February 2010 Goals Update

After a very frazzled December and January, I really just needed to regroup and start again. I mean really, I moved two hours away from everything I had gotten used to. And not necessarily because I wanted to. I kind of had to. But that's not the point. The point is, it took me most of January to regroup and figure out just where I was and where I wanted to go. It was time to make a game plan and get moving.

My main goal is to be back in the city I love by the summer. So I'm calling this my semester off even though I'm already done school... But anyways, I want to move into my new apartment by May. All I'm really concerned with right now is having a place to live and being able to pay for it. And maybe some extra money for food and stuff... That means I need to

1)Get a Job - I'm thinking 20k a year would pay for a decent place and not have me starve
2)Find an Apartment - I know I really can't afford to be, but I'm just a tad bit picky. It's my parent's fault.
3)Move

After spending the first week trying to do everything at once I broke each of my main three goals into smaller pieces. Then I made a list of which parts I would tackle first, and those became my February Goals. So here's the progress that I made over the past month.

1) Get a Job

A - Update resume
B - Look for companies to apply to
C - Apply for jobs
D - Follow ups
E - GET HIRED!!!

• Create Career Notebook - DONE - This will help me keep all of my career info in one place. It's really annoying to forget when I applied to what job and who I talked to on what day. So far, it's a black 3-ring binder with sheet protectors that I shoved all of my papers in. Maybe one day I'll upgrade, but for now, it works.
  

2)Find an Apartment

• List areas of the city I would like to live in - DONE - I now have a decent sized list of only where I want to live. This gives me a better idea of how much it will cost to live there (i.e. how much money I need to make) and saves me time that would have been spent searching in the wrong areas
  
• List wanted features of apartment I would like to live in - DONE - This means that I can now ask others to help me look for what I want. Nobody will help you look for "a place without bugs" because they have to get your opinion on each individual place they find (a waste of time and not helpful to anyone involved).
  

3) Move
- Get rid of stuff that doesn't need to get moved and clean out old room

• Get everything that doesn't belong on the floor of my room either out or off of the floor - FAIL - In fact I think that there might be more on the floor now. But at least the pile no longer includes my clothes.
  
• Finish all of my laundry and get all of my clothes into drawers and the closet - DONE - but how does someone who never has anything to wear have so much laundry???
  
• Get rid of 28 things - FAIL - but since this is technically a year long goal it doesn't really matter much
  
• Set up eBay to sell unwanted items with value - DONE - I also set up a store on Etsy to get rid of all the random craft supplies I managed to find
  

- Hire movers
- Pack
- Move

• Pick Move By Date - DONE - I'm going to enjoy my time at home and move to DC on May 1 no matter what. This gives me a bit more incentive to get everything else done.
  

The rest of my goals for the month were some of my habits for the year

Read a book a month

• Finish reading February career book - DONE - It really helped me to focus my thinking and come up with a better plan. There will eventually be a book review posted
  

Exercise and Eat Better

• Do Situps every MWF - EPIC FAIL - I missed the exact days on the first week, but still got all three workouts in, then missed the whole second week, and the third, and the fourth. I think I was trying to do too much. This may have to wait until I get everything else straight.
  
• Run/Walk for 20 mins every TRS - not so epic FAIL - as above missed the whole second week but I did manage to get in a lot of runs
  
• Run/Walk 12+ times this month (Nike+ goal) - FAIL
  
• Run/Walk 15 miles (Nike+ goal) - FAIL
  
• Run 1 mile in under 16 mins 5x (Nike+ goal) - DONE - I actually brought my time down a lot. Apparently all I need to do is run on a consistent basis.
  
• Exercise Daily - FAIL - no where close, but at least I got used to exercising again. And now I kinda miss it when I don't do anything
  
• Eat Breakfast Daily - SUPER EPIC FAIL - This didn't even make it onto my habit sheet this month. I was failing at getting all of the existing habits under control, so I'm taking a break from adding new ones and focusing on the ones I already have on the list
  
• Find and bookmark websites with interesting recipies - DONE - I did one step better and reorganized all of my bookmarks using Delicious. Apparently I already had some excellent sites bookmarked but could never find them because my bookmarks were spread out and stored on my computer, two different email account bookmark lists, and in an online list. Consolidation really helped make everything easier to find.
  

Set a daily/weekly schedule

• Set a weekly blogging schedule - DONE - I have noticed that I like writing a weekend update post and a goals update post. I think I will write these each week and write other posts as I feel inspired
  
• Blog 3x a week every week - DONE - I'm still working on the exact schedule that I'll be using, but I think I'm going to keep this
  
• Update Twitter and Facebook weekly - DONE - Next month I'll be focusing on how to decide what to post where, but updating at all is a plus. Now my friends know I'm not dead.
  
• Create Want/Need list of monthly purchases - DONE - This turned into my Stuff Inventory which I will post about later
  

Take Care of ME

• Take a half hour bath at least 3 times a week - FAIL - Apparently I will make sure that I am clean, but I will not take the time to relax if I don't set aside time. Next month this is going in the calendar. Showers keep me clean. Clean is essential. Therefore, I do not skip showers. Baths help me relax. Relaxing is essential. Why do I not follow through with these?
  
