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Life
I've been trying to push the Etsy stuff along, and one of the prices for that has been that I've been shamefully negligent in posting anything about my life; looking at my LJ archive, I haven't posted much of anything about my life since December 2nd! Gah! So....here's a life update.
December saw, as usual, a large amount of travel. Only two things count as accomplishments in this time period:
1. I kept working out as long as I could throughout the trip (explanation below)
2. I worked during the trip. Like, a fair amount. Which is great, and increases the likelihood I can travel this year, when I seem to have more work than ever.
However, accomplishments aside, it was a pretty great trip all the way around. I headed out to Bloomington first to see friends and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ozziel for his birthday. It was a nice and pretty uneventful trip. People had finals, and boyfriends (not just mine!) and seeing schenker28 before he left for Europe, but as usual I was annoyed at myself for epic failing to get in touch with anyone who didn't cross my path. I'm gonna have to work on that. I ended up working almost 20 hours during the week, though, which was critical, and worked out well cause I was able to do it in the mornings while people were asleep and to work it in while people were doing finals. There was some cooking, a healthy quantity of Jiffy Treat, a nice birthday meal with ozziel's parents, an absolutely awesomely hilarious incredibly long game of Apples to Apples with moonartemis76 and her boy - who I got to know and like a lot, after not having a positive first impression of him last summer - and watching (most) of the Colts game on the Thursday night. All in all, while I wouldn't call it refreshing, it was very nice in more ways than one. I managed the working out by realizing the morning I left that if I brought a couple DDR games, I could buy a dance pad for $20, and use that as a work out. It worked out awesome, and I was shocked to discover that after not playing DDR for over a year, I'd hardly lost any skill at all, and was beating songs I'd failed while in practice before the end of the week. I'm not at all sure what that means.
On Friday,moonartemis76 and I headed up to Chicago - her to see her family for the holidays, me to go to the Motion City Soundtrack concerts. I don't know if I talked about those in LJ, but they came up on FB. MCS is one of my two favorite bands (the other is Alkaline Trio), and I'd never seen them live. They advertised on FB that they were going to have a three nights-three albums concert - one of their albums each night - and after about 24 hours of debate, I had almost made up my mind when they listed that the three night passes were sold out. I immediately tried to purchase one, and was (somehow!) able to. I didn't really have the money (I spent a TON on furniture in November) but I always try to remember that we only get one chance at life, and if we don't do wonderful unique things when we get the chance...then the opportunity is gone, and would I regret it? I don't want to find out - if I can make it happen, I do it, period - and this was something I knew I could make happen, even though I ended up having to stay at a hotel because of an epic fail on communication (entirely on my part) with buzzermccain. The concerts were on Friday (the 18th), Saturday and Sunday nights.
What can I say?
Those three concerts were the most awesome live music I've ever seen. I mean, when I saw Alkaline Trio at the Fillmore in fall, 2008 - that was fricken awesome - and each of these concerts blew that out of the water - much less all three combined.
The opening band was a group called Ultimate Fakebook, who broke up 5 years ago, but were friends of the MCS guys, and were thus convinced to play. They were quite good, and watching their drummer was, simply, inspirational. By the time they'd finished their set on the first night, I had decided to take drum lessons (something I started thinking about last February but hadn't done anything about, telling myself I couldn't afford it - see my comment in the above paragraph. ;) ). They didn't end up playing different music each night (there was overlap each night, with some new stuff) but I liked their music, and I ended up getting one of their albums (it was only $5. :) ) Also, on the second night, when I went to the Merch stand to confirm that they didn't take credit and figure out how much money I would need, who was manning it but...the awesome drummer! (and the other person at the stand - he was buying stuff like a customer - was the lead singer of MCS, but as he was wearing a hat and jacket and clearly incognito, I didn't fangirl. ;) ). I got to have a short but nice chat with the drummer, where I told him that he'd inspired me to take drumming lessons, and he told me that if I was awesome at Rock Band drumming, I stood a decent chance of being a good drummer because many of the skills were the same. He was pretty cool; I could see why people become groupies. ;)
But...I'm avoiding the main topic, which, of course, was Motion City Soundtrack. I thought I knew what I was getting in to. I mean, typically the main band at a concert plays for about 45 minutes, and that was about the length of each album, so I figured - okay, they'll play the album, then an encore song or two, and then that'll be that. Not too bad.
Oh boy, was I wrong! So on the first night, they played their first album (I Am the Movie). Then when they came back out...they literally played for an entire additional 45 minutes - then had an encore. I was shocked - and I think the other fans were too. (By the way, the fans were part of what made this awesome, about 250 - I'd guess - totally obsessed, knew the words to every song, nut-so fans - me included - I was in the front the first day, and the crush of the people behind me was amazing). Second night was Commit This to Memory, and the third was Even if it Kills Me, which I like a lot but which clearly wasn't as popular with the other fans - no biggie. Then, on top of that, they played basically every song they'd ever recorded, and each night they played fan favorites from other albums (so "Lets Get Fucked Up and Die," which is probably my favorite song of theirs, got played every night; so did "The Future Freaks Me Out," so did "Autographs and Apologies."
After the second night, though, I got worried. One of my absolute favorite songs of theirs, called "The Worst Part," is a bonus track only available on the iTunes version of their third album, and I was starting to wonder if they were going to play it.
Each show, once they finished playing, the whole band came out and hung out with the fans. I'm pretty terrible at talking to people I think are totally awesome, I get all shy and embarrassed, but I steeled my nerve, and prepared my pitch: what would I say to Justin (the lead singer) in an effort to get the band to play "The Worst Part" as part of the third night?
I worked my way to the front of the group, all soliciting photos and autographs, desiring neither of these things, and I was prepared to say nothing but the truth - "Hi. I came here all the way from New York City, and it's my birthday on Monday, and it would totally rock my world if you guys would play 'The Worst Part.'"
Now, Justin had specified that he'd not be TALKING during the post hangouts, not til after the third show, cause it was so much singing that he needed to save his voice - very reasonable - but he pulled an Altoids box out of his pocket, and the back he wrote to me, "I'll see what I can do."
So, understandably, I went in to the third concert very curious what would happen!
Well, to make this already long story shorter, they played it, with the preface that about 8 people had asked for it (joking that if it had been 7 people, they wouldn't have ;0 ). And I was super, super excited. :)
Here's the band, by the way:
Anyway, after the last show, I took the Merch I'd bought - a pre-order litho for the new album, with a download code so I could get it (came out on January 19th) - and resolved to get the band to sign it. But I also steeled up my nerve a second time...
I'd read this interview that one of their new singles was autobiographical, and one of the lines in this song states that the lead singer was learning to speak Japanese, and inquirying minds wanted to know: was this true?
So, when I went up to him, I asked for the signature, and then I asked (and forgive me for no kana, I haven't set up the font package on the new computer yet - that's a story for below), "honto ni nihongo o benkyo shimasu ka?" The answer turned out to be that he'd studied a little and spoke a little, and we had a really butchered jap-lish conversation that was pretty fun for me, and I imagine for him too since he spoke to me much longer than any of the other fans. I mentioned that playing "The Worst Part" was the best birthday present I expected to get, and he asked how old I was, that kind of thing. Then, when he signed my poster, he wrote, "Thanks for coming to the Chicago show and for schooling me in Japanese." The other band members were really friendly when I got their signatures, too.
Finally, I closed off the third concert by helping two underaged girls break the Chicago curfew by giving them my wrist band certifying that I could drink (as if I wanted to drink). They were, like, 20, so I didn't feel guilty. :)
Right! But is that all I did in Chicago? Of course not!
