purekatherine

But I am extremely closed-minded and stubborn.

I’m of course only referring to the first part of that as being a surprise. If you don’t know that I’m stubborn, you simply don’t know me very well. For a girl who proudly and openly supports gay marriage and wishes she could help anyone who wants it though, closed-minded might not be the first thing that comes to mind.

It’s true though. I have examples!

I always thought that I didn’t like Snickers.

I’m not a big fan of caramel, which is why I often stay away from Twix and Milky Way as well. The times that I do have a Snickers or a Milky Way would be when they are in the mini form and frozen at my grandparents’ cabin each summer, though I will always go for a 3 Musketeers first if it is within grasp.

I recently gave a friend a mug filled with Snickers bars as a kind of apology for something stupid I’ve done and in the process of preparing this gift I bought one more bar than I needed. I don’t remember what it was that drove me to open that last bar and eat it myself, but whoa.

The chocolate was amazing before I got to anything else. The chew of the nougat was perfect, especially when contrasted with the crunch of the peanuts. I didn’t even notice the caramel except as a being a good texture to compliment the peanuts that it surrounds. My favorite part was definitely the chocolate. I know that I’ve got two X chromosomes, which means that I’m supposed to have a weak spot for chocolate, but most days I could really take it or leave it. This chocolate though was superb.

The whole experience was pretty eye-opening, obviously. I ended up buying two more about a week and a half later with the intent of giving one to the same friend. I talked myself out of that and ended up eating them both! Who would have thought that buying an extra Snickers bar that was intended for a friend would have led to a whole new perspective on the way I travel through this world?

What I mean by that is that once I realized how silly it was to have previously basically cut all possibility of snickers out of my diet because I thought that I didn’t like them. Why hadn’t I just tried them again some time? Perhaps my tastes had changed!

This all has me now wondering about other things that I was previously so against.

Camping for instance. While I may not be a fan of getting too dirty without knowing that there’s a shower waiting for me, or possibly dealing with bears, but the whole hanging out with friends part and being surrounded by pretty things that were not made by man does sound appealing.

Also baseball! While I still don’t entirely understand following professional sports teams, I have found myself recently caring how the San Francisco Giants are doing. I will say that I like having something that easily connects me to strangers who are wearing Giants gear in public, I still don’t get the overly crazed fans.

I am looking forward to learning more and being able to talk about the whole game a bit more next season though!

And of course, what is baseball without beer?

I’m still not so into beer, and I don’t see that changing any time soon, but I am now in a place that I can tolerate a glass or bottle when it’s offered and I don’t have another drink.

I’d like to find one that I actually like, I guess I’ll have to be up for trying things!

Good thing I tried that Snickers bar!

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I took another look at my most confusing syllabus this morning while in the corresponding class, and things made a lot more sense.

The amount of work that I’m going to have to keep up with also seemed to get even bigger, though that is the class that I will have the least amount of work outside the classroom. So while the teacher was telling one of her tangental stories, I started writing out a homework itinerary for myself. I started doing this at the end of the semester last spring, and it seemed to help.

My day was scheduled to go something like this:

9/2
class 8:00-9:50
break 9:55-10:30 – read Zinsser intro
class 10:30-11:45
head home 11:50-12:10
eat/get settled* 12:15-12:40
read 12:40-2:00 – 2 essays in Zinsser
walk around block 2:00-2:10
read 2:10-3:00 1 or 2 essays in Zinsser EDTE 150 article
work 3:00-8:20
-read Zinsser on break
food 8:30-9:00 make macaroni
read 9:00-9:45 EDTE 165 articles
Hunger Games 9:45-10:30
BED 11:00

I don’t actually start work until 4, but I put the extra time in for getting ready and transportation. It’s now 3:15 and I’m already ready for work, so I’ve grabbed the articles that I didn’t end up reading in the block before work and I will hopefully get through some of them before clocking on and on my 15 minute break!

