TequilaMitch

Now that I’ve moved, I can accurately rate my progress. On each of my 2 pre-move visits, I brought 2 boxes each time. Before I moved last week, I shipped 2 more boxes. And on the flight I only had 2 small suitcases and a backpack (about 1.5 boxes). That’s 7.5 boxes. I’m not including my dog’s crate and bed, and if I removed his other toys and supplies I would probably have gotten down to 7 boxes.

It’s awesome. Without all that stuff to worry about, I feel much more at ease. Except that I’m starting to find all-new things to worry about, so I’ll have to keep that in check. But I won’t clutter up my life ever again, I hope!

Finally. FINALLY! I moved out last Wednesday and then closed on the house last Friday. I lost some money on it, but in the long run it will be very worth it. The new owner got a great deal, but I got my freedom and my life back. I think it’s a fair trade!

WORTH DOING!!!

Last week I ran a 5k in under 25 minutes. It’s a goal that I thought was impossible. Thank you 43 Things for helping with the motivation!

I’ve sold nearly everything that I don’t use or need. It’s so liberating. But it’s funny… now that I have some extra money from selling things, I can’t help but look at new things that I want to buy! I’ll try not to. Or at least I’ll make sure that whatever I buy still fits in with my new lifestyle of “not owning much stuff.”

My ultimate goal is to be able to fit all my stuff into 6 boxes, and very little or replaceable furniture (bed, desk, some folding tables). I think I’m at about 10-12 boxes now, but that includes my dog’s stuff so I’m not sure I should count those (about 2 boxes, plus his crate/beds).

As soon as those last 15 items sell, I’m checking this off as Done!

The inspection went well. I only have to fix 1 thing, some vents in the attic. I found a contractor to do it for $240, and that’s it. I’ll be out before Thanksgiving. YAY!

It’s fun. You’re upside down before you push off, then you straighten out. It’s neat. And tiring. But it makes my swim time much faster.

I don’t know how, but right arm’s rotator cuff muscles hurt. It’s really cutting back on my workout routing. It even hurts when I run. And all the Halloween candy hasn’t helped either. My doctor put me on a program to strengthen the muscles, so I’ll start that today. Just when I was making some real progress, too.

Time flies after you get an offer. I accepted the offer last week, the inspection was on Monday, and I only have to fix one thing. I think we’re going to close the deal before thanksgiving! I better get started packing.

I stayed up until 2am last night finishing the last of it. I had it all: genres, tempo, mood, occasion, playlists, even BPM!!! This morning I went to back it up to my external hard drive, and what happens? I hit the wrong button and I delete my entire “My Music” folder!!! By the time I stopped it, everything up to the letter “Q” was gone. I used un-delete but it only restored about 500 songs out of about 4000 that were gone. Even the MediaMonkey database file was wiped out.

My last backup is about a month old, which means I didn’t lose too many songs. But I did lose most of the organizational tags because I didn’t start the major work on that until after the last backup.

I’m restoring from a month ago, but I don’t think I’ll have the time or energy to do this again. I think I’ll just take all my top favorite songs and put them in a playlist and that’s it. ARGH! How stupid could I possibly be?!!!!

Wow, I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I updated this.

I finished Level 1 and made it to the middle of Level 2, and that was a few months ago. I also bought a Vox Spanish/English dictionary and I have three short children’s schoolbooks from Spain that I’m going to translate.

But I’ve taken a little bit of a break. I’ve had some other projects that have taken up my time (like selling my house and moving to London), and I couldn’t focus on it. Once I get some of the other stuff cleared away, I’ll pick it right back up.

It feels like a psychological experiment, where my brain is getting rewired. Little by little I can “think” in Spanish. I even start talking to myself that way. It’s awesome.

I’m so upset that the house hasn’t sold yet. It’s been keeping me from moving on in my life for over a year—first spending all my time finishing the renovations, and now by not selling. It’s driving me crazy.

I met a new neighbor, a guy who bought the house down the block (the only house that has sold in my neighborhood all summer long). He said that he bought it on an impulse, he didn’t even bother to look at other houses—just saw the one and made an offer. Why couldn’t it be my house that he went to see? ARGH!

I’m accomplishing two goals at the same time… I lost 10 pounds by exercising and lifting weights, and so now I have a 34-inch waist and I can finally bench press my own body weight.

I was using one of the machines to do it and I only did three reps, but next time I’ll do it proper on a bench with a barbell and go for the full 10. I can’t wait! I’ve always wanted to be able to do that!

I’ve modified my goals of how I define “fit” for me, and here’s my progress so far:

• Run a mile in 7 minutes: Probably accomplished, but I haven’t timed it. I can run a 5k (a little over 3 miles) in under 26 minutes, so I think if I go to a track and time 1 mile I should be able to do it.