In Chicago, I had no way to exercise, though both Sat. and Sun. were my gym days, so I resolved to walk. I mean a metric fuck ton. So on Saturday, I walked from my hotel in Lincoln Park (roughly due west of the zoo) down to the Art Institute, more than 4 miles - and I walked each way. At the Art Institute, I went nuts - filled my whole memory card with pictures, went through pretty much the whole museum - and was well rewarded. I'd been there before, but I had almost no supply of pics because my other big pic trip there was in July, 2007 - and was on my camera when it was stolen at Warped Tour. It really is a wonderful museum.
On Sunday, meanwhile, I topped this by walking to the Field, which was even farther, but I didn't walk back. Instead, after a couple of hours of fossils and gem stones, I met up withbuzzermccain and her fiancee for dim sum, and that was super nice - then we went for quite good gelato, and finally they accompanied me by bus to the concert venue. It was great to get to see them again; I definitely need to keep coming up with excuses to get to Chicago. I want to go to the Chicago History museum...maybe once I start researching the Civil War novel?
Right.
So on Monday the 21st, which was my 27th birthday, I embarked on the next step of the trip, catching a plane to Houston, where I was supposed to meet mom, Ben and K. Unfortunately, it was a snowy day the day before, and everyones flights were massively delayed but mine. The end result of this was that, while I was able to take a shuttle to our hotel, they wouldn't let me check in to the room without the others present, even when I protested that he was my brother, we had the same last name, surely they could let me in to the room, it was my BIRTHDAY, goddammit! All this got me, though, was a free slice of cake. Better than nothing, I guess, though it turns out people in Texas don't know how to make cheesecake. Anyway, I ended up falling asleep in a chair in the lobby for about 2 hours, before B & K finally arrived at about 2:30 AM - and Mom arrived soon after.
We were all bushed, but we still packed up and headed down to College Station for our actual holiday.
Tuesday was supposed to be a gym day, but I woke up with a cold, and ended up sick the entire rest of the week. I wanted to go and walk on the treadmill anyway, but K (who is a nurse) told me it wouldn't help and might make it worse, so I decided not to - and that's the only reason I didn't workout through the whole holiday.
Christmas ended up being very laid back and pleasant. No big family drama (mom and I argued a bit, but we always do when we're sharing a hotel room, it's over exposure, we always fix it in the end) (unlike last year, when there was family drama). My grandfather looked healthier than when I saw him in September, he'd put on some weight, which at his age (almost 92) is excellent - though he seemed more out of it, which worried me, but everyone else thought I was wrong, so maybe it was just me. Either way, we spent a lot of time just hanging out, playing with my uncles dog, reading, even working a little. There was some shopping, a lot of gift wrapping...I had a couple days where I felt pretty lousy, too.
I had only asked for money for Christmas, so that's the main thing I got, though mom got me a few nice items of clothing and a necklace, my uncle got me a truly awesome pair of wrist warmers and a couple of B&N gift certificates which have already been spent, B & K got my a David Wright pin stripe jersey and a couple items of jewelry...I was really happy with the gifts I got. The checks, meanwhile, got deposited, and two thirds of the money went to paying my credit card down by 20%, and the remaining third went to paying back Omar Rayyan for my painting.
I got back on the 27th, still feeling kind head-coldy, but otherwise pretty satisfied with how the whole almost three weeks had gone - good friends, good food, great family, and just a nice trip all the way around.
Meanwhile, B & K were supposed to come in to the city a couple days later, and I had plans to see my dad over New Years weekend.
One of the things that really stood out over this trip, though, was - after I left Bloomington - how much I missedozziel. Before that visit to B-ton, I had always found that once he wasn't around, I was able to pretty much put it out of my mind. Every once in a while, I'd kinda notice that I missed him, but the rest of the time it didn't really bug me. But all through when I was in Texas, it was very evident and not easily ignored, and when I got home and was alone for the first time since I'd left, it was even more obvious. Trading texts to this effect, he basically told me that he'd already been planning to come for New Years...with the end result that he bought tickets on the 30th and came in to town on the 31st, and stayed til...er...the 2nd or 3rd? ...it was pretty awesome. :)
Right before he came, the last of the furniture for my apartment came, and I was able to finally build my book cases, organize my closets, and basically get things to be pretty much how they're going to be until I can afford to buy a mattress - probably not til the summer. Til then, it's air mattress for me! :)
B & K didn't end up coming due to bad weather, and the 31st we had a terrible snow storm, worst driving conditions I'd been driving in pretty much ever for the first leg of the drive to pic upozziel from the airport, so I bailed on seeing dad until the next day. That proved to be a nice trip. Dad really liked my main gift to him - a Tom Seaver jersey - jerseys were definitely a theme for my holiday; I got three for others (dad, ultimabaka and ozziel), and got one myself, and B & K gave dad one, also, so he came out of the holidays with two - which clearly means he and I have to go to more Mets games this season. ;) Dad and PB got me some nice things, too, with my favorite being one of those lovely smooth polished wooden vases I'd seen at crafts fairs and always wanted - but hadn't gotten cause they're kinda pricey. I don't think dad knew I'd wanted one for a long time, but it was a really appropriate gift. Not that the other gifts weren't also nice, there was a lovely necklace, some more cash, etc., but I liked that one the most.
I've missedozziel a fair amount since then, though not as much as I did over those two Christmas weeks, and I think I know why....but it's not a topic for LJ, so you'll have to ask me if you want to know. But it's nothing bad. :)
January has been the month of work. One of our highest paying gigs is evaluation work we do on grants called "Math-Science Partnerships." While this sounds like a partnership between math and science, it's actually not - it's EITHER a math OR a science project conducted in partnership with an institute of higher education (read: a college or university). Alternatively, you can do a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) partnership. Anyway, the grants were due on January 22nd, but the central NYCDOE staff wanted drafts almost two weeks before the due date - or, put another way, they originally said they wanted drafts by the end of the week after New Years (the 7th?). Friday. Andozziel left Monday.
The client told them that was impossible. They ended up bumping it back to the following Tuesday.
So...well, she and I worked like lunatics for that week. We were working on two grants (one science and the other STEM) and each had a huge amount of supporting documentation as well as a proposal narrative that was 20 single spaced pages.
To make a long, boring story short, I ended up writing both narratives in 8 days.
But not without disaster striking!!
On Monday morning (the grants due Tuesday, mind), I woke up, screwed around on my computer for an hour (which I do every morning more or less), went to the gym, and then came back to work, sat down, and found my computer blue screened. 20 minutes, I concluded that it was toast - nothing I did would get it to start.
I hadn't backed up my work all weekend.
I took the CPU, hopped in a cab, went to my tech guys, and told them that I needed the data. I then ended up waiting basically all day, finally getting the data I needed to submit the next day - and I had hoped for the morning - at 5 PM. I ended up working til 11 that night, and only got one of the narratives into tip-top shape.
Still, of course, in the end - we managed.
After that first crazy week, I then had that ever-so-annoying hurry up and wait thing happen, where until we got back the feedback from Central, there wasn't loads for me to be doing (though the client was still very busy). Still, once we did have the comments back I had some more crazy days, and I was working on my parts of the grants until just before noon the day they were due (last Friday). It was very stressful.
Meanwhile, there were several other incidents in there.
On the Friday before the grants were due, I had to go to Queens to give a survey, and while I was on the train, a pickpocket stole my cell phone. I had to use my only quarter to call mom and ask her to contact AT&T for me. The perk was, I had insurance, and my contract was up for renewal, so I had a choice - I could either pay a fee and get a new version of the phone that had been stolen, or I could go and get any new phone I wanted! I ended up picking a new phone - a iPhone - which so far I completely, utterly love.
Meanwhile, the Tuesday of the week the grants were due was a day I'd been eagerly anticipating - yes, the release of the Motion City Soundtrack CD! I went with my download code and downloaded it, and after listening to the first few songs, I had a sad realization - the album was TOO AWESOME. I found it so engaging that it was distracting me from work, so I sadly set aside my desire to listen to it until Friday, when I'd finished my work, when I listened to it with care.
