Sunday, March 22, 2009

Goals update 3

Wow it's been nearly three weeks since my last goals update already? Well then...

1. Read 75 of my own books that I've never read before. 69 to go. I'm missing a few on my list, but I can't include those unless I remember what in the hell they were. I know I'm waaaaaay behind on this one, but still don't think it's going to be that difficult to finish. I've finished with my library books and some of the ones I've borrowed so I'm concentrating on mine for a bit. Plus, once school is finished I can go back to reading a book every day or two...or two in one day. >_>

2. Watch all of the movies I own and have never watched. I haven't watched any of these since the last update because BSG ate my soul. I'd like to get a few in soon though so I can get this goal finished for the year.

3. Complete 12 video games. Finished Prince of Persia, so that's one down. I'm working on Bioshock here and there now, and Phoenix Wright on my DS. Will hopefully get both of those done in the next few weeks.

4. Travel. I'm cashing in my flier miles for my Ireland trip so I can pay off my ticket. The rest of that trip is starting to come together as well. I would like to find some time over the next week or two to finish some of the little details, like booking the couple of hotels we'll be staying in. Also, I figured I'd take at least another trip or two out to Philly, one once I finish school and maybe another sometime around my birthday. If anyone has any other suggestions for places I could go that don't require time off work, let me know!

5. Continue to learn Japanese. I've transferred my CDs over to my ipod, and have been listening through them at work. And muttering to myself in Japanese I think. I'm honestly surprised I haven't been questioned about it yet.

6. Learn to cook 12 new types of meals, and 6 desserts. I said I'd have 2 done for this update, but I haven't gotten there quite yet. I did pick two dishes to try, and I have most of the ingredients. However, I need a few different spices before I can do either, and I didn't have the money before to get them. I'll probably pick them up sometime this week since I just got paid.

7. Finish one of my Nano novels. This is still going agonizingly slow, but I guess even a few sentences here and there is getting me that much closer to the end of the story.

8. Write every day. I'd say I was up to about 5 days a week here. I'm getting there at least, and it's definitely starting to become more of a habit.

9. Let other people read my writing. I swapped a couple pages with one of my Nano friends. I don't think I've ever given anyone more than a chapter or so, but I'm working my way up on this goal too. A year and a half ago I probably wouldn't have given someone a paragraph, and now I've at least given a handful of people something to read.

10. Finish my associate's degree. Ugh, school. Still behind. It's a tiny bit better but I'm still really stressed. I need to spend more time on my schoolwork this week and try to get as close to caught up as I can. I don't have all that long left to go, at least.

11. Clean out my stuff, and get organized. I'm working on the closets now. I'd say I was a little over halfway done with all the clothes in there, and I have a big pile of clothes to go donate. I still have to go through all of the shoes as well as my dressers.

12. New wardrobe. I bought a few shirts yesterday when I went shopping with my mom, as they were fantastic deals (I spent around $10 total). I'm doing well with cleaning out the clothes I have and figuring out what I really need, so I should be picking up some more shortly. I need to go shoe shopping as well.

13. Exercise 3 hours per week. This one's going fine again. I picked up right where I'd left off with Zumba. I'll probably take this goal off the list in another update or two.

14.
Save money, and learn to manage my money wisely. I can enroll for my 401k on April 1st. I have all of the information now, and I have to get the enrollment forms in by the 27th of this month. Of course, I have no idea what half of this shit means, so if anyone out there can explain it all to me, please message me. Aside from that, I'm pretty broke due to bills but haven't had to touch my savings yet, so that's excellent.

15.
Eat healthy. I went to the store myself and loaded up on yogurt and healthier snacks. I talked to my grandmother again as well and she (for the most part) has been asking me before just buying junk food. So this one's going fairly well for now.

16.
Photography. Didn't get the chance to go and get pictures this weekend, sadly. I'm hoping the weather cooperates next weekend so I can take a few hours and go to Linn Run on Saturday. I'm going to try and find a camera bag as well so that I can start getting some other accessories.