• Bench press my own weight, 10 reps: Almost there! I did 3 reps on a machine today. I’ll probably be able to check this off in a week or two.

• do 30 chinups in a row (biceps): I can’t even do 1 clean one. I’ve been practicing on the assisted-machine but I need about 50 pounds of help to do 10 clean ones in a row.

• do 30 pullups in a row (lats): I can almost do 1 clean one, and need about 30 pounds of assistance to do 10. But getting closer.

• have a 34-inch waist: DONE! Losing 10 pounds and doing 15 minutes of ab work every other day did the trick!

Don’t know why, maybe it’s the fall weather, but I think someone will be making an offer soon. I’ve dropped my price so that it’s now the lowest priced 4-bed/3-bath in the school district, so that seems to be helping.

What bugs me is that someone offered the same price a few months ago, before I had even finished fixing up the house. They would have bought it as-is, and I wouldn’t have had to do all the extra work and gone through this summer of hell. But I was greedy. I was so sure that someone would pay a lot more once it was all done, but I was wrong. I wish I could blame someone like my broker or my friends for not pushing me into it harder (which they did), but I only have myself to blame.

Still, I think it will all be over soon.

One piece of advice for others: if you’re fixing up a house and think that you’ll be selling it soon, DON’T make it special. Make it boring, traditional, blah, and bland. Don’t do what they show you on those fix-up shows on TV. Use the cheapest or most generic materials. Because even though people seem to like some of it, they don’t BUY it. They buy boring stuff so that they can fix it up themselves.

I’ve reduced my song count to 6348 songs (32.4 GB) which is terrific. My goal is to bring it under 6000 and 30GB and keep it there.

I thought I’d be done, but I realized modified my rating, tag, and playlists as I went along… so now I have to go back and clean up the earlier tracks I did to make it all match up.

It’s also a good way to clean out the tracks I really don’t want. (Why I didn’t delete all Richard Marx and Boyz2Men songs the first time, I’ll never understand.)

I think I’ll be finished this week. YAY! As a present to myself I’ll buy a 30GB player, probably a Gigabeat. (I hate Ipods because of the software and video encoding limitations that Apple uses; Gigabeat is much more flexible.)

First time swimming 18 laps in a row. I needed a few short breaks (15-30 sec) between some of the later laps, but a good first start! I think I’m aim for a goal of under 20 minutes now.

I need to learn how to spin around and push off at the end of the lane instead of having to stop and turn. But water goes up my nose and I lose my sense of direction. I’ll keep practicing, maybe buy a nose plug.

Yesterday I tried to swim all 18 laps in a row, but had to rest for 30 seconds after the first 9. It wasn’t the strongest swim, but not bad for a first attempt at the whole thing.

I’m also still stopping for a second or two at the end of each 1/2 lap because I don’t know how to spin and turn around yet. When I try it I get disoriented and it takes a moment to figure out the right directly. Also, water goes straight up my nose. I need to practice more, and maybe get a nose plug.

I joined a gym with 7 swim lanes, olympic-length, and I’m going 4 or more times per week. I met a trainer, and he’s started me on 3×3x2:
3 laps at 70% effort, rest 15-30 sec.
3 laps at 80% effort, rest 15-30 sec.
3 laps at 80% effort, rest 15-30 sec.
Repeat

At first I could barely finish the first set, but after 3 days I can almost do the whole thing.

Oh, and I found out why 18 laps is a magic number… it’s 1/2 mile. So if I can complete this goal, I’ll be able to swim 1/2 mile.

OK, I already crossed this off my list. But I couldn’t resist posting my latest time. 2 seconds away from breaking 26 minutes. So close!

I started two weeks ago at a gym, and I liked it. Day 1, I could barely do 1 lap without running out of breath. Now I can do 4 in a row, then I have to rest about 10-15 seconds in between each lap for the rest. My form isn’t very good, either, but I watched some videos and read about how to improve, so I’m sure I’ll get better as I go.

Why 18 laps? On one of the websites I read, a swimming coach said that people who are ‘in shape’ should be able to swim 18 laps in a row, and for some reason that stuck with me. So that’s my new goal!

I can’t believe it. I started off strong and wondered if I could keep the pace all the way. About halfway, I had to slow down to catch my breath, but I was still running. The last half mile, I flew—I pushed myself, took longer strides and increased the speed… and almost beat 26 minutes. Best time ever, for me. Better than I thought I would ever do in my life. THANK YOU 43 THINGS for helping motivate me.

I’m crossing this off. Next up… swimming 18 laps in a row. And maybe rock climbing.