It's well rewarded that care. One of the songs on it is my absolute fav of their music, and 10 of the 12 tracks have stood up to me listening to them on repeat for the past 6 days - not a shabby achievement, really. :)
Furthermore, I had another of those "do it or regret it" moments, and decided that despite being broke, I was going to go to the upcoming concerts - with both MCS and Alkaline Trio releasing new albums (ATs comes out next month, though I've now heard one song from it, and while it wasn't as great as I hoped, I think it will grow on me, and it was good enough to bode well for the rest of the album) they were both doing concerts in NYC. I ended up getting tickets to both - the MCS one is Feb. 3, the other is in March and therefore I don't have the date memorized yet (the 16th? the 19th? something like that).
To make my life a little extra stressful, the other big request for proposal that I need to do came out on the 21st. These are the Teaching American History grants, and at the moment it looks like I'll be writing three, and mom will be writing a fourth which I'll be helping out with, so that'll be a ton of work. What's been odd about it, though, is that they're not due til the 22nd of March. However, the RFPs were supposed to come out in December, and everyone got really nervous. The end result was that usually, the first couple weeks of work on grants is really slow, but this time everyone jumped on it IMMEDIATELY, so I've been surprisingly busy considering that we've got two months.
And, of course, I've spent most of this week just trying to catch up on all the work I wasn't able to do earlier in the month.
End result? As of today, if I work one and a half more hours before the end of the month (which I certainly will), I'll have worked more this month than in any other single month of employment for the company (only work for the company - that doesn't count when I was writing grants, going to graduate classes, and working at the Conservation lab 20 hours a week). The month I'm beating? January of last year. Oy.
Other little tidbits include the Etsy stuff that I've been talking about; I've been working on making a quilt; I've started making amigurumi; I've been gearing up to start working on my novel again - though I won't be doing that til the baseball season starts...wait, I mean, til I finish the grants (these things happen temporally at almost the same time); I've been pretty on top of my correspondence; I've been cooking...sometimes...and all that jazz. As always, it never ceases to amaze me that when I'm most busy is when I accomplish most in all parts of my life. Energy breeds energy, or something.
What else? I went to the Met a couple of times; the most exhausting was on a Saturday night after I'd worked all day, so that I could see an exhibit I really didn't want to miss and which was closing the next day. It was all about Japanese armor and weapons, and the majority of the items were loans from Japan, and even though I was totally exhausted, it was totally worth the visit.
Mom got me an absolutely gorgeous winter coat, which is very exciting; I haven't had a winter coat in two years. This year I was managing with only a jean trench, a scarf and a hat. This is almost certainly why I got sick in Chicago - walking through lake effect snow in a driving wind in 30 degree weather wearing only a short sleeve shirt with a jean-thickness jacket on, plus a scarf, hat and gloves, was surely ill considered on my part, though it didn't feel that cold. My cold tolerance has gotten a little crazy. :)
Jonie got fleas while I was away for the holiday. We dealt with that. Then, a few days ago, I noticed she as worms again. The day after that (maybe Thursday?) she got sick, and spent the next two days throwing up, but I can't afford to take her to the vet yet, sigh. She's feeling better now, though, and I'm hoping I can convince a vet to sell me the worm medicine without making me come in. Maybe I should check that pet meds web site?
The day my phone got stolen, I didn't end up getting home til 8 PM. I walked in to the apartment, set my things down, put the leash on the dog, walked out of the apartment, closed the door behind me, and realized I locked myself out. This would have been a major disaster, since I'd left the stove on (I was hungry and wanted the water boiling when I got back!) but it ended up okay, the doorman had a spare key, thank god.
And I can't forget the mochicreams.ultimabaka just spent most of the month working in Japan, and he promised he'd bring me back mochicreams, and he kept that promise. What are mochicreams? Only one of my absolutely favorite Japanese things - and, as they are a specific brand of mochi, completely unobtainable in the USA. They spoil pretty quickly, so I consumed all four that I got last night when they were presented to me, and man, I think they might be even better, some how, than I remembered. I'd not had any of these four flavors before, but they were wonderful - chocolate cookie cream (which was oreo cookie flavored), strawberry cheesecake, mango, and raspberry millefiore....oh god, I love mochicreams. I miss Japan.
On the horizon,ozziel is coming on Friday, and I'll be going out to B-ton for Valentine's day - it'll be nice to spend that with a boy friend for the first time since 2006. I'll be going to Paris sometime in the next few months, though I'm not sure when, and there's probably at least one other trip in that time period. Nothing is definite yet, but I'm definitely going to need a week by the end of grant season. :)
I'm sure I've missed things from this synopsis - I keep thinking of more as I'm typing the exercise section below - but it'll have to do.
Oh, like here's another - I didn't get in to Stony Brook. That was a bit of surprise, I'll admit, but I've been very okay with it. I had a conversation with my uncle (who is a tenured PhD scientist in biology at Texas A&M) and he told me I was out of my mind to be aiming for a BS, that I should apply to a Masters program and do remedial coursework instead. I've been thinking about that - and also about taking non-matriculated course work at CUNY, because I've discovered that Lehman, which is quite close to where I live, offers a lot of geology and a major. However, being me, things tend to only last until I have the next shiney idea, and today I had a shiney idea that's been taking a surprising hold. It's actually closely related, but it wouldn't require me to go back to school. Combining many of my interests (history, nature, science, walking and exercise, and potentially teaching, photography, grant writing/fundraising, patriotism, and more), I had the idea earlier today of looking into, well, being a Park Ranger of some sort. The pay is wretched, but other than that I've spoken to a number of rangers in my time (mostly at Civil War sites) and I think it has a lot of components I would like a lot. It's only an idea, though, and it definitely needs time to percolate. :)
As per my conversation with the drummer from Ultimate Fakebook, I've registered at Bloomingdale School of Music (where I took flute lessons for four or five years when I was young) to take drum lessons for the semester.
I got called for jury duty and had to report today; it took approximately 5 minutes to establish that, as a Bronx resident, I was exempt from serving in Manhattan, which was awesome. :)
I found a place with the best cannoli I'd ever eaten; it was on 3rd and 27th, and I'm determined not to forget it. This was on Friday night, when I had a very nice evening with the newly-engagedbakanekotoo, sang karaoke, ate sushi, got to see her ring, met a couple new people, and belted "Houki Boshi" at the top of my lungs.
Since November, I've been reading Allan Nevins huge four volume history of the Civil War. I'd avoided these books, somehow instinctively thinking they would be heavy and dry. God, I was such an idiot. These books are phenomenal. I've never looked forward to plowing through four volumes of 1000 pages each quite like this. In particular, his account of 1856 - 1860 (which is the contents of the second of the four volumes) is fascinating, lucid, beautifully written, and astonishingly scholarly. Actually...that's the whole thing. These books are great. I can't believe they were written 50 years ago. He clearly earned his Pulitzers (he has two, but neither is for these works).
In my opinion, my greatest accomplishment has been in maintaining the exercise regime. According to LJ land, I started going to the gym on the 9th of November. I missed a week from the 22nd to the 29th of December, went back for a day, then missed a few more days becauseozziel was too distracting, and then started again on the...er...3rd? It was a Tuesday morning. Other than that week and a half, I haven't missed a single scheduled day, even when I've had to do crazy shit to pull that off, like this morning, when I had to wake up at 5 AM (indeed, I'm writing this in no small part to stave off exhaustion, so that I go to bed at a reasonable time, like, oh 9 PM, cause I was on the verge of going to sleep at 7:30). This is soon to be the longest amount of time I've gone to the gym consistently (when it crosses to three months, which is basically the end of this "week" (my gym weeks at the moment are cycling on Tuesdays) - beating out the summer of 2007, when I went for most of May, all of June and July, and part of August before leaving for Japan.
