be asking yourself what it is I want to achieve, well here it is:
I lost all my core strength and definition when I stopped dancing due to a chronic injury a few years ago, so my goal is to get at least most of that back.
Around the same time I began to notice problems with my balance and a lack of flexibility stemming from the same injury which I would like to fix.
I have a lot of back and shoulder strength, but not a lot of arm strength which I would like to change.
Along with that I need to build my leg strength in order to help keep my chronic knee injury and pain away.
I want to learn how to work with my body to get where I need to go, and how to keep it there once I get there.
But the most important goal is to be happy with myself and feel healthy.
I've had my first real session today with the trainer and so far things look good. I'm definitely struggling because of how weak most of my muscles have become, but I push as hard as I can to get where I'm going.
Join me on my journey into healthiness. Weekly updates to come.
03 June 2016
Declutter Your Life
I've been on a year long journey of decluttering my life and my space in order to have things that I love rather than just a bunch of things just because I've always had them. I started out following the principles of KonMari which have been very popular on YouTube lately, and then resorted to asking myself questions about my things beyond the book in order to try and curb my hoarding tendencies I have gotten from my parents. It's been a long and occasionally somewhat painful journey, and the hardest part is it's far from over. I'm in a constant state of declutter in order to keep my hoarding capabilities from running wild. Cleaning is cathartic for me which is nice because it makes me want to clean, but it takes up a lot of my life just to keep the clutter at bay.
Most of the past few months I've been pushing myself to get rid of things I don't use, which is often the hardest thing for me. My weakness is keeping things simply because they haven't bee used up, and I've spent many a day holding expired lotion bottles and the like over a trash bag convincing myself to let go of it. The rest of the things that may still be usable I've been giving to friends or donating in hopes that it will make me feel much less like I'm throwing things away and more like I'm giving back somehow. For a long time I put myself on a strict no-buy policy, but recently I have let myself purchase the things I need since I have been working so hard to get rid of all the excess sitting around. Of course, I'm still following my No Cart Rule. (I'm not allowed a cart in any store because it keeps me from following my instinct of buying whatever I want, and in most cases I'm not allowed a basket in a store either simply to avoid picking up tons of excess. This of course is unless I have a list of things I plan to buy and require a cart to carry it all.)
Most of the past few months I've been pushing myself to get rid of things I don't use, which is often the hardest thing for me. My weakness is keeping things simply because they haven't bee used up, and I've spent many a day holding expired lotion bottles and the like over a trash bag convincing myself to let go of it. The rest of the things that may still be usable I've been giving to friends or donating in hopes that it will make me feel much less like I'm throwing things away and more like I'm giving back somehow. For a long time I put myself on a strict no-buy policy, but recently I have let myself purchase the things I need since I have been working so hard to get rid of all the excess sitting around. Of course, I'm still following my No Cart Rule. (I'm not allowed a cart in any store because it keeps me from following my instinct of buying whatever I want, and in most cases I'm not allowed a basket in a store either simply to avoid picking up tons of excess. This of course is unless I have a list of things I plan to buy and require a cart to carry it all.)
02 June 2016
My Horrible Car Buying Experience
For all intents and purposes I'm leaving out the name of the dealer because it is not my intention to give them a bad rep as they did nothing legally wrong, except for making my last month or so the most stressful month of my life.
I recently went and bought my first car, because my hand me down was starting to go up and getting expensive. I carefully picked my car, and went to the dealership to drive it. I sat on the decision for a few weeks before going in at the end of the month to purchase. For starters, the agent from my test drive made an appointment with me to come in on his day off and sell me my car, and then didn't show day of despite the appointment being his idea. We decided to complete the purchase with another agent instead of waiting for him to come back the next day, so we began the process. Everything was going well at the beginning, but the staff seemed to be tripping over themselves to make up for their coworker's blunder. They made a lot of mistakes they shouldn't have made along the way and then most of the time were hounding me to come in and fix them as if it was my fault they messed up the paperwork or couldn't print things correctly. And more importantly, it too seven hours for me to finish the process. I know buying a car takes a long time, but seven hours?
The first hounding was because they didn't check my diploma I emailed them to ensure they could read and print it. And after them hounding me for two weeks and me resending it in multiple sizes I finally gave up and mailed them a paper copy because I knew the image wasn't blurry like they were telling me it was. The next time they hounded me they needed me to come back and resign a piece of paperwork because the company rejected it for not being printed properly. And after speaking to them and telling them I would be in at my nearest convenience by email they called me a total of 3 times on my cell phone, once on my home phone, and then they called my mom's cell phone and her work phone all in the course of about an hour trying to "make sure they had the right number". During the purchase process my temporary registration had both my mother's name and mine on it, which she asked them to fix and they assured us it would be fixed on the permanent one, which I received the other day and sure enough both the title and registration are wrong, and now I have to fix it. They overcharged me for my tag and title fee and sent me a check as well which is only slightly amusing rather than any type of frustrating.
All in all first month of owning my new car has hardly been a relaxing and enjoyable experience. Let's hope the next one is a little better.
3M
I recently went and bought my first car, because my hand me down was starting to go up and getting expensive. I carefully picked my car, and went to the dealership to drive it. I sat on the decision for a few weeks before going in at the end of the month to purchase. For starters, the agent from my test drive made an appointment with me to come in on his day off and sell me my car, and then didn't show day of despite the appointment being his idea. We decided to complete the purchase with another agent instead of waiting for him to come back the next day, so we began the process. Everything was going well at the beginning, but the staff seemed to be tripping over themselves to make up for their coworker's blunder. They made a lot of mistakes they shouldn't have made along the way and then most of the time were hounding me to come in and fix them as if it was my fault they messed up the paperwork or couldn't print things correctly. And more importantly, it too seven hours for me to finish the process. I know buying a car takes a long time, but seven hours?