• Washing My Face Every Night - FAIL - Sometimes I did, other times not. I did however notice that I need to adjust my nightly schedule to do this. Splashing water in your face right before getting in bed wakes you up. I do not need to wake up at 11 at night. I need to go to sleep.
  

For the record:
DONE = 13
FAIL = 8
EPIC FAIL = 1
SUPER EPIC FAIL = 1
Total Goals = 23

18/23 isn't bad, but hopefully I'll do better next month

DC Week

OK so maybe posting a 25th post just to do it wasn't really your style. It's mine. I'm not going to apologize. I'm not sorry for being me. Instead I'm going to write yet another post today. But this time something worth reading. Or not.

Next week I'll be in DC. I have a few things to take care of at school to get ready for my upcoming graduation. HOORAY GRADYOOAYSHUN!!! I'm sure they're proud of the learnin I did there and they're ready to get rid of me for good.

Anyways, I'm taking this time to get ready to move back to the city. That means looking for a job and an apartment. I'm not exactly sure of everything I'll be doing while I'm there, but I do know that I'll need to eat. If you know of any good places that I may not have tried, or any DC bloggers you think I would like to meet or would be interested in meeting up with a newbie, feel free to let me know. I can use all the help I can get. Right now my plan is just not to be unemployed or homeless when I get to DC in May. And there are oh so many ways to get to that point.

Post 25!

Yay!!! My 25th Blog Post!

This has been quite an adventure. I didn't really expect much when I started this blog, and I'm not really sure what I expect as I continue. But the journey is most definitely turning into quite an adventure. Hopefully I can keep this up and celebrate more milestones. 50th and 100th posts will get their own special time to shine, and then celebrating 6 months and 1 year of blogging! This is going to be great. Maybe I should plan a party... I do like parties.

Anyways, I hope you guys are enjoying following me on this random journey called life. Maybe one day I'll become entertaining, informative, or helpful. But for now, it's fun being me and watching my world expand. And if you have any ideas on how to celebrate posts 50 and 100 let me know.

Good Karma - Part II

Ok. I just checked my page and in the comments I found out that my Good Karma box got to its lovely owner. Now I can let you guys know what I sent her. After reading her entire blog (I just got stuck. It was soooo awesome and full of such great life stories) I decided to send these.



The box included

Comfort - A pair of teddy bears dressed like a bride and groom - She's getting married soon, and who doesn't like teddy bears anyways?

Creativity - 2 tiny books to write in and a set of colored pencils

Calming - A little bottle of my favorite Bath and Body Works bubble bath - hooray for bubbles

Celebration - A scented candle called Glistening Snow (or something like that) - after moving to VA from Texas and being drowned in Snowpocalypse during her first winter here I thought it was only appropriate

so here's what she said in the comments


Dear Danielle,

I WAS SOOO EXCITED when I saw your little package of goodness waiting for me when we got home from our daytrip out of town. :) YOU COULDN'T HAVE PICKED OUT BETTER GIFTS!!! thank you thank you thank you!!! i love the sweet little bears :) and agree with why they are comforts. They are SO soft and I hope to incorporate them in our wedding somehow. I just LOVE everything. I giggled at your comment about the snow... yes, PLEASE no more of it! bless you having to deal with it too (btw, is your dog a bichon frise too?!)

your note was just as sweet and made the good karma swap THAT much more enjoyable! I promise to blog about it as soon as my person gets hers :)

i hope we stay in touch!

I LOVED EVERYTHING! xoxo
Micaela


I'll put up a link to her post when she writes more. In the mean time, enjoy her blog Dolce Vita

Good Karma - Part I

I posted before about the The Good Karma Gift Swap with Kaileen Elise so here's a little update on how things went.

I know that they were supposed to be mailed by Wednesday, but I just finished mine on Friday. Between all the snow recently, my lack of real money, and my overall inability to make a decision, it took me forever to finally send my box. But it is done. I took pictures and I'll post what I sent in Part II.

Moments before I finished my box, the doorbell rang. I felt kind of bad about not finishing my box yet so I didn't open what came for me until I had finished with and sent my box. Here's what was in it.






Signed Carolyn

So... At first I thought it was Carolyn from Hang On Little Tomato. She's the only Carolyn I saw in the comments of the gift swap page. Which is awesome. I totally love that blog.

I checked and found out. It's not. Still not sure who it is. I'll let you know when I find out who it is. (I DID!!!)

But anyways. She is super awesome!!!
I love that she really payed attention to my little bit about me. There aren't too many posts on here yet, so it's kind of hard to figure out anything about me from this blog so far. I thought it was great that she wrapped one of the presents in aluminum foil (I had mentioned that cat loves to steal the stuff). It was cool. I think I may have to put up a picture later of cat enjoying his new toy.

So this was really awesome. And so much more than I was expecting. Now I'm just thinking. I really hope Micaela likes my box. I thought pretty hard about what to put in it. Trying not to worry about how much money I didn't have to put into things. I tried to be creative. Now I'm wondering if it worked. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Plus, I guess there's always next time. I'm just getting the hang of this whole adult friendships thing.