My schedule is two days on, one day off, which means my days change every week, but it works out to 14 days every three weeks (two weeks of five days and one of four). With minor variation depending on how busy I am and what equipment is available, I do the same thing each pair of days. On "day 1" I treadmill for 30 minutes and elliptical for 30 minutes. On "day 2" I either arc machine or, the last couple weeks, bike - now for 40 minutes, which technically breaks the gym rules, but I've been pretty careful - and then I do sit ups and crunches, bicep curls, chest presses, some other arm machine thing, and hip ad and abduction - which ends up all taking a little less than an hour.
I'm not dieting, but I do eat with some degree of care just normally, and of course I get other exercise - I always take the stairs (minimum of three times up three flights with the dog), I walk a fair amount, etc.
When I started, jogging for five minutes at 5.6 mph was the best I could do on the treadmill; my current best (which wasn't this last "day 1", but was actually a "day 2," on Sunday, work over the weekend mucked up the schedule), I jogged for 25 minutes total, with a solid chunk of it at 6.3 mph and all of it at 6 mph or higher.
For the elliptical, the arc, and the bike, I recently discovered a new strategy that really works. Instead of getting to a difficulty that feels hard almost immediately, and then sticking with it for the next 20 minutes (I generally warm up 5 minutes and cool down for 2 - 4 minutes on each machine, though I've started shortening on both ends to get more hardcore time in - there's a 30 minute time limit on machines at the gym), I've instead started to go through my warm up by raising resistance by 1 each minute, until it starts to feel hard, and then the rest of my workout I just up the resistance every two minutes until I reach a difficulty I don't feel like I can do for longer than 2 minutes, and then I start to lower it (it's been taking til about 7 min left for this to happen.) The end result? I used to be able to do like, resistance 5 on the elliptical and maybe resistance 4.5 on the bike. Now, well, on Tuesday I went up to resistance 16 for the hardest two minutes on the elliptical, and this morning I hit resistance 5.6 on the bike. It hurts more the next day, but it burns more calories, and I think it's definitely better training - I do a lot more, but don't feel as tired...I really like it as a strategy. I've been making it harder by raising the resistance every minute until it gets a little tough; soon, I suspect I'll have to start raising resistance by two early on or else it won't be difficult enough. (And, of course, part of the point is that I really try to maintain an even speed/pace while I'm doing this, and for the most part I succeed at that).
When I started, three months ago, I apparently weighed 156 pounds - but I know that's inaccurate, because that was on moms scale, which wasn't zeroed.
Now, mom's scale IS zeroed, and it says I weigh...(as of two days ago)...156 pounds. Meanwhile, the gym scale, which I use fully clothed with shoes on RIGHT after my workout, says I've lost two pounds (163 to 161 as of yesterday morning, but that was after a few days of pigging out in celebration of finishing the grants ;) ). I think I look WAY better, my calves are completely solid (again), my shoulder blades are peaking a little, and my upper abs stick out over my lower when I suck in (which is one of my sure signs that I'm doing well) - and my pants, which used to be tight, have to be held up with one hand if I run for a light. All in all, while I'm still far from where I want to be, I'm pretty happy. And it's worth noting - I gained two pounds over the holidays, which I've lost since then.
The only thing I haven't done that I'd like to is check my measurements...actually, why don't I go do that now? Hmm...well, last time I took my measurements, I was 38/33/41, pulling the tape pretty taut. Now, not pulling it taught at all, I'm 36.5/32/41. That doesn't surprise me, my hips and butt never seem to get smaller. Pulling it tight tight, I can get 32/30/38. I guess the real test would be to see if I could close my Victorian bodice; it's only ever closed when I was at my absolute thinnest (not particularly in shape then, but I was 139 lbs., that was in winter, 2005 - 2006).
So - right. Considering that I haven't changed how I eat much (which is in part because how I eat is already pretty darn healthy) I'm very satisfied with this result. There's also the simple fact that I feel best and most energetic on the days I exercise - to the extent that I've been starting to consider doing something small even on my days "off" - like, 15 minutes on an arc machine or something - just because I can feel the difference in how alert I am and how I feel on the days off, and I don't like it.
I don't want to get too in depth on this for a few reasons, but I wanted to mention it. One of my side projects for January has been to keep a careful record of my expenses. It just doesn't make sense to me that I'm broke all the time with the amount that I make, so I made a spread sheet, and kept careful track. What I found was, really, kinda what I thought I'd find: I'm NOT broke, it's the unexpected things that come up that botch me up. For example, I had to spend $300 on a new phone this month - that had to go on my credit card, I couldn't afford it. I was broke enough in December that a couple Christmas gifts (expensive ones) got paid for out of January. I goofed and ended up having to pay both December and Januarys cable/internet/phone bills come out of the January pay check.The day the computer broke, I spent all day from 9 to 5 downtown, and I had to buy lunch and copious quantities of tea to keep myself calm. Things like this were what reduced me to not having enough money.
It's funny, cause I'd really convinced myself that wasn't it. I had convinced myself it was mostly food - eating out, Crumbs cupcakes, and too much on groceries. But it definitely wasn't - I was convinced I must be spending $400 on groceries, but it was only just over $250, and some of that was to feed me and Oz both. It wasn't eating out, either - I never eat out on my own, and I just don't spend excessively on eating out any way.
Unsurprisingly, I spend more than I think I do on entertainment. So, for example, I spent almost $100 on the stuff to put my Etsy things together; I loved the Japanese exhibit at the Met so much that I spent $45 to get the exhibition guide; I found a few gifts for people that I went ahead and bought while they were on sale. That kind of thing. But really, more than anything, it convinced me something I've suspected for a long time: if I could just get a couple of months where nothing randomly extremely expensive went wrong, I should be on top of things. I just don't seem to get too many months like that...which I guess is part of life.
The downside is that I owe a few people money - I owe mom $115 for various things, I haven't gottenmistress_sin (who changed her username but I can't remember what the new one is) or her boy anything for Christmas yet, and I owe bakanekotoo $35 for dinner last week. But - and this matters - I took all of that in to account, and I'm aware of it.
But now I'll know where the money is going. Now, I have a full list of all my monthly expenses, laying out exactly how much I HAVE to lay out each month. Now, I have a much clearer understanding of what I could NOT buy, and what the cut off would be for how little I cuold have and still be okay.
I'm going to try to maintain this all year, because it will help me with next years taxes, and will just generally be very helpful, clearly. I do think that knowing it has helped already - I cut my January budget close enough that I think I would have overdrawn if I hadn't been keeping track, and it helps me know when I have to pull out my credit card - but more importantly, when I don't have to.
I mean, take today. I picked up my paycheck a few days early (mostly cause it was convenient to pick it up when I did), and once the check cleared, I updated my spreadsheet, and then I went ahead and both paid and "paid" my February bills: the ones that I could actually pay, I actually paid; the others, I didn't pay cause I couldn't yet (ie, I can't pay my maintenance fee till the bill arrives, any day now, or my storage unit, which auto deducts around the 20th) but I put a line and either an exact or approximate amount in my budget, and I deduct it, which means that instead of going to the bank account directly and seeing my balance and thinking, "hey, I have XXX, PAR-TAY!" I look at my spread sheet, and see, "wait, that other amount didn't include my cable payment, my maintenance fee, my storage unit, or my new metrocard!" - my spreadsheet shows me what I can expect to have once I've paid ALL my bills for the month, not just the ones due at the beginning of the month. And that is super, super useful to me. :)
So yeah. Really long post. But it's been a while, and a lot has been going on. I tried to remember everything of note (because, of course, these posts are mostly for me, my memory is lousy, and writing it all down helps me to remember the cool bits) but given that I keep thinking of more while I've been working on this and appending it, (just thought of another) at this rate I'll never finish, so I'm just gonna stop. I mean, I've been writing this for two hours now. :)
Hope folks are having a nice week. :)
December saw, as usual, a large amount of travel. Only two things count as accomplishments in this time period:
1. I kept working out as long as I could throughout the trip (explanation below)
2. I worked during the trip. Like, a fair amount. Which is great, and increases the likelihood I can travel this year, when I seem to have more work than ever.
