The biggest thing I have gleaned so far from this book is a new conscious effort to examine what I do – especially when dealing with others. I’ve also rediscovered the importance of meditation. Once upon a time I would meditate at least 20 minutes a day. This time was spent realigning my mind, so to speak. I would think about things that happened or would happen that day, problems I was having and how to solve them, and generally putting myself into a better state – emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. This is something I very much need back in my life and it’s already been added to the schedule.

Yep, I’ve drawn up a schedule. It starts August 2nd and will go on for as long as I can manage it. It includes work out time, meditation times, studying/coursework, design work, crafting, and reading times. It also has set times for eating with only two meals a day – breakfast and early dinner – but has two snack times, one around lunch time and one in the evening. I’ll be removing any sort of food from my office and elsewhere in the house and making it all stay in the kitchen. It’s not that I have a bad diet, I don’t really. But I don’t eat when I should and it’s making it difficult to keep a steady energy level throughout the day. I’ll also be altering my diet to be higher in fruit/veg/grain with portions of pork/chicken for dinner. Need to work protein into my diet, as I’ve not been ingesting enough of it. And I need to get back on my vitamins and supplements.

As for exercise, I’ll be doing an hour of cardio in the morning before meditation. And then another half hour or so in the evening while on the phone with my mom – so she can get her butt on the treadmill too! (And you better mom cause I’m buying a Bluetooth headset for that explicit purpose!) I’ll be changing adding in some bowflex exercises 3 times a week, on top of the daily cardio. I’m really hoping to lose some weight while the hubby is away. I have 10 weeks, that’s potentially what? 30 pounds or so? That would put be down to 133lbs That would be a very nice improvement.

So anyhow, it’s high time for change and I’m going to do it this time. No more saying and not doing!

Then it was time to do my office, again. Which took another few hours and still isn’t completely done, though all the big stuff is in place. Just have some small things laying around that need to find homes.

And oddly enough, my nails made it through all this activity without any chipping paint! But that’s about to change since I’m going to shower. Nail polish always gets messed up when I scrub my head. I’ll be amazed if it doesn’t! And then I’m totally passing out.

Sooooo! Last night Joshua and I went out to 37th and Zen which is an uber cute little place that opened not too long ago. And it’s just down the street so we walked! Why did we go out you ask? Well because we went to support Burn the Radio, our friend’s band. We’ve been to many of their gigs and house parties and since they were right down the street we of course had to go. There were two other bands playing last night too which were good, so we made a night of it.

I started off the evening with a tall Captain’n'Coke <3 Haven’t had a drink in some time so I figured, what the hell. And I got some OMG delicious crab and artichoke dip with chips. SO worth the ten bucks if that gives you any indication of how good it was. Josh had a free yuengling cause the bartender was letting the head go down and then forgot all about poor Josh. And then he had three Legend’s which he hadn’t had before and now (obviously) likes.

Josh had a lot of fun head-banging and bouncing around in front of the stage. And I had a lot of fun watching him and listening to the bands. To be honest it was one of the first times I’ve been comfortable at a gig. Usually I admit to being kind of clingy on Joshua because I’m somewhere I’m not comfortable. But this place was so nice and chill that I could just relax. So you can bet I’ll be going back some time.

Best of all? The dip and drinks was only $35! That’s seriously the cheapest tab I’ve ever run at a bar. Ever. (I’ve literally dropped hundreds at a bar before, so 35 bucks is insanely awesome)

Now… go back to the daytime. I woke up yesterday and felt like poo. Woke up to feed the dogs but ended up staying up for an hour or so, reading blogs and such. The puppy was very blissfully snoring (literally) in my lap with her head on my desk the whole time I decided to take her to the guest room to snore on the bed. I don’t usually lay down with Lani so it’s a treat for her. After waking up and getting to play for 20 minutes she settled down and was curled up with me for a few hours.

Spent some time with Joshua after we both had time in our offices gaming and going about our own business. Then we went downstairs for nomming and Mortal Kombat hah. I’ve not watched that movie in ages so it was fun to see again. Pointed out to Josh that it’s so awesome because it doesn’t try to be an A movie, just content in being a B movie. Which most video games to movies are, B movies. And so long as they don’t try to be better they are fun to watch. I like Mortal Kombat and Bloodrayne because they are straight geeky B movies, as it should be. The only ones I would call A movies are the Resident Evils and Hitman. At least those are the only ones that come to mind immediately.

And then I took a nap for three hours. I was tired as hell (and continue to be) so I needed to sleep before the gig. By the time we got home and settled  (bout four hours later) I was ready to pass out again.

And that brings me to this… lately any time I do any physical activities I seriously feel like I need to sleep afterwards. It’s not being tired, it’s straight fatigue. And it’s kind of alarming. Coupled with the fact that I have had some random tingling in my left hand, then my jaw, and then yesterday several of my fingers.. I’m kind of thinking something may be amiss. So I guess I’ll be making a doctor’s appointment. And I’ve still been having night sweats – which I even had last night which I could not attribute to the heat because the AC is on. :-\

Meh. Anyhow! I have lots to do today. Homework, moving my office around (yes, again), and trying to poke around my attic. We’ll see if it all gets done, ha.

After several weeks of this I have developed a new habit: taking better care of myself. Seems like something one would do on a constant and unconscious basis but it isn’t. I’ve started daily moisturizing again from head to toe (I blame the appearance of wrinkles on my face for prompting this big time). I mix my sunscreen in with my face lotion and make sure to cover all the parts that will be exposed in my trips outside. The only thing I’m forgetting is the bug spray! This is the third or fourth day in a row that I’ve forgotten to put my bug spray in my bag.

