Trying to brace myself

I'm very invigorated by the new year.

Today I got rid of a lot of trash around my house, bagged up some extra clothes that I don't wear for Goodwill, got a few things at the grocery store, practiced about 45 minutes and plan to knock out the other 35 before bed, and best of all prettied up by LinkedIn profile and added some people.

Sipic added me and "endorsed" some of my skills, wheeee : 3 Today was a good day indeed.... My profile is still missing a lot of information but at least I'm getting the hang of it. 

My goal for this break was to get a job and work on that profile so I feel accomplished to some degree. Though I haven't actually been contacted by anyone from the College of business about my application for the office position. I can't put all my eggs in one basket, I need to start applying for other jobs around campus too before long. I'd really rather not work retail again if I can help it. It's exhausting and boring. I either want a job on campus or something that can get me tips for being cute.

My darling Marshall is so happy to be home again where he can relax and not worry about other cats. 

I feel like he hasn't slept in weeks because of the shenanigans that inevitably occurred while we were gone. He stayed at the house with Michiko, Miranda and Marlow when we were in California and this afternoon I noticed some of his whiskers look like they've been cut short. I'm sure it's from Miranda scratching him in this face because he will recklessly annoy the other cats by biting their tails. 

He's been so cuddly and loving with me all day though. He makes me feel less nervous about any upcoming change in my life. Tomorrow school starts and I still have to buy my books. Today I was thinking maybe I'd get them with this guy I like right now but I wasn't able to get in contact with him.

Here are my New Years Resolutions for 2014

1. Make it a goal to practice 80 minutes of guitar a day. Enough to make sufficient progress but not enough to take over my life.

2. Use a squirt bottle to train Marshall not to beg for food. 

3. Study 2 hours a day on weekdays (ex. Friday) and Sundays mandatory, even if it's after a test so I don't end up giving one class more attention than the others. 

4. Absolutely no drinking on Sun.-Thurs., as always, and try to keep drinking on Saturday to a minimum because I need to be fully ready to study on Sundays. 

5. Be confident, damn it. Stop selling myself short, and if I do for God sake don't share it because it only puts you in a vulnerable position. Hold yourself in high esteem while of course respecting and trying to gain knowledge from people who are doing well at what you want to be doing. 

6. Make an effort to dress cute on days that I feel depressed and like shit to motivate myself to get out more. Get out more in general.

7. Don't judge or think badly of someone based on the way they look. Remember the law of attraction and that thinking negatively can effect how you appear to the rest of the world. This will help build new relationships with people. 

8. Moderate time on facebook to be able to use the computer for actual research and schoolwork.

9. Keep up with economics news and pay more attention to names and current events.

10. 100: combination of situps, squats every day. Continue to eat healthy and go the gym if possible. Burning off that energy feels great.

peace. 

I feeling more and more exausted here.

Things haven't been bad. We went out to dinner at this really nice mexican food restaurant and I ordered a plate of fish and chips. I must've been so hungry last night, I ate super quickly. I don't know why but it seems like I'm always hungry here. It's not that we haven't been going out to eat and all that, it's just that I don't have my usual source of snacks to pull from. Back home, I have numerous sources to get random food from. Here, there's like nothing to snack on in my Grandma's cabinets.  
I'm listening to Pantera right now. I got really irritated with some of the stuff Grandma listens too and I want to listen to some of my own music as a pallet clenser I suppose. I've listened to this Greatest Hits CD so many times but I haven't really branched into their other music. I really should, I like them a lot but I don't like some of their less melodic stuff.

It's bizarre being here at times, I mean there's a lot of tension betweem Mandy and Adam and it makes me a little sad for her. Zoe really shocked me this year, she's grown up a lot since I've last seen her. The stage between preteen and teenager is a large jump. She said her experience in middle school was good for the most part.

Of course we spilt all over the table almost immediately upon sitting down. here's my Mom cleaning it up. She's such a leader, it cracks me up how she's always planning everything she does. Right now she's out hanging out with Georgia, and I'm pretty sure my sister is getting her senior pictures done by my cousin.

I got a chance to go to the beach today. I built a sand sculpture of a head. I'll post a picture of it later. I can still feel sand on my body periodically even if I showered off when I got home. Georgia said at around 2:00 PM, "If we're only 10 minutes away from the beach, why are we sitting around here?" We're always waiting around trying to figure out what everyone else (mainly Mandy and my Mom) want to do. I told her I wanted to get a second chance to go to the beach really badly, this time more prepared with building materials. I was given a little utility pail and gardening shovel. These worked perfectly and my creepy looking bald face in the sand was a success.

I of course ran out of time and was unable to complete the entire body, as expected. Next time I really should just build from ground level up.

I'm excited for my Mom to get home because she's bringing me food. I'm really tired of restaurant food but I haven't really had a chance to buy groceries aside from these crappy chips I bought at World Market. I'll occasionally grab  a bagel or something from the kitchen but there was few things to munch on there... I mean unless you want chips and salsa, all the time. I personally don't care for chips and salsa much at all. It's too much salt and gives me heartburn.

Maybe I could eat some crackers and hummus again... I've been missing my regular source of calcium because my Grandma doesn't buy dairy products, so that's been hard when I consume a lot of cereal on a regular basis. Makes me kind of happy this trip's coming to a close, though it's been great to see everyone.

peace.

Budget planning for the trip

Today's been good so far. I woke up bright and early and played the Sims 2 for a couple hours. I finished up my Spahn ranch and Barker ranch replicas and I plan to start on my Sims music video later on. I haven't done this in a long time, but I figure it'd be cool to show off my creative touch with the game a bit-- even if people don't really watch Sims music videos but who cares.

