It's funny...

How you can convince yourself to do all sorts of great things right before you are falling asleep. And then when you wake up in the morning you realize the majority of your motivation has vanished. Maybe one of these days I will wake up and be completely energized and ready to take on all my aspirations. One of these days...

~ Currently listening to:
Avalanche by Manafest

Listless?

So I've spent a lot of time reading this summer and now I've realized that I need to have a more defined purpose. Obviously I'm still trying to get a job...but I've been thinking about what I want to do with my life and I've decided to come up with some goals for myself this summer.

1. Get a part-time job. (I've filled out several, several, job applications but it looks like I need to step it up a notch.)
2. Get serious about my writing. I feel like lately I've been a poser-writer because I haven't done anything worthwhile with my writing. I'm thinking about writing a novel this summer? How hard could that be? I've already done nanowrimo successfully. So three months is plenty of time...*grins hopefully*
3. Get my etsy shop up and running like a pro. This means taking the time and effort to research and read articles about how I can improve my shop and actually sell something. I'd also like to get at least 50-60 items up and listed.
4. Get in shape. I've started walking...sporadically. I've read that walking is one of the best forms of exercise, plus it gets me out in the sun, when I'm usually inclined to stay inside and read all day.

So, I thought I had more things on my mind, and maybe I did...but that seems to be all I can remember at the moment, and those are pretty large goals that will take a lot of time and effort, but I really want to strive for something and discipline myself to get stuff accomplished.

La la la...

So I've been reading like a wild banshee. That doesn't even make sense, but I really wanted to type it. I've made several trips to the library, carting my bolsa with me to hold my 15-18 books that I always seem to come away with. I'm still desperately trying to get a summer job and so far I've applied to a lot of places...and I've heard back from a couple...and they've said no. I feel kind of pathetic, but I'm still hoping and praying that I'll find something. But in my spare time I read.

I guess the reason I'm reading so much is to make up for all those hours I devoted to writing papers and studying during the college semesters...but I've also decided that I'm going to set some goals for myself.

So here are my summer reading goals.

1. Get my to-read list on goodreads under 900 (I had originally made it under 1000, but now I'm thinking that will be too easy, so I've upped the ante.)
2. Read 100 Juvenile/Young Adult fiction books.
3. Read all the Newbery Medals (that I haven't already read, minus that one Newbery medal that our library doesn't own - drat!)

I've made brand new spankin' pages on my book reviews page for 2 and 3 on my blog and I'm working on getting them completely updated. You should totally check them out.

So those are my plans...and I'm sweepin' through them. I'm also listening to some good music on my iTunes. The Classic Crime is quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. And I get excited anytime I hear Children 18:3's newest song. I cannot wait until their new CD comes out in June.

So if my blogging updates have been kind of scattered or nonexistant, it is because I'm buried in a corner somewhere wolfin' down a book.

~Currently listenin' to:
Cover Your Eyes by Children 18:3

Happy New Year!

So, it is officially twenty-ten. It's crazy, man. I have been looking forward to this year and all the things that I am imagining I'll get accomplished. But then, when it finally arrived, I felt nostalgic for 2009. What's up with that?

Here's a problem of mine: I think about the things I have to get done, mentally calculate how much time each task takes, plan out a schedule and then say, "oh, I've got time to do that later," and I get completely distracted and then nothing gets accomplished. The whole reason I'm telling you this is because I haven't thought-out my New Year's Resolutions. Drat.

But here's what I've got so far:

1. Eat 365 apples this year. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
2. Eat 365 bananas this year. I'm still iffy about this one since I've already got the apples.
3. Write 365 blog posts this year. (Are you seeing a theme here? Haha)
4. Work out at least 3 hours a week this year.
5. Don't eat any food after 7 or 8pm each day.
6. Get completely caught up on my book reviews blog
7. Listen to and rate at least 25 CDs this year.
8. Write 365 journal pages this year. (This might get nixed or slimmed down.)

