acknowledge and feel proud of all the things I DO accomplish

has been an extremely difficult year. It’s easy to get caught up in all the negative stuff when there’s so much of it. But good things have also happened, and I have actually accomplished some important things. So I decided to do a bit of summary of some positive highlights!
- The picture is from one of the seriously big highlights, it shows me and lots of other people promenading in a baroque garden during intermissions at a baroque opera outside Leipzig. Ahhh!
- I have had some truly magical music experiences this year. I have never been to this many brilliant concerts in one year before. Rather than sitting at home thinking I should go to concerts, this year, I have made the plans and managed to go to almost all the concerts I wanted to go to. I’ve been to different kinds of concerts, but the most magical ones have been the baroque ones. There is nothing that gets me into a state of flow and makes me forget the world around me like baroque music, played by great orchestras on period instruments. Some highlighs are the Händel opera in Leipzig, seing The English Concert in Leipzig, The Academy of Ancient Music in London, a purcell concert and Händels Acis and Galatea in Oslo, and the last one, Bachs christmas oratorio yesterday. Ahhh!
- I have done a lot of music reviews. That is seriously out of my comfort zone, but I’m doing it anyway, learning and developing as I do it.
- I went to Leipzig on two days notice, had a brilliant time, interviewed some of the big names in music and went to some truly brilliant concerts.
- I have kept up the pianolessons, and changed genre from jazz to classical, which has been challenging but rewarding. It has been hard to find time and energy to practice in the middle of it all, but at least I have kept up the lessons and practiced when I could.
- I have done a serious amount of work with Cora, and it is paying off. She is a happier, healthier, more confident and more content poodle in just a few months. Probably partly just because she’s now an only dog. But also because of all the work I’ve put in. I have trained her more, teaching her tricks and skills to boost her confidence, taken her to two agility classes, stopped walking her in parks where there are too many off leash dogs, started taking her to the forest a lot more often, giving her plenty of proper excercise off leash, been much better at taking charge and protecting her when other dogs scares her, and esatblished more predictable routines in her life. Her health is also now as close to perfect as it can get. I can hear that her breathing is different from that of other dogs, but it doesn’t seem to bother her at all, and she hardly ever coughs any more. It might be a coincidence, it might also be the fact that she’s getting more excercise and much less stress.
- All the extra exercise for Cora also means a lot more walks in the forest for me. I have really enjoyed spending more time in nature, getting fresh air, enjoying the scenery, and enjoying the happy poodle bouncing around me.
- I have made a new friend, who even enjoys going to classical concerts, which none of my other friends do.
- I have had fun with friends, seen some movies, visited friends and done some dogwalking with friends who have dogs.
- And, at the moment, dating is going quite well! ;) I have only met him a few times so far, so I have no idea if it’s going anywhere, but I am enjoying it at the moment! :)

yesterday, I was ust trying to find people to talk to for different articles and couldn’t get hold of anyone who had anything to say, very frustrating. Today though, I found a good source for one article and finished writing that, got hold of another guy to talk to for another article and did a long phone interview with him, and made arrangements for several other interviews later in the week. Very happy about that!

Nothing much gets done this evening, I’m going to the opera to see Andreas Scholl and Concerto Copenhagen in concert, very much looking forward to that! Then I’ll have to write a review, which is very scary because my editor also has tickets to this concert, and he has been living and breathing classical music for 50 years, so he really knows what he’s talking about. So I’m freaking out a bit about getting it all wrong and him thinking I’m a complete idiot. He actually stayed home from work today though, because he’s a bit sick and his son has the swine flu. Must admit I’m kind of hoping he’ll stay home from the concert too.
Either way, should be a great concert, and this is one which I asked to be allowed to go to and write from, and the editor said yes, quite happy about that initiative too!

- I finally managed to sit down and get some seriously boring paperwork done, that I should have done a while ago. I hate that stuff and procrastinate like crazy, but now it’s done.
- Paid some bills, also something I tend to procrastinate on.
- I did 15 minutes of relaxation exercises, which for me is quite excellent.
- Did some strength excercises
- Hid dog treats around the appartment, a very popular thing with the canine division of the curlychaos household.
- I’ve had no diet sof drinks at all today. I love them and tend to have quite a lot, since there are almost no calories. Lots of other nasty stuff though, so I’m trying to cut back.
- Now I’m off to practice some piano, take Cora out for her evening cat chasing session, and then a little time to relax before bed!

that I haven’t used this very difficult week as an excuse to fall into my favorite trap: comfort eating. Instead, I decided that I’m not going to make myself feel even worse by overeating and feeling fat and miserable, and I have actually lost a kilo this week. I even managed to say no to cake at work twice this week. It remains to be seen if I will be able to keep it up, but I am quite proud of myself for doing it this week, so hopefully I will. Tonight is crisps-night though, but that is ok, I have decided to allow myself yummy treats once a week. I’m not one of those people who can give unhealthy food up completely, that would just cause me to go nuts at some point, ruin my diet by eating crisps until I felt nauseaus and then give up on the diet completely. So, tonight, yummy treats!

and I caught myself rushing out of there, thinking about all the things I need to get done this weekend, and worrying that I probably won`t do half the things I had planned to do.
Instead of thinking yay, I started my weekend by getting up quite early on saturday taking a really hard aerobics class at the gym, even though I just wanted to sleep in! I need to start focusing on each thing I get done, instead of putting myself down for not doing absolutely everything on my list. So here goes

YAY! I went to the gym today! ;)