Black Solidarity at Yale

This weekend I went to Yale. My sister was in charge of the Black Solidarity Conference at Yale, so we all went up to go to the banquet at the end of the conference. So, yes. My sister goes to Yale. And I didn't. Ivy League schools aren't exactly known for having great engineering programs after all. In fact, most don't even have engineering programs. So no Ivy League for me. Instead, I went to Black U. HOWARD UNIVERSITY. The Black Ivy League.



So first, a few things about the differences in our schools and my informal tour of Yale. Then we'll get to all the conference details.

We got into town Saturday afternoon after a 3 hour drive. After checking into the hotel mom gave me the most informal college tour ever. "Ummm, this building has history. There's something significant about this building but I don't remember what." That kind of stuff. The library was cool. Apparently the guy wanted to build a church, but they would only let him build the library. So he built this.



Yup. The guy built a church for them to put the library in. Now that's what I call creativity. Loophole found. I can just see it now. "Fine. I will build you a library. It will hold all of the books you want it to. But you never said it had to look like a library..." I think I might have done the same thing. Although I'm kind of wondering if this is just as bad as throwing a temper tantrum when you don't get your way..



Anyways, after the whole campus tour we went to the bookstore so I could look at all the shiny stuff. I found these two shirts. Two sport we don't have at Black U. I mean we have lacrosse, we even brought the baseball team back. But these are two sports we don't have. I kind of understand crew. Mostly you do that up north. I can't really think of any school that far down south that has a crew team. I guess there's the same kind of idea about hockey too. Not too many inner city schools have an ice hockey team.


So after the bookstore that was pretty much all the excitement I could handle for awhile. So back to the hotel for a nap.


Then came the banquet. First, we met up with my sister. Met the Dean of the Chapel.

He's the one wearing the purple tie. Yeah. To a Black Tie Event. Not a big deal to most people. But if you know me at all, you know I caught on. I go to Black U. The main people to wear purple to a black tie event are...

Yup. He's them. It's almost funny how since I met so many in DC now I can never go anywhere without finding one. Although I guess it's just like finding Howard Alumni. The girl sitting across from me at the banquet table lives down the street from where I did when I was last in DC. I love HU.


The speaker for the night was Michael Eric Dyson. He was pretty cool. His speech was all about progress. Pretty much he was trying to explain that after the conference was over, we all needed to go back to where ever we came from and help the people who aren't at the level we're at. People without the opportunities or education that we have. The main idea is that the only way everybody gets better is if the people who get better turn around and help other people get better. He's a really good speaker. It takes a lot to make politics and social commentary go together. I think everyone left feeling like they had more to give to the world and wanting to come up with a way to give it.

All in all, I think my weekend went pretty well. And now, back to the regularly scheduled week.

Early Mornings

So at 10 AM I have already eaten, run, gotten dressed and read some of my favorite blogs. I think I'm getting back into the hang of getting up in the mornings. The end of December through January threw me off with my morning routine. It is rather difficult to keep your routine when you move, especially when you move into someone elses space.

But now I'm back. Spent most of yesterday getting ready for the next two months. My morning schedule is in my computer and is fixed so that every week it starts 30 minutes earlier. This should give me more time to workout and not rush in the morning and still be ready for the day. Eventually my whole routine will end at 8 AM, but for now, I'm fine with it starting later. I don't technically have anywhere to be before noon these days.

Getting ready yesterday also helped me realize how important it is to take the time to regroup every so many days. I got time to think through how much is really necessary and how much in my life is just excess. For instance, over the past few weeks I've realized that it is hard for me to focus sometimes because I have so much stuff and it is all in random places. Having no real system to anything keeps me from being able to find things when I need them. So I made a few lists (i love lists. index cards make the best lists keepers too). I figured two things that I need to keep track of are my stuff (tangible items) and my data (lists, computer files, internet bookmarks). Having only two categories made it seem like I could actually conquer the amount I had. After all, who wants to tackle 600 categories at once?

Anyways. I broke the stuff down into the types of stuff that I have, need and want based on when and where I use the stuff (kitchen stuff has nothing to do with bathroom stuff or hobby stuff). Then I made a spreadsheet (I know, I'm a real geek. I even know excel formulas to make it add on its own). Now I have a list of all of my stuff in one place. It includes how many of each thing I have and need to buy or get rid of. This should make getting rid of things easier. If I only need one or two of something and I have 50, it goes. No questions asked. It's like an automated donate/shopping list. I absolutely love it. I think I might make it prettier in the future, but for now it does the job.

The data is something I'm still working on. I think the real problem started when I first got an email address. We all had that little kid email name that we ditched as soon as we realized it wasn't professional and we needed another one with our name in it. Only problem was that I still have that first email address. And both of my email accounts had a bookmarks list, with different bookmarks, that I still use. Dilemma. And it only gets worse when you add the other bookmarks that are stored in my web browser. So I put them all in one place. It took forever (watching the olympics helped pass the time) but now they're all in one place so I don't have to keep trying to remember when and where I bookmarked that one page about the thing.