However, accomplishments aside, it was a pretty great trip all the way around. I headed out to Bloomington first to see friends and
ozziel for his birthday. It was a nice and pretty uneventful trip. People had finals, and boyfriends (not just mine!) and seeing schenker28 before he left for Europe, but as usual I was annoyed at myself for epic failing to get in touch with anyone who didn't cross my path. I'm gonna have to work on that. I ended up working almost 20 hours during the week, though, which was critical, and worked out well cause I was able to do it in the mornings while people were asleep and to work it in while people were doing finals. There was some cooking, a healthy quantity of Jiffy Treat, a nice birthday meal with ozziel's parents, an absolutely awesomely hilarious incredibly long game of Apples to Apples with moonartemis76 and her boy - who I got to know and like a lot, after not having a positive first impression of him last summer - and watching (most) of the Colts game on the Thursday night. All in all, while I wouldn't call it refreshing, it was very nice in more ways than one. I managed the working out by realizing the morning I left that if I brought a couple DDR games, I could buy a dance pad for $20, and use that as a work out. It worked out awesome, and I was shocked to discover that after not playing DDR for over a year, I'd hardly lost any skill at all, and was beating songs I'd failed while in practice before the end of the week. I'm not at all sure what that means.On Friday,
moonartemis76 and I headed up to Chicago - her to see her family for the holidays, me to go to the Motion City Soundtrack concerts. I don't know if I talked about those in LJ, but they came up on FB. MCS is one of my two favorite bands (the other is Alkaline Trio), and I'd never seen them live. They advertised on FB that they were going to have a three nights-three albums concert - one of their albums each night - and after about 24 hours of debate, I had almost made up my mind when they listed that the three night passes were sold out. I immediately tried to purchase one, and was (somehow!) able to. I didn't really have the money (I spent a TON on furniture in November) but I always try to remember that we only get one chance at life, and if we don't do wonderful unique things when we get the chance...then the opportunity is gone, and would I regret it? I don't want to find out - if I can make it happen, I do it, period - and this was something I knew I could make happen, even though I ended up having to stay at a hotel because of an epic fail on communication (entirely on my part) with buzzermccain. The concerts were on Friday (the 18th), Saturday and Sunday nights.What can I say?
Those three concerts were the most awesome live music I've ever seen. I mean, when I saw Alkaline Trio at the Fillmore in fall, 2008 - that was fricken awesome - and each of these concerts blew that out of the water - much less all three combined.
The opening band was a group called Ultimate Fakebook, who broke up 5 years ago, but were friends of the MCS guys, and were thus convinced to play. They were quite good, and watching their drummer was, simply, inspirational. By the time they'd finished their set on the first night, I had decided to take drum lessons (something I started thinking about last February but hadn't done anything about, telling myself I couldn't afford it - see my comment in the above paragraph. ;) ). They didn't end up playing different music each night (there was overlap each night, with some new stuff) but I liked their music, and I ended up getting one of their albums (it was only $5. :) ) Also, on the second night, when I went to the Merch stand to confirm that they didn't take credit and figure out how much money I would need, who was manning it but...the awesome drummer! (and the other person at the stand - he was buying stuff like a customer - was the lead singer of MCS, but as he was wearing a hat and jacket and clearly incognito, I didn't fangirl. ;) ). I got to have a short but nice chat with the drummer, where I told him that he'd inspired me to take drumming lessons, and he told me that if I was awesome at Rock Band drumming, I stood a decent chance of being a good drummer because many of the skills were the same. He was pretty cool; I could see why people become groupies. ;)
But...I'm avoiding the main topic, which, of course, was Motion City Soundtrack. I thought I knew what I was getting in to. I mean, typically the main band at a concert plays for about 45 minutes, and that was about the length of each album, so I figured - okay, they'll play the album, then an encore song or two, and then that'll be that. Not too bad.
Oh boy, was I wrong! So on the first night, they played their first album (I Am the Movie). Then when they came back out...they literally played for an entire additional 45 minutes - then had an encore. I was shocked - and I think the other fans were too. (By the way, the fans were part of what made this awesome, about 250 - I'd guess - totally obsessed, knew the words to every song, nut-so fans - me included - I was in the front the first day, and the crush of the people behind me was amazing). Second night was Commit This to Memory, and the third was Even if it Kills Me, which I like a lot but which clearly wasn't as popular with the other fans - no biggie. Then, on top of that, they played basically every song they'd ever recorded, and each night they played fan favorites from other albums (so "Lets Get Fucked Up and Die," which is probably my favorite song of theirs, got played every night; so did "The Future Freaks Me Out," so did "Autographs and Apologies."
After the second night, though, I got worried. One of my absolute favorite songs of theirs, called "The Worst Part," is a bonus track only available on the iTunes version of their third album, and I was starting to wonder if they were going to play it.
Each show, once they finished playing, the whole band came out and hung out with the fans. I'm pretty terrible at talking to people I think are totally awesome, I get all shy and embarrassed, but I steeled my nerve, and prepared my pitch: what would I say to Justin (the lead singer) in an effort to get the band to play "The Worst Part" as part of the third night?
I worked my way to the front of the group, all soliciting photos and autographs, desiring neither of these things, and I was prepared to say nothing but the truth - "Hi. I came here all the way from New York City, and it's my birthday on Monday, and it would totally rock my world if you guys would play 'The Worst Part.'"
Now, Justin had specified that he'd not be TALKING during the post hangouts, not til after the third show, cause it was so much singing that he needed to save his voice - very reasonable - but he pulled an Altoids box out of his pocket, and the back he wrote to me, "I'll see what I can do."
So, understandably, I went in to the third concert very curious what would happen!
Well, to make this already long story shorter, they played it, with the preface that about 8 people had asked for it (joking that if it had been 7 people, they wouldn't have ;0 ). And I was super, super excited. :)
Here's the band, by the way:
Anyway, after the last show, I took the Merch I'd bought - a pre-order litho for the new album, with a download code so I could get it (came out on January 19th) - and resolved to get the band to sign it. But I also steeled up my nerve a second time...
I'd read this interview that one of their new singles was autobiographical, and one of the lines in this song states that the lead singer was learning to speak Japanese, and inquirying minds wanted to know: was this true?
So, when I went up to him, I asked for the signature, and then I asked (and forgive me for no kana, I haven't set up the font package on the new computer yet - that's a story for below), "honto ni nihongo o benkyo shimasu ka?" The answer turned out to be that he'd studied a little and spoke a little, and we had a really butchered jap-lish conversation that was pretty fun for me, and I imagine for him too since he spoke to me much longer than any of the other fans. I mentioned that playing "The Worst Part" was the best birthday present I expected to get, and he asked how old I was, that kind of thing. Then, when he signed my poster, he wrote, "Thanks for coming to the Chicago show and for schooling me in Japanese." The other band members were really friendly when I got their signatures, too.
Finally, I closed off the third concert by helping two underaged girls break the Chicago curfew by giving them my wrist band certifying that I could drink (as if I wanted to drink). They were, like, 20, so I didn't feel guilty. :)
Right! But is that all I did in Chicago? Of course not!
In Chicago, I had no way to exercise, though both Sat. and Sun. were my gym days, so I resolved to walk. I mean a metric fuck ton. So on Saturday, I walked from my hotel in Lincoln Park (roughly due west of the zoo) down to the Art Institute, more than 4 miles - and I walked each way. At the Art Institute, I went nuts - filled my whole memory card with pictures, went through pretty much the whole museum - and was well rewarded. I'd been there before, but I had almost no supply of pics because my other big pic trip there was in July, 2007 - and was on my camera when it was stolen at Warped Tour. It really is a wonderful museum.
