Somethings gotta give

Ok. I think it is time for an update on my life. I haven't been blogging in a while due to a resolution to stay off of my computer as much as possible. Too much computer time and I start to get antsy. But I wanted to post, so I finally downloaded a blogger client for my phone called mo:blog. I can now update without breaking my computer resolution.

After a couple bad weeks at the beginning of summer which lead to a mini-breakdown when I thought that I lost my ankh necklace (which I later found), I finally dealt with what I was going through. It is so much better now.

New Beginnings

In the middle of June, I got two positive influences that made me stop and look around me and say "Somethings gotta give!" The first was Hank getting a job that required him to get up at 6:30 every morning. The second was having Cardio swing over at Derek's house.

At the beginning of Junior year (wow. I can't believe I'm a Senior!), I was getting up early every day and really enjoying it. But I let that slide. When this summer hit, I was regularly dragging myself out of bed at noon. I lost half the day to sleep. But now that Hank is getting up early, I have been getting up at the same time. The first day was really successful. I got up, cleaned up, worked some, took a walk, meditated at Rothco, read at Bookstop, and ended up at teahouse. Very cool.

Recently I have had varying degrees of success. I'm pretty good at getting up at 6:30. It's the staying up that I have problems with. If I am not doing something active, engaging, or involving food (which I'll get to in a bit), I fall back to sleep.

Another side effect of my mini burnout/breakdown is a burnout with swing. After Lindyfest and spraining my ankle, I lost a lot of my groove with swing. My follow got much worse and I tightened up.This was very noticeable in class with Ryan. I just wasn't as good. And it hurt to do Charleston. After rsds classes ended, I was so frustrated by swing that I just quit. I stopped doing anything swing except taft and an occasional continental. It was just too emotionally trying. And on top of all that, being around large number of people was trying. Specially when I didn't want to be around some of them.

But enter cardio. Cardio is great. A limited number of people, the ability to dance really bad without anyone looking at me with that "What happened?" expression that I was getting from the really good dancers. I was free to suck. That feels good. I slowly built my confedence back up. But it was going to A&M to dance that got me back into swing. I was completely comfortable there. Good people, Good music, Good times!! All of the stress was gone. I had a blast!! (And as a side note, I got to drive Derek's Audi. It likes dulee power in a light tiny box. dude!)

After that, the dance bug caught me again. I'm back at Melody and now Fame has a Wednesday night dance!! The stress is almost completely gone. And when I feel it creeping in, I tell it to go away. Life rules!!

But with all of the things that have happened in the last incredible couple of weeks, I have some more things to change. But I am on the right path!

More Changes to Come!

My House
The first thing that needs changing is also influenced by cardio, specifically that we are meeting at Derek's house. Derek's house is amazingly clean and clear. It's pretty and it makes me look around at the dump that I call home and wish that I lived in a pretty house. but that isn't gonna happen till I get rid of stuff. The debate is still out about whether Derek or I have more stuff. But it is close enough that there is a debate. Derek has a 3 story condo. I have a 600 sq ft one bedroom apartment. There is something wrong with this picture. To get my living space clean, I have 2 options. Get a bigger apartment (which isn't gonna happen on my budget) or get rid of stuff.

Merlin Mann of 43Folders was talking about a book called It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh. It addresses this very topic. I put a hold on it in the library. That should help. But I have to get over my obsessive hoarding tendencies.

Speaking of checking out books, I recently discovered the library (FRee INfo!!) and have been reading almost full time recently. This is a good thing except that I am neglecting work things. but more on that later.

Food
The next thing on my too tackle list is food. I have a big problem with food. I don't eat enough good food. This stems partly from lack of money, partly from lack of a kitchen, and partly from an unwillingness to buy perishable food.

Food sucks. I buy food. Start eating it. It goes bad. I through half of it away. repeat cycle. So much of my money just gets thrown away with wasted food. And it is stressful to throw stuff away. I hate doing it. Talk about frustrating!

So I end up with a lot of frozen food and at times no food at home. By the time I get to where I'm going, I am weak from hunger. And bought out food is expensive so I try to stick to dollar menus or big portions that I can eat on for days. But if I'm not careful, that goes bad. Stupid food. This is something that I have no idea how to fix.

One thing that may help this is that Derek, Hank and I have decided to have cooking parties regularly at Derek's so that we eat good at least sometimes. And cooking is fun in a clean kitchen. :-)

But food is a struggle and will probably stay a struggle.

Money
This brings up money. I've written about money recently, but right now I'm struggling. I spent a little too much on my bunk bed (but I love my new bed) and I'm now playing catch up. My summer electricity bill will be crazy! And gas sucks money right out of my pocket. I would like to start putting money into stocks and saving up for my first real estate purchase. Hank and I are going to be real estate investment partners through our company Marion's Clover. The little bit of residual income from investments should help me not get into this situation again.

Also, I found yesterday what my dream job is. I want to be a virtual personal assistant. I would make around $40 an hour and therefore would not have to work very much per week. 10 hours a week would give me about $1600 per month!! dude! And even with car and health payments, I'd have some extra money and plenty of free time. No corporate crap para mi! And if I decided to go full time, I'd be very close to 6 digits. All from my own house and my own computer using my own talents. I am going to specialize in Lead management in the mortgage/financial broker industry. I had an internship in Highschool where I did a similar job, so I have experience. :-) It will be a good job while I am investing in Real Estate and building up my residual income.

Work
My last recent obsession is a program idea called Saija. It is a productivity tool for people who hate productivity tools. It started with my paper productivity system that I decided would be very useful automated. It is like GTD with steroids.

The problem is I do not know how to program and there are so many options out there. Do I learn PHP? cocoa? filemaker? applescript? AJAX? Ruby? ahhhh! My nose has been spent in too many programming books lately. I think I have decided to focus on filemaker since that will be the easiest way to prototype the program. I'd love for it to be an AJAX program in the end. Any AJAX programmers out there want to help me??? :-D

So saija, real estate and marion's ledge are my 3 main things happening work wise.

So, Can I change?

My goal is to get my life straight. I was reading this blog by JP DeFillippo who is trying to change his life in 90 days. It is inspiring so I am going to try to do something like it. It will be cut in half by my trip to Oregon and then school starts, but I'll try to document what I do. My first action will be to set up the nike+ipod thing to work with my kangaroos. I am trying to walk or bus everywhere I go, so that will help me keep track of how far I walk.

This is the first day of the rest of my life. :-)