Today will be more spreadsheeting and getting rid of stuff. But at least now I have a plan. That helps so much. Maybe when I finish I'll post my lovely spreadsheet, to-do list, and bookmarks list. We'll see.

Happy Valentine's Day To Me!

Not really the best of weeks here. I fell off the exercise and habit wagon with all the snow and cabin fever. I think not being able to go outside made me sleepy, and bored. But the weekend was pretty good.

Went to The Cheesecake Factory with a friend for Valentine's Day. We caught up on each others non-existent love lives and laughed at the fact that all of our friends are madly in love with being single right now. The two hour wait for a table was passed in the nearby Barnes and Noble looking at random books and magazines. The only way it could have been better would be to include the missing part of our trio (The Three Hebrew Girls will rise again!!! - Inside Joke). There's always next year. And every gathering we have planned for later this year. :)

Anyways, now it's time to move on to the next week. I have laundry to do, Olympics to watch, and jobs to apply for. Adios.

Happy I Love Me Day!!!

I think people put too much emphasis on going out and spending money for Valentine's Day. Don't get me wrong. I'm going out for Valentine's Day, but that's mainly because I'm going out with one of my best friends. And we like to celebrate everything. To us, a birthday is a week-long sometimes month-long event; it's always the right time to use the good plates; and a chandelier is perfect for decorating a tiny apartment with no furniture, and even better in the bathroom. So this is just a chance for us to go to a favorite restaurant and catch up.

That being said, Valentine's Day is not the extent of our celebration this weekend. We are also celebrating I Love Me Day. While most single girls sit around making themselves feel bad because nobody is treating them like they're special this weekend, we're treating ourselves like we're special. Why? Because we are. In my world, I don't need someone to say "I love you", pretend that taking me to dinner was their idea when it wasn't, or buy me flowers. Why? Because I love me, I can take myself out to dinner when I want to go out (eating by yourself is sometimes more fun anyway), and I buy myself flowers all the time (my birthday, valentine's day, wednesday). Plus, I like getting to do what I want to do. No bargaining or compromising needed.

As a single girl I can
- have a pet cat, a pet dog, and fake fish
- decorate my apartment for any and every reason
- watch chick flicks during baseball and basketball games (on the big tv not my laptop!)
- leave all of my stuff on the bathroom counter (not that i do, that's kinda messy)
- sleep in the middle of the bed
- have all storage containers be purple
- treat myself like a princess without explaining that "I'm not spoiled, I'm well loved" (that one's thanks to grandmom)

So in the spirit of I Love Me Day, here are some things to keep in mind and a few links to enjoy.


Enjoy adding girly stuff to your place while you still can...

The History of Valentine's Day

Madly In Love With Me Day - Self Love Toolkit

Self-care is Not Selfish

Unconditional Self-Love and Self-Acceptance

Purchase the Picture in the Post

My lack of skills, or Why I still have no job

OK. The snow was fun. But I need to do something else now. You can only say so much about snow in two week period. Especially if all that' new about the snow is that it got deeper. All this time inside has given me time to think about my goal of getting a job, or career, or whatever you want to call it. I'm not even sure it counts as actual productive thinking though. Most of it was random things I thought while reading blogs this week.

First was What Do You Do on Tranquility du Jour. I have no idea how this happens, but it seems as if lately everything that Kimberly writes about is either something I have read about recently or something that I'm thinking about. Anyways, its about all of the things that she does, and how it's super hard for her to do that 1 minute elevator pitch that most career people say you need to be able to do. As I was reading through the list, all I could think about was, "Wow. This sure is a lot of stuff. How would you put that on a resume?" Which got me thinking again. "Boy I hate resumes." For the life of me, I could never figure out what exactly to put on a resume. Here's why.

They tell you to put the following things on your resume. places you worked - what you did - how long you worked there - what's your major - what's your GPA - where do you live - how do we contact you - what are your skills - what do you do with your time besides go to school (extra curricular activities for students) - references - when will you graduate. I don't think most of that ever made sense to me. Especially since if ask different people they will tell you to leave out different things on the list. Which is also why I hate career centers. They say they'll help you get a job, but it doesn't always end up that way. It made me laugh to find a post about college educations and career centers by Penelope Trunk. It appears as if she dislikes them more than I do. But in any case here is what they tell you to put on/leave off your resume.


If your GPA is crap leave it off so they don't know.
-but what if i don't care what they think. i chose my major because it was difficult and the best way to learn how to do it was to get other people to teach me. isn't that what school is for anyways? if i could teach myself easily why would i pay others to help me learn?

Just put that you will graduate 4 years from when you started. Until you get to 4 years from when you started and realize you don't know when you'll finish, then just keep putting next year.
- i'm convinced that this shouldn't even be on there until you are applying for a full time job for which you need a degree. it's just depressing to those who don't graduate on time and makes all freshman feel like getting out on time is better than taking the time to actually learn everything they will need to know when they get out.