On Sunday, meanwhile, I topped this by walking to the Field, which was even farther, but I didn't walk back. Instead, after a couple of hours of fossils and gem stones, I met up with
buzzermccain and her fiancee for dim sum, and that was super nice - then we went for quite good gelato, and finally they accompanied me by bus to the concert venue. It was great to get to see them again; I definitely need to keep coming up with excuses to get to Chicago. I want to go to the Chicago History museum...maybe once I start researching the Civil War novel?Right.
So on Monday the 21st, which was my 27th birthday, I embarked on the next step of the trip, catching a plane to Houston, where I was supposed to meet mom, Ben and K. Unfortunately, it was a snowy day the day before, and everyones flights were massively delayed but mine. The end result of this was that, while I was able to take a shuttle to our hotel, they wouldn't let me check in to the room without the others present, even when I protested that he was my brother, we had the same last name, surely they could let me in to the room, it was my BIRTHDAY, goddammit! All this got me, though, was a free slice of cake. Better than nothing, I guess, though it turns out people in Texas don't know how to make cheesecake. Anyway, I ended up falling asleep in a chair in the lobby for about 2 hours, before B & K finally arrived at about 2:30 AM - and Mom arrived soon after.
We were all bushed, but we still packed up and headed down to College Station for our actual holiday.
Tuesday was supposed to be a gym day, but I woke up with a cold, and ended up sick the entire rest of the week. I wanted to go and walk on the treadmill anyway, but K (who is a nurse) told me it wouldn't help and might make it worse, so I decided not to - and that's the only reason I didn't workout through the whole holiday.
Christmas ended up being very laid back and pleasant. No big family drama (mom and I argued a bit, but we always do when we're sharing a hotel room, it's over exposure, we always fix it in the end) (unlike last year, when there was family drama). My grandfather looked healthier than when I saw him in September, he'd put on some weight, which at his age (almost 92) is excellent - though he seemed more out of it, which worried me, but everyone else thought I was wrong, so maybe it was just me. Either way, we spent a lot of time just hanging out, playing with my uncles dog, reading, even working a little. There was some shopping, a lot of gift wrapping...I had a couple days where I felt pretty lousy, too.
I had only asked for money for Christmas, so that's the main thing I got, though mom got me a few nice items of clothing and a necklace, my uncle got me a truly awesome pair of wrist warmers and a couple of B&N gift certificates which have already been spent, B & K got my a David Wright pin stripe jersey and a couple items of jewelry...I was really happy with the gifts I got. The checks, meanwhile, got deposited, and two thirds of the money went to paying my credit card down by 20%, and the remaining third went to paying back Omar Rayyan for my painting.
I got back on the 27th, still feeling kind head-coldy, but otherwise pretty satisfied with how the whole almost three weeks had gone - good friends, good food, great family, and just a nice trip all the way around.
Meanwhile, B & K were supposed to come in to the city a couple days later, and I had plans to see my dad over New Years weekend.
One of the things that really stood out over this trip, though, was - after I left Bloomington - how much I missed
ozziel. Before that visit to B-ton, I had always found that once he wasn't around, I was able to pretty much put it out of my mind. Every once in a while, I'd kinda notice that I missed him, but the rest of the time it didn't really bug me. But all through when I was in Texas, it was very evident and not easily ignored, and when I got home and was alone for the first time since I'd left, it was even more obvious. Trading texts to this effect, he basically told me that he'd already been planning to come for New Years...with the end result that he bought tickets on the 30th and came in to town on the 31st, and stayed til...er...the 2nd or 3rd? ...it was pretty awesome. :)Right before he came, the last of the furniture for my apartment came, and I was able to finally build my book cases, organize my closets, and basically get things to be pretty much how they're going to be until I can afford to buy a mattress - probably not til the summer. Til then, it's air mattress for me! :)
B & K didn't end up coming due to bad weather, and the 31st we had a terrible snow storm, worst driving conditions I'd been driving in pretty much ever for the first leg of the drive to pic up
ozziel from the airport, so I bailed on seeing dad until the next day. That proved to be a nice trip. Dad really liked my main gift to him - a Tom Seaver jersey - jerseys were definitely a theme for my holiday; I got three for others (dad, ultimabaka and ozziel), and got one myself, and B & K gave dad one, also, so he came out of the holidays with two - which clearly means he and I have to go to more Mets games this season. ;) Dad and PB got me some nice things, too, with my favorite being one of those lovely smooth polished wooden vases I'd seen at crafts fairs and always wanted - but hadn't gotten cause they're kinda pricey. I don't think dad knew I'd wanted one for a long time, but it was a really appropriate gift. Not that the other gifts weren't also nice, there was a lovely necklace, some more cash, etc., but I liked that one the most.I've missed
ozziel a fair amount since then, though not as much as I did over those two Christmas weeks, and I think I know why....but it's not a topic for LJ, so you'll have to ask me if you want to know. But it's nothing bad. :)January has been the month of work. One of our highest paying gigs is evaluation work we do on grants called "Math-Science Partnerships." While this sounds like a partnership between math and science, it's actually not - it's EITHER a math OR a science project conducted in partnership with an institute of higher education (read: a college or university). Alternatively, you can do a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) partnership. Anyway, the grants were due on January 22nd, but the central NYCDOE staff wanted drafts almost two weeks before the due date - or, put another way, they originally said they wanted drafts by the end of the week after New Years (the 7th?). Friday. And
ozziel left Monday. The client told them that was impossible. They ended up bumping it back to the following Tuesday.
So...well, she and I worked like lunatics for that week. We were working on two grants (one science and the other STEM) and each had a huge amount of supporting documentation as well as a proposal narrative that was 20 single spaced pages.
To make a long, boring story short, I ended up writing both narratives in 8 days.
But not without disaster striking!!
On Monday morning (the grants due Tuesday, mind), I woke up, screwed around on my computer for an hour (which I do every morning more or less), went to the gym, and then came back to work, sat down, and found my computer blue screened. 20 minutes, I concluded that it was toast - nothing I did would get it to start.
I hadn't backed up my work all weekend.
I took the CPU, hopped in a cab, went to my tech guys, and told them that I needed the data. I then ended up waiting basically all day, finally getting the data I needed to submit the next day - and I had hoped for the morning - at 5 PM. I ended up working til 11 that night, and only got one of the narratives into tip-top shape.
Still, of course, in the end - we managed.
After that first crazy week, I then had that ever-so-annoying hurry up and wait thing happen, where until we got back the feedback from Central, there wasn't loads for me to be doing (though the client was still very busy). Still, once we did have the comments back I had some more crazy days, and I was working on my parts of the grants until just before noon the day they were due (last Friday). It was very stressful.
Meanwhile, there were several other incidents in there.
On the Friday before the grants were due, I had to go to Queens to give a survey, and while I was on the train, a pickpocket stole my cell phone. I had to use my only quarter to call mom and ask her to contact AT&T for me. The perk was, I had insurance, and my contract was up for renewal, so I had a choice - I could either pay a fee and get a new version of the phone that had been stolen, or I could go and get any new phone I wanted! I ended up picking a new phone - a iPhone - which so far I completely, utterly love.
Meanwhile, the Tuesday of the week the grants were due was a day I'd been eagerly anticipating - yes, the release of the Motion City Soundtrack CD! I went with my download code and downloaded it, and after listening to the first few songs, I had a sad realization - the album was TOO AWESOME. I found it so engaging that it was distracting me from work, so I sadly set aside my desire to listen to it until Friday, when I'd finished my work, when I listened to it with care.
It's well rewarded that care. One of the songs on it is my absolute fav of their music, and 10 of the 12 tracks have stood up to me listening to them on repeat for the past 6 days - not a shabby achievement, really. :)
Furthermore, I had another of those "do it or regret it" moments, and decided that despite being broke, I was going to go to the upcoming concerts - with both MCS and Alkaline Trio releasing new albums (ATs comes out next month, though I've now heard one song from it, and while it wasn't as great as I hoped, I think it will grow on me, and it was good enough to bode well for the rest of the album) they were both doing concerts in NYC. I ended up getting tickets to both - the MCS one is Feb. 3, the other is in March and therefore I don't have the date memorized yet (the 16th? the 19th? something like that).