This is a mighty chunk of things. Looking at it actually makes me a little leery. But here's my thought, I won't make it so I have to eat 1 apple each and every day or I fail, but I just have to eat 365 before 2011 rolls around. If I miss a day, no big deal, just eat two apples some day in the future. This puts some of the pressure off me and makes me more likely to not get discouraged.

Well, I've got to pack because we're heading out in the morning, but I'll probably post a couple Best Of 2009s later as well, before I go to bed.

~Song I heard on the radio that intrigued me:

Dez Moines by The Devil Wears Prada

Time's a wastin'

I feel like time is going by fast. I blink and a couple days have passed.

I have plans for this break.

Plans to get things accomplished.

Plans to do epic things and not waste away like a rotting fish on the beach dunes.

I don't think it helps that I am trying to get rid of a pesky cold. It should just shrivel up and die.

I know that I need to stop saying all these things, mouthing these grand plans to empty rooms and listless iPods.

I need to act. I can't just formulate all afternoon away, but I have to actually take steps towards getting these things accomplished.

I've decided to buy a calendar and mark every day that I get something on my list accomplished. Seeing the tally marks on each day will rally my spirits and maybe I won't get so easily discouraged. Maybe.

I'll have to work on next year's challenges and make sure they are over-powering. I'm thinking about them in my head, but I am hesitant to write them down just yet. I will wait the remaining days until New Year's and then I'll post and this blog will help be keep accountable.

As a side note. Snow makes me happy and I will brave cold winds and chapped lips to make a snow angel imprint...

~song currently running through my head:

Mess of Me by Switchfoot (I feel like this is a roaring repeat, but I love it).

Things to do, places to go (no couch potato please)

I'm trying really hard to be organized in my life. I'm taking little steps so that I don't get overwhelmed and get horribly frustrated, because that usually ends with me giving up. It is about this time every year I think all sorts of dangerous thoughts. Well, they aren't really dangerous, but more like radical or boundary-stretching. I start thinking about the new year and what I want to get accomplished, all the while conveniently forgetting my resolutions from last year. I have so many plans, ideas, goals, aspirations, and dreams that are bubbling up inside of me. I often get discouraged though when I fail to reach my lofty goal or crazy schedule. That's why, for the past couple of years, I've made goals that are boundary-stretching, but have more lax restrictions.

In 2008 I decided that I was going to read my bible every day and write one new poem every day for the whole year. I made myself little sticky note calendars that I put next to my bed, and I kept my bible and notebook easily accessible so I didn't have any excuse to not do it. I knew though, that if I missed one day, I would get so annoyed that I would give up, and I would have five new poems for that goal (and that's it) and then I'd quit. So I made it a rule that I was allowed to miss up to thirty days of writing poems. That way, if something came up, and I went to bed without scribbling something down, I was forgiven and didn't have to freak out that I had messed up.

This strategy worked great for me. I am a perfectionist in some areas, and when I make goals I want everything to go according to schedule, so when I made exceptions for myself to fail a little bit, my success was much greater in the end. I wrote a poem nearly every day that year, and I read my daily bible almost every day. Granted, most of the poems were not spectacular or amazing, and sometimes I hurried through my reading because I was so sleepy, but I got into the habit of doing it, and that was really the whole point of it.

It makes me wonder what I should try to do next year. There are so many interesting/enriching things I'd like to try for a year...

1. post a new photograph every day
2. write a new blog post every day
3. exercise at least three times a week
4. send something out to be published twice a month
5. skip eating fastfood (except for special occasions)
6. write one page in a journal every day
7. listen to one CD every day
8. post a new scarf to Etsy every week
9. write a review for a book I've read within a week of reading for my book reviews blog

The list could go on and on. I will just have to mull over all my thoughts for a couple days and then think up a plan of action...I want to do at least two radical things.

As an aside, working with little kids (specifically two and three year olds) cracks me up. They say the zaniest things. Plus they are positively darling and I want to take half of the sunday school kids home on a regular basis.

Whoa! I just sneezed six times in a row. If this is not allergies and I'm beginning to get a cold, I won't be a happy camper.

~two CDs currently on repeat:

The End is Not the End by House of Heroes &

Family Force 5's Christmas Pageant by Family Force 5