Put your current school address, even if you move every year. Just change it on your resume when you move.
- but what if i want them to be able to find me? i have had over 5 different addresses since i started college. three on campus, one off campus, and my parents house in nj. even if they wanted to hire me they probably couldn't.

Then there's the part about leadership positions and skills. I hate this part. Mainly because most of my leadership positions have nothing to do with my major. They never quite look like they belong on my resume. How do you explain to a hiring manager that you are one of the vice presidents of a dance group and that is a reason to look deeper into hiring you? The worst for me is unnamed positions. I tend to have unnamed positions a lot. I don't like it when things obviously need to be done but nobody is doing them, or when meetings are unproductive because nobody knows what its going to be about before they get there, and i can count. I end up being an unofficial secretary, meeting coordinator, or treasurer sometimes. But unofficial positions aren't really traditional resume material.

And skills. What are my skills. I have about 100 of them. But most of what I do on a daily basis isn't really work worthy. Not unless you completely reword what I say that I do. For instance, since I have been home I have,

Started a blog = learning html coding,
Written posts for my blog = Researched topics
Taken pictures for my blog =
Gotten rid of 40 or so things that were no longer needed = simplified work processes
Updated my Twitter and Facebook statuses = social media guru
Checked my email about 50 times a day = easily reachable
Read 2 self-help books =

I don't even know how you would turn those into marketable skills. Maybe I just need to figure out how to use words better. If I can turn what I do into something that needs to be done, maybe then they'll hire me. Until then, can anybody suggest any skills that I either have now, or can work on without having a real job?

Snowpocalypse 2.0

So apparently all this snow isn't over yet. When I went to sleep last night, it had already started snowing again. The lovely path that I had helped dig to the front door was starting to fill in already. Which of course would mean that I would go to sleep only to have to wake up and dig us out again...

When I woke up, the back yard still looked like a winter wonderland. Which I guess is pretty cool. Especially since we don't have to dig out the back yard...


I'm the scientific type so of course I had to measure how much snow we got. And tell mom that she measured in the wrong spot. You see, you have to measure in the spot you already cleared so you know how much fell to the ground. You can't measure where there was already snow. So the now non-existent path to the front door was measured to find that we had 6 inches or so just over night. And that was before it started snowing harder around noon.


Then came clearing out my car. again. This time I got to use the snowblower. There would be a picture of that since I obviously took the camera outside, but apparently mom isn't as into taking random pictures of things that don't really need to be captured on film as I am. Too bad. Snow blowers are fun. Even made a few friends jealous cause I got to use one and they didn't. Maybe one day I'll live somewhere with snow and get one of my own to play with. Of course, my friends would turn it into a 'snow blower/go cart/lawnmower of doom' type object. Mechanical engineers are really fond of souping up machines that already do their jobs just fine.


So to make a long story short. In a matter of hours, my back yard turned from nice, bright, winter scene, to white out blizzard conditions. Oh how I love winter storms. The National Weather Service says that this is the biggest set of winter storms to hit this area ever since they started measuring. So apparently, if you add all the snow so far this winter, we have a heck of a lot of snow and could completely bury a small dog, small child, a stack of all of the books i needed for college, the mailbox, my car, your choice really.




*** On an unrelated note. Thanks to whoever got #vanessasmith started as a trending topic on twitter. Howard University reunion. I did get tired of dumb people who follow everything asking what HU was though. My question - if you don't know, why are you following? Clearly HU rules the web. HU is the best. That is all.

Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse 2010

This was one of the most interesting weekends since I've been home. I am loving this month so far. Last weekend it snowed and I had a great day shopping and at the movies with a friend to escape it all. This weekend, escape was not an option. With what was being dubbed Snowmageddon or Snowpocalypse was on the way and bringing some record snow. So I did what any sane person would do. I stayed in my room and watched the snow fall from my bed. Then I moved downstairs and watched the snow fall from the couch. It was great. I think that sometimes snow is best appreciated from inside with a scented candle and a hot cup of tea.

Since it hadn't started snowing yet, I used Friday to make sure I had a good stock of apple sauce, apple juice, milk, eggs, and cereal. Then I worked on my February goals and watched it start snowing. It was actually kind of fun to be away from my friends this time. Between twitter and text messages I got to know exactly what kind of a storm to expect since I'm currently two hours north of everybody else.

Saturday the texting and twittering continued as my friends let me know about DC shutting things down and Friday night panicking in grocery stores. I read part of my February book, watched it snow. all. day.

I mean, I took a five hour nap and it was still going. How does that happen? I guess maybe that's why we got the most snow ever since the Blizzard of '96. I counted 17 inches, and I'm still not sure that I actually hit the ground. And they say it's supposed to snow again later this week. So we might just end up breaking that record when you add up all of the winter snow.


When I tried to take the dog outside he wouldn't go out past the edge of the garage without being carried. He's such a spoiled little thing. Normally I'd say that was the reason, but he's all of 7 inches off the ground. And that's when he's fuzzy. Even when we made him a path in the back yard he wouldn't follow if you went too far ahead of him because he couldn't see over the snow.