To make my life a little extra stressful, the other big request for proposal that I need to do came out on the 21st. These are the Teaching American History grants, and at the moment it looks like I'll be writing three, and mom will be writing a fourth which I'll be helping out with, so that'll be a ton of work. What's been odd about it, though, is that they're not due til the 22nd of March. However, the RFPs were supposed to come out in December, and everyone got really nervous. The end result was that usually, the first couple weeks of work on grants is really slow, but this time everyone jumped on it IMMEDIATELY, so I've been surprisingly busy considering that we've got two months.
And, of course, I've spent most of this week just trying to catch up on all the work I wasn't able to do earlier in the month.
End result? As of today, if I work one and a half more hours before the end of the month (which I certainly will), I'll have worked more this month than in any other single month of employment for the company (only work for the company - that doesn't count when I was writing grants, going to graduate classes, and working at the Conservation lab 20 hours a week). The month I'm beating? January of last year. Oy.
Other little tidbits include the Etsy stuff that I've been talking about; I've been working on making a quilt; I've started making amigurumi; I've been gearing up to start working on my novel again - though I won't be doing that til the baseball season starts...wait, I mean, til I finish the grants (these things happen temporally at almost the same time); I've been pretty on top of my correspondence; I've been cooking...sometimes...and all that jazz. As always, it never ceases to amaze me that when I'm most busy is when I accomplish most in all parts of my life. Energy breeds energy, or something.
What else? I went to the Met a couple of times; the most exhausting was on a Saturday night after I'd worked all day, so that I could see an exhibit I really didn't want to miss and which was closing the next day. It was all about Japanese armor and weapons, and the majority of the items were loans from Japan, and even though I was totally exhausted, it was totally worth the visit.
Mom got me an absolutely gorgeous winter coat, which is very exciting; I haven't had a winter coat in two years. This year I was managing with only a jean trench, a scarf and a hat. This is almost certainly why I got sick in Chicago - walking through lake effect snow in a driving wind in 30 degree weather wearing only a short sleeve shirt with a jean-thickness jacket on, plus a scarf, hat and gloves, was surely ill considered on my part, though it didn't feel that cold. My cold tolerance has gotten a little crazy. :)
Jonie got fleas while I was away for the holiday. We dealt with that. Then, a few days ago, I noticed she as worms again. The day after that (maybe Thursday?) she got sick, and spent the next two days throwing up, but I can't afford to take her to the vet yet, sigh. She's feeling better now, though, and I'm hoping I can convince a vet to sell me the worm medicine without making me come in. Maybe I should check that pet meds web site?
The day my phone got stolen, I didn't end up getting home til 8 PM. I walked in to the apartment, set my things down, put the leash on the dog, walked out of the apartment, closed the door behind me, and realized I locked myself out. This would have been a major disaster, since I'd left the stove on (I was hungry and wanted the water boiling when I got back!) but it ended up okay, the doorman had a spare key, thank god.
And I can't forget the mochicreams.
ultimabaka just spent most of the month working in Japan, and he promised he'd bring me back mochicreams, and he kept that promise. What are mochicreams? Only one of my absolutely favorite Japanese things - and, as they are a specific brand of mochi, completely unobtainable in the USA. They spoil pretty quickly, so I consumed all four that I got last night when they were presented to me, and man, I think they might be even better, some how, than I remembered. I'd not had any of these four flavors before, but they were wonderful - chocolate cookie cream (which was oreo cookie flavored), strawberry cheesecake, mango, and raspberry millefiore....oh god, I love mochicreams. I miss Japan.On the horizon,
ozziel is coming on Friday, and I'll be going out to B-ton for Valentine's day - it'll be nice to spend that with a boy friend for the first time since 2006. I'll be going to Paris sometime in the next few months, though I'm not sure when, and there's probably at least one other trip in that time period. Nothing is definite yet, but I'm definitely going to need a week by the end of grant season. :)I'm sure I've missed things from this synopsis - I keep thinking of more as I'm typing the exercise section below - but it'll have to do.
Oh, like here's another - I didn't get in to Stony Brook. That was a bit of surprise, I'll admit, but I've been very okay with it. I had a conversation with my uncle (who is a tenured PhD scientist in biology at Texas A&M) and he told me I was out of my mind to be aiming for a BS, that I should apply to a Masters program and do remedial coursework instead. I've been thinking about that - and also about taking non-matriculated course work at CUNY, because I've discovered that Lehman, which is quite close to where I live, offers a lot of geology and a major. However, being me, things tend to only last until I have the next shiney idea, and today I had a shiney idea that's been taking a surprising hold. It's actually closely related, but it wouldn't require me to go back to school. Combining many of my interests (history, nature, science, walking and exercise, and potentially teaching, photography, grant writing/fundraising, patriotism, and more), I had the idea earlier today of looking into, well, being a Park Ranger of some sort. The pay is wretched, but other than that I've spoken to a number of rangers in my time (mostly at Civil War sites) and I think it has a lot of components I would like a lot. It's only an idea, though, and it definitely needs time to percolate. :)
As per my conversation with the drummer from Ultimate Fakebook, I've registered at Bloomingdale School of Music (where I took flute lessons for four or five years when I was young) to take drum lessons for the semester.
I got called for jury duty and had to report today; it took approximately 5 minutes to establish that, as a Bronx resident, I was exempt from serving in Manhattan, which was awesome. :)
I found a place with the best cannoli I'd ever eaten; it was on 3rd and 27th, and I'm determined not to forget it. This was on Friday night, when I had a very nice evening with the newly-engaged
bakanekotoo, sang karaoke, ate sushi, got to see her ring, met a couple new people, and belted "Houki Boshi" at the top of my lungs.Since November, I've been reading Allan Nevins huge four volume history of the Civil War. I'd avoided these books, somehow instinctively thinking they would be heavy and dry. God, I was such an idiot. These books are phenomenal. I've never looked forward to plowing through four volumes of 1000 pages each quite like this. In particular, his account of 1856 - 1860 (which is the contents of the second of the four volumes) is fascinating, lucid, beautifully written, and astonishingly scholarly. Actually...that's the whole thing. These books are great. I can't believe they were written 50 years ago. He clearly earned his Pulitzers (he has two, but neither is for these works).
In my opinion, my greatest accomplishment has been in maintaining the exercise regime. According to LJ land, I started going to the gym on the 9th of November. I missed a week from the 22nd to the 29th of December, went back for a day, then missed a few more days because
ozziel was too distracting, and then started again on the...er...3rd? It was a Tuesday morning. Other than that week and a half, I haven't missed a single scheduled day, even when I've had to do crazy shit to pull that off, like this morning, when I had to wake up at 5 AM (indeed, I'm writing this in no small part to stave off exhaustion, so that I go to bed at a reasonable time, like, oh 9 PM, cause I was on the verge of going to sleep at 7:30). This is soon to be the longest amount of time I've gone to the gym consistently (when it crosses to three months, which is basically the end of this "week" (my gym weeks at the moment are cycling on Tuesdays) - beating out the summer of 2007, when I went for most of May, all of June and July, and part of August before leaving for Japan.My schedule is two days on, one day off, which means my days change every week, but it works out to 14 days every three weeks (two weeks of five days and one of four). With minor variation depending on how busy I am and what equipment is available, I do the same thing each pair of days. On "day 1" I treadmill for 30 minutes and elliptical for 30 minutes. On "day 2" I either arc machine or, the last couple weeks, bike - now for 40 minutes, which technically breaks the gym rules, but I've been pretty careful - and then I do sit ups and crunches, bicep curls, chest presses, some other arm machine thing, and hip ad and abduction - which ends up all taking a little less than an hour.
