I was drinking one a day at work and while I did enjoy that it was making my groceries too expensive. Now, I’m making a game of it – I’ll buy one a week and I take a shot of Odwalla once or twice a day. It’s the little things that will help me to save money.
I’m reading The Hunger Games in Spanish right now and I’m to book 3, Sinsajo. I totally don’t have time for this right now but I need the sanity measures so I’m doing it anyway. Watching Pan’s Labyrinth in the theater when it came out tipped me off that the collective unconscious is bubbling up some true villains again for us to wrestle with, and I see this series as a clean continuation of that thread. Looking at it that way helps me stomach some of the violence – we have some real darkness to clear so we can liberate the light (ie wars in the Middle East and Africa, and all those other private wars that will never make the news – yes, yours too). All I can say is, it’s gonna be so bright, so keep doing the work.
Spanish Proficiency Exercises from the University of Texas at Austin: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/
I have to do this first before I can go internet exploring – every day. These are great practice in listening!
Two things have got me practicing again: addition by subtraction and an action trigger.
1. I’m not allowed to practice more than 10 minutes a day.
2. I practice after I read the paper and before I get on the computer.
This way, I get in practice daily, I move forward, I practice before my inner critic can stifle my efforts, and I get my foundation down. So far so good, says about six weeks of this under my belt – and counting.
In response to the CT school shootings, I find myself wondering if I would make a decent school counselor.
I’m still all over the place with this goal so I’m just trying to get all my ideas down. There’s no way I could do every idea I get, but you know, it’s comforting to know that every idea I get won’t necessarily be right. I can discover my truth. I just have to pay attention.
This career might suit me because:
*I don’t mind working solo or in small groups
*I care deeply about helping people actualize themselves and would enjoy drumming up ideas for individuals
*I have decent problem-solving skills
*I respect people
*I have a high regard for people with differing faiths, ethnicities, temperaments, life goals
*I listen well and with great focus
Hmm… something to think about.
If I were truly to set out to accomplish all the things my ego puts a shine on, I would have to be eight people, hence the name. I’m trying not to let this quality of myself allow me to feel fickle. Some things just fade out. That’s life. I’m writing it here so I can own it.
I’m thinking of experimenting with a less-meat lifestyle. I’ve got an introductory vegetarian book which I will begin reading through in a moment, but first, I have decided that the first to go will be eggs. Those are the ones that make me feel really really bad – that and chickens – the way it’s such a factory operation and how they singe the beaks of the chicks so as they grow up, they won’t peck their fellows to maimed or to death. It gets me. I know eggs aren’t the obvious first item to go but that’s me, happily backwards.
I’ll have to let myself learn to cook with egg substitutes slowly – this can’t be abrupt or I will feel deprived – so I can make this work. Progress reports to follow.
I am listening to this week’s News in Slow French (http://www.newsinslowfrench.com/) right now, just trying to be open to getting comfortable with the pronunciation.
I’ve been reading Career Counseling books like “Do What You Are” and have parlayed this personality typing into a long list of likely choices. I’m using O*Net to research those careers. This will take some more time but I’ve taken a very big first bite!
Finally checked out a simpler translation of this book from the library and began reading it last Sunday. So far this is very interesting, which surprises me, as it is not my usual book fare.
I listened to two episodes of News in Slow Spanish last month, and my downstairs neighbor, who is from Guatemala, is both taking an English class and interested in talking with me in english and spanish. Yay!
I read a book on the 30th President, Calvin Coolidge. I picked him first because I read an article talking about him as an introvert, a category with which I identify myself. It’s such a big office that I think you have to be really excellent to be acceptable, and truly miraculous to be great. I wonder who I will think of as the ‘best’ one when I get to 44?
Holy mack, I forgot that would fit in with this goal. I bought a nifty bike wall mount, found the wall stud, and installed it. Now my bicycle hangs neatly and has saved a lot of room in this small space. Major accomplishment!
The New Yorker – 3 editions – not interested anymore, they’re so old
Runner’s World – 4 editions – read them all
Yoga Journal – 5 editions – down to just these, yay!
If I write down what’s there I may plow through this goal by convincing myself that it is finite:
*The New Yorker – 3 editions
*Runner’s World – 4 editions
*Yoga Journal – 5 entries
I think I have a very good list here:
•Zest a lemon
•Visit with my heroes, idols, and favorites
•Read in bed until I feel better
•Sit quietly on the porch in the early morning, drinking coffee or not drinking coffee
•Weed the yard or don’t weed the yard
•Run to the stream
•Turn and face it
•Listen to one of my favorite songs
•Re-read something I love
•Watch one of my favorite films again
•Dance around, all by myself, until my mood lifts
•Think of the piano I’ll have someday
•Remember the good times
•Picture a goal, accomplished
•Come to now, it’s nice here
•Go poem hunting
•Write Postcrossing postcards and send them
Yay!
I think I’ve made a good menu for the coming week. It took a while but I think that’s because I love to eat so much and I have a hard time limiting what I put down. We’ll see how this goes.
I went to town on my new Evernote account about this goal, and I’ve drummed up some great ideas for lowering my bill.
One of them is to make a weekly menu and shop according to it. Another is to create a perpetual shopping list of items I always want on hand. So far so good.
If all goes well, I can hit the smaller loan hard and have it paid off in two years. I sent in my application yesterday. Fingers crossed.
I like reading projects and challenges, so I’m going to try this one out, to read one book about each US president, in any order I choose.
For starters, I requested a biography of Calvin Coolidge from the library. So far, I’m anchoring him in my memory by personalization: my grandmother Helen was 7 years old when he became president, he was quite conservative, he attained a high approval rating during the “Coolidge Prosperity”, and he was born on the 4th of July. I guess I’ll do funny-picture visualization to make it stick – I’ll picture a very happy Helen as a little girl waving sparklers on the 4th of July and wearing Calvin Klein jeans.
If this goes well, I’ll incorporate this goal into the essay writing goal and write an essay about each president. One big benefit is a long-standing wish of mine – to be more at ease with my knowledge of our nation’s history, so I feel more on the level when these subjects come up in conversation.