Then we had to dig out my car and the house. My mom even took a shot at using the snowblower. Of course by this time the dog had gotten tired of trying to figure out how to get anywhere and sat down in the garage to watch. He's not very helpful.

Sunday we skipped church. Since we live in NJ and go to church in Philly we decided it might not be a good idea to try and brave the roads and bridge just yet. I mean, if we got stuck, who was going to come and get us? Getting stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere is not a good look. Instead everybody watched church on TV. There's some good stuff on TV on Sunday mornings. Mom and dog fell asleep and I told them sleeping in church was against the rules. Dad told me that I had to wait till the commercials to get up or talk. No talking or walking during the sermon. I guess that's what I get for making fun of everybody else.

Then it was time for a nap and.....

Super Bowl XLIV

Some of my friends back at school were having a Super Bowl party. I was really considering driving back down just to go to it. And then it snowed. So I had my own party. Me, dog, cat, mom and dad. And yes that is me and dog with the TV on and the laptop on Twitter and NFL.com. I had the play by play up on the screen in case I missed something. Afterall, game time is when you do stuff if you really need to. The commercials are supposed to be the best of the year. Nobody wants to miss those.

Too bad the colts didn't win. I was cheering for Antoine Bethea to win his second Super Bowl since he's a Howard University alumnae and all. But I suppose I'm not too disappointed that the Saints won. It's their first Super Bowl EVER... And really, we all want to cheer for the underdog. Plus, if the Cowboys aren't in the game, and the Ravens aren't in the game, I just pick my team by using random criteria anyway.

After the game was over I tried to catch up on my workouts. Since Saturday was such a random day I never got around to doing my weekend run or the last of the situps. The run I did after the Super Bowl ended. Hopefully I can just do the situps today and then start this week's tomorrow to catch up.

Oh and remember my Valentine's Day plans? My lovely friend from last weekend decided that we need to go to The Cheesecake Factory together on Valentine's Day. I love my friends. They know me oh so well.

But now it's time to get back to the real world and enjoy my Monday. Lots more reading, job searching, and room cleaning to do. Not to mention a little running.

February 2010 Goals

So we're almost a full week into February and I think I'm starting to get into this blogging thing. It's really helping me to think things through and figure out what I want to do and how to do it. Although I think I need to work on a few things.

This morning I realized that I have about 10 broad categories for things that would help me to be a better person, but I have no real concrete goals on how to improve. So I thought that I would take the time today, while waiting for what has been dubbed the Snowpocalypse, to set some goals for the rest of the month. And what does the bloggoverse send me? The February Dreams of Kimberly Wilson. Inspiration.

So here are my February Goals

1. Get Organized

• Get everything that doesn't belong on the floor of my room either out (trash, donate or sell) or off of the floor (keep, or things that need to be sorted later)
• Finally finish all of my laundry and get all of my clothes into drawers and the closet - although I'm sure some will end up being donated
  

2. Get Rid of 365 Things

• Get rid of 28 things
• Set up ebay to sell unwanted items with value
  

3. Get a Job

• Create Career Notebook - keep updated copy of resume, career ideas, job listings, etc.
• Finish reading February career book
  

4. Take Control of My Finances

• Create Want/Need list of monthly purchases

5. Start an Exercise Routine

• Do Situps every MWF
• Run/Walk for 20 mins every TRS
• Run/Walk 12+ times this month (Nike+ goal)
• Run/Walk 15 miles (Nike+ goal)
  
• Run 1 mile in under 16 mins 5x (Nike+ goal)
  

6. Improve My Cooking Skills

• Find and bookmark websites with interesting recipies
  

7. Keep In Contact with Friends and Family

• Set a weekly blogging schedule
• Blog 3x a week every week
• Update Twitter and Facebook weekly
  

8. Start 52 Good Habits

My new February Habits to start are

• Exercise Daily - this is also a part of goal number 5
• Take a half hour bath at least 3 times a week - I have a really bad habit of not taking time for myself - I plan to do this on my running days as a way to cool down and transition from exercise time into a tranquil morning
• Washing My Face Every Night - I do this in the morning already, but with the addition of more strenuous exercise into my day I thought it would be better to do it at night too - Also I've found that having a clean face helps me feel better about everything else that I do - Put your best face forward right?
  
• Eat Breakfast Daily - no skipping at all - all this exercise is starting to make me need more energy - plus your body won't burn calories if it thinks it won't get anymore any time soon - Eat More, Burn More is going to be my breakfast time motto
  

9. Read the Whole Bible - Well, since the actual Bible that I want to use for this project is currently in storage and I wasn't planning on doing this until later this year, I think I'll focus on the next goal and then this one. Especially since that would mean the end of my storage unit anyway.

• Pick Move By Date (before 90 day challenge start date)
  

10. Move to DC - I can't very well tell other people to take risks or do what would make them happier if I don't. And what would make me happy right now would be to live in a city. I would like to live in a city with interesting architecture and city landmarks, with a great history, with lots of different kinds of people. I want to live in a place that gets all 4 seasons, even if only for a week. And I want to live in a place that is walkable, with public transportation. Something that this area does not have. Since I loved it so much when I was in school, but never really managed to explore it thoroughly, I thought my first city should be Washington, DC. Most of my friends from school are still in the area, and I have other friends in Maryland and Virginia, so why not?