And that is a bad thing! I get eaten to bits by bugs even if I just step out onto the porch for more than 30 seconds. It really is that bad. I was recently recounting my first visit to the farm in Tennessee to someone to prove this point. My husband (then fiancé) and I went for a walk around the property for TWENTY MINUTES. In those twenty minutes I came back with five mosquito bites and THREE TICKS. Two latched onto my back, UP my shirt, and one trying to bury itself into my navel. Needless to say, bugs and I do not get along and we never have. Any bite from a bug equals hives, whether small or large. (I won’t even get into my hideous hive stories)

I’ve also taken to wearing my contacts out, which enables me to wear my sunglasses. My vision is bad enough that I wouldn’t even ride my bike without contacts or glasses (I’m not legally allowed to drive without my glasses). It took me forever to find a pair of sunglasses before spring hit. Does the sun not exist in winter? I’m pretty sure it does (even though I didn’t see much of it this winter) so why don’t they sell the damn things just as much then? Stupid stores. Anyhow, I really like the ones I ended up getting and they were cheap (always a good thing).

Somehow I get less crap in my eyes when I wear my sunglasses and contacts than I do wearing my glasses when I ride the bike. I guess the sunglasses cover more surface and are closer to my face but it’s absolutely OBSURD how much dirt and grit hits my eyes when I am wearing my normal glasses. I spend at least a third of the trip picking shit out of my eyes. Yet another reason to wear my contacts I guess.

Anyhow. It’s the beginning of a new school week and this one is no different than the last three: lots and lots to do. I already feel behind (though I’m not) because I haven’t done my reading yet. I was going to bring it to the zoo but my shoulders aren’t up to carrying the weight today (I wanted to be able to write and that requires my laptop).

On that note, damn I want a netbook! Jenn (see the sidebar for her sites ;) ) just got her hands on one and it re-sparked my desire to have a smaller laptop. I by no means want to get rid of my beasty 17” Macbook Pro but it would be nice to have a netbook to take to the zoo with me daily cause then I wouldn’t be breaking my back. Once I have a paycheck again, you bet your butt I’ll be getting a netbook AND a wireless card (and a Blackberry or an HTC Evo for that matter).

Am I a gadget junkie? Yes, yes I am. And no, I am not ashamed to say it.

(And yes, all the pregnant and baby toting women at the zoo still make me green with envy on a daily basis!)

Beasty, beasty!

That’s right, this is how I rock it. lawlz! My rooms are still in the process of being cleaned, which I’ll be working on more this evening. It’s a long process since for the current office I have to… 1. clear everything out (while sorting it) 2. clean off all the furniture and move it 3. remove all the wall art 4. finish and touch up all the paint (its still the only room in my house with paint lol) 5. vacuum thouroughly 6. steam the carpets.. twice and then 7. move in all the bedroom furniture from the other room. So yeah, it’s taking a while. And since I am RAWR PMDDing… it’s going even slower.

So this is why my Beast (aka my mac pro) is on the dining room table, in front of my couch. And since nobody’s bought my brother’s 24″ I’m using it buahaha! Really wish I had the money to just buy it. I rather like it. It’s an HDTV monitor <3 which would and does go nicely with my 30″ HD Apple Cinema. But I don’t. Meh. So I’m trying to sell it for as much as I can get my brother. (Who by the way is gone to “bootcamp” ha) The computer are downstairs in front of my couch for their protection and so that I can continue to use it for school.

Ahh.. school. Yeah it’s going alright. Not the best it could be but you know how it goes. I’ve had too much other stuff on my mind to tell the truth and I haven’t been prioritizing very well these days. There’s so much that I want to get done that I get overwhelmed and nothing gets done if that makes any sense at all… It blows. To put it nicely. Hopefully though when my new office is put together I’ll be motivated to get shit done again. We’ll see.

Pretty tissue paper is the first thing you see!

Bubble wraps! I gave some to Joshua. He was very happy.

The inside is so pretty. The font and sizing is great.

Woot. Isn’t it lovely? Yes, yes it is! I’m so excited about having a nice planner. You don’t understand, it’s one of the  things I am very OCD about. Now, obviously I don’t have any babies to keep track of but I do have classes and chores to keep track of so that is what is going in the “kids” slots. Alright, now for the technicalities.

Construction: Very good. Firm but pliable, if that makes sense. All pages are crisp and of good weight. Fonts and colors are beautiful.

Color Choices: I got pink, cause I love pink, but the other colors are quite appealing. It comes in green, purple, blue, brown, and orange. The color is as vibrant as shown on the website. (for once)

Usefulness: All pages are beautifully laid out, affording you plenty of space to put all of your scheduling info. In addition there are pages for health/fitness, vacation planning, parties, entertainment resources, gift recording, movies, books, restaurants, wines, music, fashion, and future planning. There is also a place in the back for notes. There is also some useful information in the front for how to use, websites, toll free numbers, holidays, and a full calendar year quick look. The planner comes with two ribbon bookmarks (attached of course) too! So you can mark your current week and something else of note (I bookmark the notes section).

The calendar goes from August 2009 (in this case) to December 2010. Kind of awkward but it works.

And awesomely enough, in the back there is a booklet for numbers/addresses, health info, etc. that you can take in and out freely.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Needless to say I am extremely happy with this buy. I absolutely love it and cannot wait to make good use of it!