I did alter the schedule a little as I went. Around 1:30 I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, even though I really liked the essay that I was reading. So I set the timer on my phone and closed my eyes for about 12 minutes while on the couch. Since I’d like the essays so much I was still able to finish my goal!

I also didn’t get to the EDTE 150 article because I was researching a Federal Work Study program that might mean I get paid for some of the schoolwork I do this semester because it involves tutoring elementary school students!

*Please note that I tried to be reasonable with not getting to work right away because if I had tried to do that, I would have ended up behind and disappointed. I’m proud of myself for having that forethought!

You may also notice that I have scheduled myself time to read the awesome novel The Hunger Games tonight because I think it’s important to have the pleasure reading in there too. Also, I really just can’t get enough of this book. I have the feeling that I’ll be finishing the trilogy throughout this semester even though I have so much reading for class as well!

I’m proud of myself for keeping pretty well to this schedule. If I can have several days like this, especially over this weekend when I have the most “free” time, I should be able to get ahead of my school work and guarantee me an awesome GPA for the semester!

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This semester is going to be totally crazy. But now that school is really my main focus, I think I can do it.

The biggest issue I’ve found seems to be the fact that work is loving me! My determination to pay off my credit card debt is keeping me going there, but my hours jumped from my regular 13-17 a week to 20.5 this week, and 30.5 next week!

I’m going to have to get super organized. It’s a good thing that my teachers don’t seem to be assigning work to make up for Labor Day!

Tonight I’ve been trying to get ahead of things and wrote out as much as possible in the planner I bought today, but two of my classes are kind of confusing with their syllabus, so I’m only comfortable committing half of my classes to paper at the moment.

Hopefully after attending these classes again tomorrow I will understand better how to plan it all out!

Until then, I will be getting ahead on the reading I do know about, and figuring out exactly how much sleep I need, and sticking to getting it each night!

Like right now. I think I’ll go to bed at 11 so I can hopefully get 8 hours and be on time to my 8:00 class!

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One reason that BEDA (Blog Every Day in August) isn’t the best idea is that there are days that hiding away and just living life on my own is much more appealing than sharing something with the world.

Today is one of those days.

I’m going through some things that require kind of putting my nose to the grindstone and just getting through. I have turned to friends to help, and for the most part that has been wonderfully helpful. Sometimes it can be disappointing and frustrating, and getting through all of that sometimes requires hiding out a tiny bit.

I supposed that this is what having some standard back up posts on file is for, but I think even that would sometimes feel like I’m too out in the open.

I do still like the exercise of writing every day, so I’m trying!

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I am severely under motivated today. I have thoughts on the image below and I would love to discuss it, but it’s just not coming. I think the image speaks for itself anyway.

Sadly I don’t know who designed it. I found it through Facebook, they guy who posted it stated that he didn’t design it, did not credit who did, I assumed that he doesn’t know either.

You know what, screw not being motivated. I’ve got an hour before I need to leave for work and I can spend at least half of that time writing!

The fact that I have that kind of time means that I should use it for something productive, and this isn’t even the most productive thing I could be doing! The fact that my time is only interrupted by the fact that I have to go to work is amazing, and I should remember that.

I’ve let myself get discouraged and frustrated by things lately that are either beyond my control, or just silly to worry about when you put things into perspective. I mean, while I’m struggling to make sure that I have rent tomorrow and I have way more debt than I’d ever like (as in I have debt at all), I still know that I have a place to stay, whether my own or through the help of some awesome friends, and I have no doubt that I will have enough to eat today (or any other day for that matter). There are a lot of people in my own town who don’t know that these things will be happening for them, or maybe even know that it won’t.

This poster came at the perfect time for me. It has helped to refocus my perspective and is helping to push me more to work on the community garden in the hopes of having excess produce to donate to food pantries!

So thank you very much to my friend Joyce over at Cayelani Studio for bringing this to my attention. I wish I knew who designed it, possibly even get a print to remind me of just how blessed I am.

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I know that most of you know that I’m crafty, but did you know that I’m planning on making my own quilt in the next few months?