• List areas of the city I would like to live in
• List wanted features of apartment I would like to live in
  

I really like this month's goals, but I do realize that these are just goals. I think the best thing for the Butterfly Project is going to be to figure out why I have each of these goals and what I really want my life to be like. I need a personal mission statement, or manifesto, or something like that. Something to work towards for life instead of a goal for the week. For now, I'm going to focus on these goals and think about the goals that I have made for myself in the past few months. I can see a bit of a pattern already, but hopefully it gets clearer. After all, it's not our goals that define us. It's our actions. You can't DO a goal. You can't DO a task. And nobody really cares what you say if you don't back it up. Food for thought.

Valentine's Day Plans

Today was a good day. I've been feeling a little down lately, so I took today to pamper myself. I made sure today was filled with exercise, a bubble bath, tea in one of my favorite new mugs, blog reading, scented candles, and a nap with the dog and cat. And I must say, I feel so much better. I think a little recharge every once in a while is what keeps us from getting bored, worn out and depressed.

During my blog reading I joined the Good Karma Gift Swap over at kaileenelise... This is so my idea of how to celebrate February. Who wouldn't want to get a care package from a complete stranger telling you they think you're special and should take a little time out for yourself...

It goes along with my plans of celebrating the 13 - 15.

13 - I Heart Me Day - A day to ignore the wants and needs of everyone else if you want to and simply be selfish and indulge yourself in whatever you feel you need. Afterall, if you can't take care of yourself, you're never going to be able to help others.

14 - Valentine's Day - Spend the day with someone special, be it a boyfriend/girlfriend, family member, or even a pet. Pets can really be the best company sometimes. They don't judge you for having the extra slice of cake or scoop of ice cream, or both.

15 - Anti-"Valentine's Day" Day - The special day is over and the stores know it. Candy is usually discounted, and everyone who had a horrible experience the day before is ready to compare who's Valentine's Day was more devastating. Grab the gang, some discounted chocolate, and the lamest love story you've ever seen and go to town. Making fun of the "Happily Ever After" stories with others always puts a smile back on my face. What can I say, I have some interesting friends.

Maybe I can grab a friend and get to The Cheesecake Factory that weekend. I heart their food, drinks, and especially deserts. Just over a week to make plans. What are you planning on doing to celebrate?

Inspiration from the Blogosphere

Ok. So for a while I thought that this week was turning out pretty horribly. Being away from my friends and everything I've grown close to over the past few years is starting to take a toll on me and I can't wait to get back to the city. So I thought I'd catch up on some blog reading for some inspiration, and boy did I get it.

The journey started over at one of the blogs I've been reading for about a year or so now. Kimberly Wilson's Tranquity du Jour. I got stuck sophomore year when I decided to try and learn yoga and discovered her podcast named Hip Tranquil Chick. After listening to a few of the episodes I found myself unable to tear myself away from my iPod. Within a few weeks I had listened to all of the podcast episodes and read her book, also titled Hip Tranquil Chick. The blog has since been renamed to capture Kimberly's mission to find tranquility in everyday life. The past weeks on Tranquility du Jour have brought not just Kimberly's voice, but the voice of several very talented guest bloggers, one of whom is the next source of inspiration.

The author of the Signature Style Wednesdays guest spot on Tranquility du Jour is Kaileen Elise, who happens to have a blog of her own. When I fell in love with her first two posts I decided to check out her blog. My Google Reader couldn't have been happier. The blog, which is self named, is subtitled "Everyday is an Extraordinary Adventure". Who can argue with that? An Kaileen's Modern Girl's Manifesta was such a treat. It's amazing that we don't usually stop to think about how we want our time to be spent and how we want to live, and then we get upset after we've been angry and self-destructive and wasted our time. I feel like I've just found a new friend.

And how great is it to make a new friend and then meet their friends? Well, that's what happened to me today. Stumbling through my new weekly read I found a post called Design Your Life, which was a feature of her on another blog. Click. Click. Click. Makeunder My Life. Wow was all I could say. I've found someone else who shares the idea that a few nice things are worth more than a lot of crappy things, and you can appreciate your things more if everything you have is something that you love. This was what I had in mind when I started my project to Get Rid of 365 Things. Jess from Makeunder My Life makes it a point to get rid of at least one thing every week that she is no longer absolutely in love with. She calls it End of the Week Exfoliation. By the end of the year 50 or so things have said goodbye, making room for more lovable items.

I am also quickly falling in love with some of the other "weeklies" on the blog. I might just have to steal some of the easy recipies my attempt to learn to cook more for everyday life. Also the series on small business advice could be useful, if not to me then to some of my friends.

Hopefully this isn't the end of finding inspiration in the blog world. As part of my 365 Things I'm looking to pare down my Google Reader count and find a handful of blogs that are helpful, creative and inspiring. I think that would help my life much more than reading the same news from 6 different sites. I'm not a fan of being depressed.