I played guitar for an hour and 10 minutes so far. I also graphed out all my days for the past week and a half or so and it looks like I'm going to be paying Jacob on Thursday. I'm going to ask my dad for the money from cherries so I'll be able to pay for $50 of the $80 just from that, thus not cutting too far into my California trip savings.

Okay honestly there was never an actual savings plan for that. I've been trying not to think about it, but just to have a more pleasant experience I'll write out my budget for the trip.


Current Checking: $264
Current Savings: $1,170

I get paid 7/12 for this weekend and this upcoming Thursday. (about $270 or so)

Total: $1,434
Goal at the end of the summer-- September 10th, 2012: $2,000
(remember that my Dad will match whatever I earn. This is a huge incentive for me to save.)

Travel Arrangements

Gasoline contribution for duration of trip $40

$40

Daily Costs

Food

Estimated $10/day on two driving days. 

$60

Allowance of $35 for rest of the trip but no more.

$95

Shopping allowance

$50 for mac powder and a mascara. Also for when we shop around

$145

I know I'll probably go over this, but if at all possible I'd like to do this trip on the cheap. Like I've said before I've had some major set backs in my savings the past couple months and it seems more and more impossible to get to my goal by the end of the summer. I probably spend too much money, but working in retail it's hard to not make little impulse purchases here and there. I just try really hard not go overboard and only take advantage of the very good sales. But little $5 purchases here and there add up so quickly, and only fuel the fire of the money that I absolutely have to drop once a month for $80 and once every two weeks for $40. 

Driving in the car is going to be a bitch because I'm gonna have my guitar on my lap.

Last night I talked to Jack really briefly. I'm pretty sure he's working 40 hours a week or so at this place and is also working mornings. Not very many people share my work on the weekends schedule, aside from Katelynn and Alan. It's Monday, they're working.. 

I'm trying not to get in my summer rut. Things haven't been too interesting lately but I just can't be driving around right now. My phone is off so I feel cut off socially... I should go outside for awhile and come back and play after I sit out in the sun for a bit. 

peace. 

18 hours later, my fingers are feeling a little dead.

i'm too lazy to write exactly what I practiced this week and how many minutes I put into each specific thing, but my practicing consisted of: Alternate picking patterns (four of them, 20 minutes a day each), a chord packet with three pages, some arpeggio exercises, and 60 minutes of free play. I'm going to put this on my blog just in case I lose the clipboard that has all my info on it.

Total time practiced:
Wednesday, 4/11: 110 min
Thursday, 4/12: 140 min
Friday, 4/13: 164 min
Saturday, 4/14: 160 min
Sunday, 4/15: 150 min
Monday,4/16: 160 min
Tuesday, 4/17: 190 min
____________________
Total this week:  1074 minutes
18 hours

I'm pretty proud. 18 hours is a week is more than twice I was doing before (one hour a day, 7 hours a week). This week I learned Spiders at full speed and did all the crazy warmup exercises he had me do. I hope this is enough, and I hope more than anything that I don't screw up when I try to play..

Ugh, creepy guy in the library just looked over at me with tattoos and chains everywhere and he looks only a little younger than my Dad. Some adults can be so creepy.

The library is so nice to kill time in. I had a hot coffee and a chai scone filled with chocolate chips. Not very healthy, I know, but I've gotta treat myself once and awhile. Damn my abs look great by the way! I found the greatest video recently by a woman named Tiffany Rothe. Mix this with some Glitch Mob dubstep and I am good to go.

Super excited that tomorrow is payday and I'm going to take miss Samantha out SHOPPING!! I'm sure I've mentioned this before that I'm taking Samantha prom dress shopping. I'm actually considering taking her over to Portland now instead of just the tri cities. My Dad is going on a business trip and has a hotel that he's barely going to use. I am debating taking someone or just riding along with my dad and spending the day wandering the city by my lonesome. Err... that's probably not a grand idea. But who  would I take with me on a Sunday night? My dad wants me to go for a whole week with him. Yeaah like that's going to happen, bad idea.

Jack added me on facebook, again. I don't know if the add request was new or if it was just the old one he claimed to had sent before. I accepted it, why the Hell not I don't have any grudge with him anymore, especially after coming clean with him about my disgust with the whole Jessica situation, but that's life.I doubt we'll be hanging out anytime soon, but it's just nice to be on decent terms. Fuck, might as well add Guy Stevens on facebook too, add ALL my sortof ex's.

I like not being mad at anyone or having anyone mad at me... Sometimes me and Sean McIntyre argue in class but it's never anything serious. At least I'd hope he doesn't think of it that way. He's such a dick sometimes but he's so fun to mess around with. It's sort of a battle of wits, haha.

Japanese is going pretty well. I finally made the announcement on my youtube (and also to my facebook wall) that the Japanese thing is done. I'm really not interested in learning the language anymore, though it's been a fantastic experience in itself and I wish everyone that continues to learn it the best of luck! Ganbate~ Too lazy to convert that over because I'm in the library... DO YOUR BEST! :o)

My calluses are building up!! It doesn't hurt to play as badly anymore, which I'm very thankful for because the first day was atrocious. I feel like I can play for a good hour now without having to take a break. I typically choose to take a little five minute break every 20 minutes or so unless i'm working on something that I REALLY want to get done. This morning I squeezed in 50 minutes before school, but then I had to go study. I wish I got a chance to warmup beforehand...

Well, gonna go browse around facebook for awhile. I've got an hour or so to kill before this timer runs out and I head over there.. Hopefully this scone won't cause me an epic sugar rush and crash.

peace.