I'm not dieting, but I do eat with some degree of care just normally, and of course I get other exercise - I always take the stairs (minimum of three times up three flights with the dog), I walk a fair amount, etc.
When I started, jogging for five minutes at 5.6 mph was the best I could do on the treadmill; my current best (which wasn't this last "day 1", but was actually a "day 2," on Sunday, work over the weekend mucked up the schedule), I jogged for 25 minutes total, with a solid chunk of it at 6.3 mph and all of it at 6 mph or higher.
For the elliptical, the arc, and the bike, I recently discovered a new strategy that really works. Instead of getting to a difficulty that feels hard almost immediately, and then sticking with it for the next 20 minutes (I generally warm up 5 minutes and cool down for 2 - 4 minutes on each machine, though I've started shortening on both ends to get more hardcore time in - there's a 30 minute time limit on machines at the gym), I've instead started to go through my warm up by raising resistance by 1 each minute, until it starts to feel hard, and then the rest of my workout I just up the resistance every two minutes until I reach a difficulty I don't feel like I can do for longer than 2 minutes, and then I start to lower it (it's been taking til about 7 min left for this to happen.) The end result? I used to be able to do like, resistance 5 on the elliptical and maybe resistance 4.5 on the bike. Now, well, on Tuesday I went up to resistance 16 for the hardest two minutes on the elliptical, and this morning I hit resistance 5.6 on the bike. It hurts more the next day, but it burns more calories, and I think it's definitely better training - I do a lot more, but don't feel as tired...I really like it as a strategy. I've been making it harder by raising the resistance every minute until it gets a little tough; soon, I suspect I'll have to start raising resistance by two early on or else it won't be difficult enough. (And, of course, part of the point is that I really try to maintain an even speed/pace while I'm doing this, and for the most part I succeed at that).
When I started, three months ago, I apparently weighed 156 pounds - but I know that's inaccurate, because that was on moms scale, which wasn't zeroed.
Now, mom's scale IS zeroed, and it says I weigh...(as of two days ago)...156 pounds. Meanwhile, the gym scale, which I use fully clothed with shoes on RIGHT after my workout, says I've lost two pounds (163 to 161 as of yesterday morning, but that was after a few days of pigging out in celebration of finishing the grants ;) ). I think I look WAY better, my calves are completely solid (again), my shoulder blades are peaking a little, and my upper abs stick out over my lower when I suck in (which is one of my sure signs that I'm doing well) - and my pants, which used to be tight, have to be held up with one hand if I run for a light. All in all, while I'm still far from where I want to be, I'm pretty happy. And it's worth noting - I gained two pounds over the holidays, which I've lost since then.
The only thing I haven't done that I'd like to is check my measurements...actually, why don't I go do that now? Hmm...well, last time I took my measurements, I was 38/33/41, pulling the tape pretty taut. Now, not pulling it taught at all, I'm 36.5/32/41. That doesn't surprise me, my hips and butt never seem to get smaller. Pulling it tight tight, I can get 32/30/38. I guess the real test would be to see if I could close my Victorian bodice; it's only ever closed when I was at my absolute thinnest (not particularly in shape then, but I was 139 lbs., that was in winter, 2005 - 2006).
So - right. Considering that I haven't changed how I eat much (which is in part because how I eat is already pretty darn healthy) I'm very satisfied with this result. There's also the simple fact that I feel best and most energetic on the days I exercise - to the extent that I've been starting to consider doing something small even on my days "off" - like, 15 minutes on an arc machine or something - just because I can feel the difference in how alert I am and how I feel on the days off, and I don't like it.
I don't want to get too in depth on this for a few reasons, but I wanted to mention it. One of my side projects for January has been to keep a careful record of my expenses. It just doesn't make sense to me that I'm broke all the time with the amount that I make, so I made a spread sheet, and kept careful track. What I found was, really, kinda what I thought I'd find: I'm NOT broke, it's the unexpected things that come up that botch me up. For example, I had to spend $300 on a new phone this month - that had to go on my credit card, I couldn't afford it. I was broke enough in December that a couple Christmas gifts (expensive ones) got paid for out of January. I goofed and ended up having to pay both December and Januarys cable/internet/phone bills come out of the January pay check.The day the computer broke, I spent all day from 9 to 5 downtown, and I had to buy lunch and copious quantities of tea to keep myself calm. Things like this were what reduced me to not having enough money.
It's funny, cause I'd really convinced myself that wasn't it. I had convinced myself it was mostly food - eating out, Crumbs cupcakes, and too much on groceries. But it definitely wasn't - I was convinced I must be spending $400 on groceries, but it was only just over $250, and some of that was to feed me and Oz both. It wasn't eating out, either - I never eat out on my own, and I just don't spend excessively on eating out any way.
Unsurprisingly, I spend more than I think I do on entertainment. So, for example, I spent almost $100 on the stuff to put my Etsy things together; I loved the Japanese exhibit at the Met so much that I spent $45 to get the exhibition guide; I found a few gifts for people that I went ahead and bought while they were on sale. That kind of thing. But really, more than anything, it convinced me something I've suspected for a long time: if I could just get a couple of months where nothing randomly extremely expensive went wrong, I should be on top of things. I just don't seem to get too many months like that...which I guess is part of life.
The downside is that I owe a few people money - I owe mom $115 for various things, I haven't gotten
mistress_sin (who changed her username but I can't remember what the new one is) or her boy anything for Christmas yet, and I owe bakanekotoo $35 for dinner last week. But - and this matters - I took all of that in to account, and I'm aware of it.But now I'll know where the money is going. Now, I have a full list of all my monthly expenses, laying out exactly how much I HAVE to lay out each month. Now, I have a much clearer understanding of what I could NOT buy, and what the cut off would be for how little I cuold have and still be okay.
I'm going to try to maintain this all year, because it will help me with next years taxes, and will just generally be very helpful, clearly. I do think that knowing it has helped already - I cut my January budget close enough that I think I would have overdrawn if I hadn't been keeping track, and it helps me know when I have to pull out my credit card - but more importantly, when I don't have to.
I mean, take today. I picked up my paycheck a few days early (mostly cause it was convenient to pick it up when I did), and once the check cleared, I updated my spreadsheet, and then I went ahead and both paid and "paid" my February bills: the ones that I could actually pay, I actually paid; the others, I didn't pay cause I couldn't yet (ie, I can't pay my maintenance fee till the bill arrives, any day now, or my storage unit, which auto deducts around the 20th) but I put a line and either an exact or approximate amount in my budget, and I deduct it, which means that instead of going to the bank account directly and seeing my balance and thinking, "hey, I have XXX, PAR-TAY!" I look at my spread sheet, and see, "wait, that other amount didn't include my cable payment, my maintenance fee, my storage unit, or my new metrocard!" - my spreadsheet shows me what I can expect to have once I've paid ALL my bills for the month, not just the ones due at the beginning of the month. And that is super, super useful to me. :)
So yeah. Really long post. But it's been a while, and a lot has been going on. I tried to remember everything of note (because, of course, these posts are mostly for me, my memory is lousy, and writing it all down helps me to remember the cool bits) but given that I keep thinking of more while I've been working on this and appending it, (just thought of another) at this rate I'll never finish, so I'm just gonna stop. I mean, I've been writing this for two hours now. :)
Hope folks are having a nice week. :)
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How about your place, huh? :)
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And I definitely haven't forgotten the chocolate covered bacon - and I have another gift for you, too, which I completely forgot to bring on Friday, I felt like an idiot. :)
The cannoli place was on the corner by Japas - it was on the southwest corner of the intersection of 3rd avenue and 27th street. It was a small Italian bakery I'd never heard of, but the cannoli was, just, wow...
I was thinking about maybe grabbing dinner, not this coming week, but the week after. Whatcha think? I'm free early in the week (the 8th or the 9th, maybe) - then I'll be heading to Bloomington for the weekend. :)
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