Clearly I didn't have enough time (read: I was too busy reading three books) to do a regular blog entry this weekend. I'll try and write something that's not a rant or a goals update soon. ^_^

Thursday, March 19, 2009

TGIF

Well it almost is, at least. Only one more work day and then it's finally the weekend. Is it sad that I'm like this every week, starting first thing Monday morning? I really like my job too for the most part...I'm just always ready for the weekend so I don't have to be there. I'm not sure that even makes sense.

After Monday, the week didn't go that badly. For one, Gran's surgery went well, even better than the first time. It was a bit of a problem, because she felt fine so seemed to think that she was at 100% and could do whatever she wanted. But we got through that without too much trouble. No random walks this time either, lol.

Second, I got my student loan stuff taken care of. I called and talked to them, and they apologized and said it was an error on their part. They'll be sending a new paper to sign with the correct amount on it. I should have that within a few days, and then I just have to return it to have my account up to date. So that's taken care of as well. At least some of the drama in my life has been resolving itself.

This is a rather short entry, but I just wanted to do a quick update on Gran's surgery. Over the weekend I may have some more time for a proper update...as long as I'm not too lazy to do it! >_>

Monday, March 16, 2009

Day from hell

I hate Mondays.

Today when I got to work, I had a voicemail from my supervisor. She'd hurt her ankle and was taking the day off so she could go to the hospital and see if it was broken. Normally she would receive all of our shipments into our system/inventory, but since she was out Jen and I had to go back to doing them for the day.

This shouldn't have been a big deal. Mondays are hell for drop ships, but at the same time I don't have to place regular orders for my stores, so it kind of balances out. I got everything received, and got my morning drop ships caught up. I was foolish enough to think that maybe I would have the time to catch up on a few other things I needed to do.

Then I looked in Jen's task box. She'd been thrown onto another project at the end of last week, so she had to get tracking info for all of the drop ships she had from last Wednesday on. This on top of the well over 100 drop ships she was supposed to do for today. And where my drop ships can be attached to emails and sent en masse to each vendor, most of hers need to be entered on websites. One by one...on shitty websites that usually take ages to load anything and process orders.

Needless to say, we both spent the entire day frantically trying to get all of her stuff done. Somehow, and I honestly don't know how, we managed to get all of the drop ships for every store done, as well as all of the tracking info from last week as well. So in the end it worked out, but it was very stressful and by the end of the day I was exhausted.

Then I get home and have a letter about my student loan. I just worked out a new payment plan with them...paying a bit more a month and trying to get it paid off sooner. They told me they were sending me some paperwork I had to sign and return to make the changes. That arrived today...however, it says I'm agreeing to payments of $200 a month, which is over twice what I'd agreed to commit to. Hell, that's nearly what I pay for my car. I'm nearly positive it's just a typo on their part, but now I have to call them tomorrow on my lunch break and try to deal with it. It's just one more thing I really didn't need today.

Finally, my grandmother is having her second surgery in the morning. Again, I'm sure it will go fine, but I can't help but get worried and worked up over it. I'm sure I'll be checking my cell phone every five minutes tomorrow to see if my mom has called or messaged me. Mom's going to spend the night again tomorrow too, I think, and hopefully this time my gran won't decide it's a good idea to wander around the neighborhood drugged up the day after surgery.

I'll be glad in a few days when it's done with and she's mostly back to normal. Except for the neverending supply of eye drops that I have to do for her four times a day, lol.

At any rate I need to clean up a bit so my mother has somewhere to sleep tomorrow, and then it's bedtime for me. I'll post a surgery update and probably a regular update sometime later in the week. I actually do have a few things I want to talk about, aside from ranting about my shitty day....

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Goals update 2

And another goals update...I've been pretty sick for about 3 weeks, and am only now finally getting back to my normal routine. So I haven't made much if any progress on some of these.

1. Read 75 of my own books that I've never read before. Finally made some progress on this one, though I'm not sure off the top of my head how many I've finished at this point. I'll have to get my list for the year updated so that I know how far I have to go on this one. I know I'm way behind, but I figured I wouldn't be able to read much before I finished school in May. I'm sure once that is over I'll catch up quickly.