The first hounding was because they didn't check my diploma I emailed them to ensure they could read and print it. And after them hounding me for two weeks and me resending it in multiple sizes I finally gave up and mailed them a paper copy because I knew the image wasn't blurry like they were telling me it was. The next time they hounded me they needed me to come back and resign a piece of paperwork because the company rejected it for not being printed properly. And after speaking to them and telling them I would be in at my nearest convenience by email they called me a total of 3 times on my cell phone, once on my home phone, and then they called my mom's cell phone and her work phone all in the course of about an hour trying to "make sure they had the right number". During the purchase process my temporary registration had both my mother's name and mine on it, which she asked them to fix and they assured us it would be fixed on the permanent one, which I received the other day and sure enough both the title and registration are wrong, and now I have to fix it. They overcharged me for my tag and title fee and sent me a check as well which is only slightly amusing rather than any type of frustrating.
All in all first month of owning my new car has hardly been a relaxing and enjoyable experience. Let's hope the next one is a little better.
3M
25 May 2016
Back to School: Design Edition
After having been out of school for a year I decided it's time that I go back. I enjoyed my time working with children who have severe Autism spectrum disorder, but my hours weren't great because it was an after school assistance program, and I did almost as much driving as I did working with the kids. I decided I wasn't making enough money for how much time I was putting in and made a huge change. Right now I work for UPS sending international parcels. Yes you read that right... A young woman with her bachelor's degree in psychology works at a package delivery company. I love this job; my coworkers and supervisors are great and there's always something new to learn.
Anyway, since UPS will pay for me to go back to school, I decided that there's no better time than now to go back and get a degree in something I really want to do. I've decided to try my hand at interior design classes. I've always had a love for design shows and seeing how things transform from old to new, and I've started to enjoy the process of redesigning my place as well. It's something I've always had a knack for and an interest in pursuing. The hardest part will be the drawing portion, which I personally think I'm terrible at (though not as absolutely horrible as I am at drawing people).
I decided I will only get an Associates because the only benefit to the Bachelor's degree is that you spend two less years (worth of hours) having to do on the job training before you are able to apply for your own license. Personally, as much as I love going to school and would pursue a Bachelor's if it was really worth it, I don't see why I should spend more money on a degree when I could use that time in the field to better prepare myself to be on my own.
I'm hopeful to be learning something I want to continue doing for the rest of my life, as well as to cultivate my own personal style and better understand what I would want my own home to look like. I hope to learn residential as well as commercial design so that I can be a more versatile and well-rounded designer as a whole. I am excited to see what I come up with as designs with unusual objects and patterns and how I mix together my love of antiques with the more modern pieces of today.
There may be the possibility to either go learn to be a realtor or a contractor as well in order to further my reach in the industry, and both of these ideas sound like fun, but I don't particularly have a desire to be a part of the buying and selling of the properties beyond the staging point. It would be useful to go to school for long enough to understand what common problems look like in homes so that I am informed, but that would likely not be all that helpful in my career. However, being a contractor my be a benefit to me since I will be able to hire people in order to complete larger projects in the homes as well as to fix problems encountered along the way. I would also be able to do some of the smaller projects likely on my own with the proper training which would be a lovely perk for some clients who want minor cosmetic work done to the house as part of the design.
A new road is before me, and I am all kinds of excited to see where it takes me and what awaits me at the end.
Anyway, since UPS will pay for me to go back to school, I decided that there's no better time than now to go back and get a degree in something I really want to do. I've decided to try my hand at interior design classes. I've always had a love for design shows and seeing how things transform from old to new, and I've started to enjoy the process of redesigning my place as well. It's something I've always had a knack for and an interest in pursuing. The hardest part will be the drawing portion, which I personally think I'm terrible at (though not as absolutely horrible as I am at drawing people).
I decided I will only get an Associates because the only benefit to the Bachelor's degree is that you spend two less years (worth of hours) having to do on the job training before you are able to apply for your own license. Personally, as much as I love going to school and would pursue a Bachelor's if it was really worth it, I don't see why I should spend more money on a degree when I could use that time in the field to better prepare myself to be on my own.
I'm hopeful to be learning something I want to continue doing for the rest of my life, as well as to cultivate my own personal style and better understand what I would want my own home to look like. I hope to learn residential as well as commercial design so that I can be a more versatile and well-rounded designer as a whole. I am excited to see what I come up with as designs with unusual objects and patterns and how I mix together my love of antiques with the more modern pieces of today.
There may be the possibility to either go learn to be a realtor or a contractor as well in order to further my reach in the industry, and both of these ideas sound like fun, but I don't particularly have a desire to be a part of the buying and selling of the properties beyond the staging point. It would be useful to go to school for long enough to understand what common problems look like in homes so that I am informed, but that would likely not be all that helpful in my career. However, being a contractor my be a benefit to me since I will be able to hire people in order to complete larger projects in the homes as well as to fix problems encountered along the way. I would also be able to do some of the smaller projects likely on my own with the proper training which would be a lovely perk for some clients who want minor cosmetic work done to the house as part of the design.
A new road is before me, and I am all kinds of excited to see where it takes me and what awaits me at the end.
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