Well I am. And I’m rather nervous about it, but I’m going to anyway. I’ve been planning it for a little while, I might have actually mentioned it here, I just can’t remember. I’m trying to find the right resources to guide me through this first quilt for me.

While watching Twilight: Eclipse I found the exact style that I want to make, but of course I can’t actually find pictures of it anywhere. Anyone reading this who happens to have a decent picture of the quilt that Bella’s mom gives her I would love to be able to send it to my aunt and discuss how I can get started.

This is the best I’ve found so far, but I can’t see what the weight of the quilt might be based on that page.

Then I found a page with the closest quilt I’ve seen online, but nothing about how the girl went about making it! Frustrating, but at least there’s something, right?

I plan on making a small quilt first to see what it is that I need to be doing, and then hopefully I can start on the real one by the end of August!

Anyone out there who has any quilting experience, I would love some help.

Any tips on where I should start?
How big would you suggest I make this?
Any suggestions on what sort of backing to use?
- Is there any way to get a backing that’s already in one piece?
How much planning should go into this ahead of time?
What is the kind of quilt I want to make called?

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I am a lazy person.

Seriously. I know that I just posted about taking risks and technically that involves doing something, but generally, I prefer to sit on my ass and do not very much. If my boyfriend is there doing nothing much with me, that’s even better! If only we were lazy enough to just order delivery and a movie on demand, I probably wouldn’t even have to get out of pajamas ever at his place!

I’m reminded of just how lazy I am on days like today. Days that involve me sleeping in until some time after noon simply because I don’t have a list of things that I know I want to get done that day.

Yesterday I was out the door on my bike around 9:30 in the morning because I had a list of things that I wanted to do which included riding my bike and writing a blog. I got everything on that list done that I absolutely had to get done, just because I wrote them down!

You know you want to buy this for me!

I’ve noticed this before, and pretty much just ignored it because, well, obviously I’m too lazy to really care, right?

Well no longer! I have enjoyed my days of productivity (especially since I tend to include naps on my lists) and I would definitely like to keep them up. So this is going to be the start of a new kind of feature on this blog. A feature in which I challenge myself to do new things and let you know how it turns out.

Doing this (and actually documenting it) is being inspired by a lovely lady over at Not That Kind of Girl who is doing 250 new things in only a year and sharing her experiences. My formatting is going to be a little different, since I think I’m going to be sharing my challenges ahead of time and then posting a week or a month later, but it’s all about trying new things which is going to happen!

So for my first challenge to myself, I am going to write To-Do lists in advance so that I get my lazy ass out of bed and get to doing things! I don’t know how long I’m going to give this one yet, but it will be at least two weeks. In that time I’ll determine just how long I need to get this down to habit!

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I have been pretty worried about how I was going to work out this whole two job thing. It can be pretty frustrating for me to change a routine once I get into one that works for me, so taking on one job is challenge enough, why on Earth would I do two at the same time?

Money of course. I need the cash!

That’s not the point here though! The point I want to make is that I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I was determined TO do it, so I am!

Normally I’m the kind of person who doesn’t want to do anything unless I know I’m going to rock right from the get go. This leads to some problems with me not going outside my comfort zone. I actually had a conversation with a friend about that when I got hired at The Limited. (Did I even mention that I got hired at The Limited?) I’ve never done any sort of clothing sales for retail, and there’s a lot more actual selling involved with this job than any other I’ve had before. Rather than getting scared and walking away though, I am trying it and earning a paycheck doing the best I can until I find out whether or not I can actually do this!

The real challenge to all of this has been changing my sleeping habits. I really like to sleep. That does not coincide well with my new schedule of needing to be to work at 7AM sometimes.

I’ve worked that one out too though, and do you know how?

I just do it! I’ve decided that I won’t have a single day that I clock in late for my own reason for at least 6 months. That means that I have to get my ass out of bed!

And seriously, just deciding that I’m going to be that way and being determined to be an awesome employee has allowed me to be one so far! Let’s hope that keeps up! I’ll let you know when I stop being awesome.

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