2. Watch all of the movies I own and have never watched. I'm through with all of the Bond movies, and I've watched a few others. I don't know for sure how many more I have to get through, but hopefully will be able to complete this goal within the next month or two. Of course, if I keep watching nothing but BSG that may be a problem.

3. Complete 12 video games. I haven't finished any yet, still. But I'm nearly through Prince of Persia, and Phoenix Wright, Bioshock, and FEAR 2 shouldn't be far behind.

4. Travel. No DO for me this year, sadly. The new responsibilities at work mean I'm "training" all week, and can't take time off. However, Ireland is coming together, and I'm starting to get excited even though it's still months away. I have my ticket, and my passport now, and I'm figuring out what specifically I want to see while I'm there. Still trying to come up with ideas for another weekend trip or two as well for later in the year.

5. Continue to learn Japanese. My books and language software has been here for a while. I've started working my way through them. It's slow right now since I'm busy, but I'll get there eventually.

6. Learn to cook 12 new types of meals, and 6 desserts. I haven't done anything with this, aside from finding more recipes. I will get through 2 meals at least by the next time I update.

7. Finish one of my Nano novels. This one is going VERY slowly, but at least I'm making a bit of progress. I wish I had more time to work on it...I never feel like it considering how much time I spend on the computer for work and school.

8. Write every day. I'm not up to every day yet, but I'm doing better than I was. Finding a specific time daily to do this seems to be helping.

9. Let other people read my writing. Ha. Oh no actually, my neighbor read part of my novel, as she was here one day when I was working on it.

10. Finish my associate's degree. I've been struggling a lot with my classes. I'm behind on taxes and just barely keeping up in the other. I'm hoping to catch up a bit now that I'm mostly over the flu. Hopefully I'll manage that in the next week or two, and then I won't be so damn stressed.

11. Continuing education. This one is off the list for now. I'm working on it, but it will probably wait until next spring. At this point I'm not eligible for student loans until I pay off the one I have, and I don't think I can afford school without a loan. I won't need much of one, but even with tuition reimbursement from work I'll probably need a few thousand to get me through. Now, I'll have my current loan paid off in the next 6-8 months so starting again in the spring is a real possibility. I'll probably bring this goal back towards the end of the year when I can actually do something with it.

12. Clean out my stuff, and get organized. I haven't done anything with my closet really. I have, however, reorganized all of my movies and video games, and a good portion of my books. I'm making plenty of progress, just not in the order I'd originally intended to.

13. New wardrobe. I bought a new leather jacket on sale, and it's awesome. I need an actual winter coat too but I'm not sure if there's any reason to buy one at this point. Of course I might be able to get one for a really good price since we're getting into spring soon. Other than that I'm still waiting to clean out my closet a bit before buying anything else.

14. Exercise 3 hours per week. I'm just getting back into this one. I'd taken nearly two weeks off because of my cough, but the past few days I started up again. I'm sure I'll fall back into the routine easily, especially since I enjoy it so much.

15.
Save money, and learn to manage my money wisely. At the moment, I'm trying to get all of my debts paid off. I just paid one off last week, so now I'm down to one loan, aside from my car of course. Probably going to toss the majority of my tax refund into that and then work out how much I can pay monthly to get it paid off as soon as possible.

16.
Eat healthy. Doing pretty well with this one. I've been eating a lot more fruits and vegetables lately. I think I need to start doing more of the grocery shopping though. At this point my gran goes and I just give her money, but she tends to buy chips and junk food even when I say I don't want them. And of course once they're in the house I'll end up eating them...lol. I'm going to start making a list of things I want and stressing the no junk thing, but if I can't get through to her I'll have to find an hour or so a week to do the grocery shopping myself.

17.
Photography. Got my camera, as I posted earlier. I've taken it out twice now, once to the winery and Amish country, and then once to Keystone. Looking into filters and lenses that I'd like to get as well. I'd love to take a class, will have to see if anything is available, maybe in the summer or fall this year.

I've done better than I expected actually...I didn't think I got anything done while I was sick but I've made at least a little bit of progress on most of the goals. Hopefully will be able to cross a couple off the list soon.