My First Workout

So as of today I am now on my second set of each workout and everything is going just fine. My first run of 20 minutes wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, although I only managed to eek out 1.08 miles in that time. I think it might be time to get outside as soon as the snow clears. Everyone that I've talked to says that running outside is way better than running on a treadmill. The situps and pushups aren't as bad as I thought they were going to be either. All in all this will only take me a maximum of 30 minutes a day. No excuses for not enough time to work out anymore...

2010 Top Ten Progress

January was a fun month. I finished the book Helping Me Help Myself, which left me in a great mood and ready to start improving stuff. Be sure to look for a book review in the next week. It's amazing how much can change in a month. I'm still unemployed and living at home, but at least now I've gotten used to being here and I've unpacked the necessary stuff so I can be productive. It really isn't easy staying focused and looking for a job when you feel like you're in someone else's space and not your own.

So here's my progress for the month.


1. Get Organized
It's a lot easier to stay organized now that I've gotten rid of some of the stuff I was hanging on to. My Franklin Covey planner is getting use now that I can't lose it under all of the random piles I had. And now that I use it all the time I'm starting to get a better idea of the kinds of things that I like to keep track of. Since I try to do all of my shopping on the weekends, I have a section for shopping lists (need to buy and want to buy). There is also a section for keeping track of your finances, even though I'm not using that. It was one of the pre-labeled tabs that came with the starter pack that I ordered to go with the calendar part of the planner.

The thing I love about it is that they have so many sections and different calendar types that it's easy to mix and match parts and make a planner that's right for you. I wouldn't really suggest it to people who aren't sure if they'd use a paper planner though because they are a bit expensive. But for people like me who use one all the time, it's the greatest thing ever. The starter pack has tabbed sections for stuff like goals and important information and a guide on how to best use the planner. What I thought was really interesting though was the section labeled Values/Mission. It takes you through a few exercises and helps you to write your own personal mission statement. I guess it kind of links into the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I might have to actually read it now. I do want to be highly effective. Plus, it would only be fair. Since I've fallen in love with the planner and all.

2. Get Rid of 365 Things
I am actually quite surprised at how well this is going. 31 things down, A lot more to go. (Well, more than 31 if you count the fact that some of the things on my list were *A trash bag full of junk *2 Foot high stack of old magazines *A few bags of clothes donated to Goodwill *Old Halloween costumes)

The sad thing here is that since I'm back at home I've managed to find things that I didn't remember I had. Things from before I started college, things from before high school, things from preschool even. Who keeps all of this stuff really? Apparently I did. I actually thought at some point in time that my graduation cap from preschool would be needed one day. Or maybe I just didn't want to forget about it. I was a cute preschooler... Oh Well, now it's gone, I still have the picture, and I really don't feel so bad about getting rid of some of this old stuff anymore.

The best part of the progress though was getting rid of those three containers of papers that I mentioned before. The real help was the filing system that I used to figure out what to get rid of and what to keep. I never really thought that a bunch of filey tabby thingys could change my life that much. I might just do a post on the whole filing process since I'm still in the middle of figuring out what to do with the papers that were still in my room. Keep an eye open later next week.

5. Start an Exercise Program
I have not only managed to start my quest to get in shape enough to be a high school athlete, I have managed to drag some friends with me. So far I have two friends doing the 200 situps challenge with me. I hope to recruit a few others at some point in the future to help me stay on track with pushups and running.

7. Keep in Contact With Friends and Family
I miss my DC crew. It's kind of hard to find people who are willing to keep me entertained, put up with stories about my awesome ninja alarm clock of a cat (that might have to be a post of its own one day), and help keep me from having nervous breakdowns every two days. Over the past week I managed to send most of the crew their own personal text messages saying that I missed them. Sure I saw some of them about two weeks ago. And sure text messages aren't the most personal way to tell someone you care. But at least I didn't mass text them. In my world, progress is progress, and baby steps are still steps. So for now, it counts. I think this month might be an individual email to the top 20 people or so that I have lost contact with.

I also managed to have a super fun day with one of my best friends on Saturday. Even though it was snowing we had a ridiculously great time going to a few stores, buying my fabulous new running sneakers, and going to the movies to see Sherlock Holmes. I think these kind of days need to make it to my calendar more often.

8. Start 52 Good Habits
I think I'm doing pretty good on this one. So far there are 8 habits that I'm keeping track of. As of the first of the year there were only 2 days where I didn't do all of the habits I was supposed to do. And I think that was because I was sick. Not really a great excuse, but it happened. So that leaves me with a near perfect habit list. Not a bad start to the year. Sure some of the habits so far were things that I do everyday anyway, but I just want to make sure I don't forget. Plus, tracking all of this stuff will make it easier when I get to the bigger stuff later this year.


All of this progress is making me look forward to February now. Even though it doesn't seem like I got that much done or am any closer to my big goals of a job and a new apartment, I had fun and I did a decent number of productive things. Now on to make February even better!