1.12.10

Day twelve. Wow. This year is already flying by. I don't like how with every passing day, time seems to speed up and I feel like the amount of time to decide on things seems to be NOW! Luckily, I'm in the process of devising a 2010 plan. I need to. A plan to lower my debt, save some money, and figure out what I'm going to do with the last few years of my twenties.

A friend of mine put me in touch with a friend of theirs that is currently in DPT school, which was awesome because it allowed me to ask some questions I had, and help give me a better timeline on when I could actually get accepted. It looks like 2012, unfortunately, as there is a lot I'd need to do beforehand. That puts me at potentially graduating around 2015, or 31 years old. However, if I busted my balls the rest of this year, I could, MAYBE, get in for 2011. Highly unlikely, and probably not the best of plans, but it is a possibility. I'm thankful for the help, advice, and added knowledge I have now, so I can really think about what I want to do with my life. I'll probably be researching some other types of jobs in the next few days, too.

Other than thinking about this some more, today was relatively anticlimactic. Typical Tuesday. Volleyball, Islands, shower, and finally some American Idol, which is a nice way to cap off the night. Ohhhh wait. That's right. There's the fact that I cut my hair WAY TOO SHORT! Seriously, it's the shortest ever. 1/8th of an inch. I tried to save my mistake of putting the wrong clip on the clippers, but I am no hair stylist. So I just shaved the rest away. At least this will give me an excuse to actually wear my cowboy hat dancing this weekend!? So bald. Oof! No likey!

Oh that reminds me of something I was talking about last Wednesday with some friends. We were discussing the pros and cons of my always feeling like I am a jack of all trades, master at none, and how I just wish I were great at something. It'd make this whole decision making process a WHOLE LOT easier! Maybe I just need to find something I can do well, that I enjoy doing every day. How in the world do I know that, though, unless I'm able to at least try all the things I think I'd enjoy? Oh well. At least I know the things I'm not, unlike some of those Idol hopefuls slash crazies! Until tomorrow, there's day 12 of 365.

1.11.10

I woke up today around 11 am and boy was it nice to sleep in. I probably could have slept until 12, but I was going to go play golf! I got ready, ate some more leftover chili and coooooooooornbreaaaad and headed to the course. I met up with my buddy Mike, and we teed it up. I was playing pretty well on the front nine, a double on #1 - had to take a drop - and two bogeys, and the back nine was just awful. I didn't make a par until 17 and 18. A decent 84, but not any better and I feel SO CLOSE to being good. That whole not-practicing thing probably doesn't help. Either way it was a fun round. I also played with the owner of THE SECRET SPOT in Huntington Beach. Cool dude and a super hip vegetarian restuarant. Go there!

After golf was over, I came home and changed and headed out to volleyball, since I missed out yesterday. I didn't get to play as much, but it's always worth it even to play one game. It's getting me back in shape, along with the dancing, walking the golf courses and eating better. And yes, chili and cornbread is eating better! hah.

On my drive home from volleyball I got a sweet tooth, which I don't think has ever happened. I headed into Vons, with Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia on my mind. I left with two pints, some iced tea - OH CRAP. I just brewed some. BRB......

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM delicious!

and some of those amazing pink and white animal cookies! It made me think about how we used to have them as a kid, but I'd only get to eat like two. That bag will be lucky to make it to Wednesday!

Today was a great day. I love my Mondays. Going out and playing golf with a good friend and then volleyball with a good friend is more than I could ask for. Well, doing anything with good friends is more than I could ask for. I also thought about myself, as a friend to others. I hope people think of me as a good friend too! I'm going to work on that a little bit, just in case.

Now, I'm going to go eat this entire pint of ice cream, to negate all the exercise I got today, and watch me some House! Until tomorrow, there's day 11 of 365!

1.10.10

Some days are nice and long and interesting. Some days are today. I woke up this morning with a mild hangover - Billy the bartender "hooked me up" with a free shot (slash half a glass) of tequila, which was "awesome" - and craving breakfast. The hangover kept me in bed, in fear of sunlight, until three separate people were talking about breakfast and I couldn't take it anymore. I got up, threw a hoodie on and went and stuffed my face with french toast, two eggs over medium, hash browns, and sausage with a large iced tea. I then came back home and dozed in and out of sleep while watching NFL playoff football.

I had planned on going out and playing volleyball around 4:30, but the friend I go with decided not to go. Luckily, another friend had offered to make pizza and watch old episodes of True Blood. So I finally took a shower and went out. This "other friend" is one of the people that have transformed from "long time acquaintance" to "friend." She made an amazing Mediterranean style pizza and we enjoyed it and cocktails while we watched some True Blood, and parts of The Tudors, Secret Diaries of a Call Girl, and Zoolander. Oh, and some of our favorite YouTube videos, found here:

Mandles
The WTF Blanket
Wrong Hole

It was a pretty fun night of doing virtually nothing with a great new friend. I came home around midnight and now am ready to go pass out again. I have a feeling tomorrow will be a little more exciting. Until tomorrow, there's day 10 of 365

1.9.10

Today I'm going to write my page a little differently. I finally realized that I can write and save it as a draft, then publish it later. So whenever I have a thought I want to remember or something happens that I feel is significant in the day, I'm going to hop on here and write it!

It's been a rather slow Saturday at work and I've been sitting here playing games and thinking about random things. Thinking about how this year seemed to get started on the wrong foot, but has turned around remarkably. I feel great about so many things. I feel like I'm finally meeting new people, making progress on how I'm going to deal with the undeniable change that 2010 is going to bring, and I'm having confidence in myself in nearly every facet of my life.

I began this blog complaining that nobody wrote the book on the late 20's of people's lives. Nobody has detailed the silly stresses and loneliness of suddenly feeling abandoned as your friends start getting married, moving away and having PLANNED babies, while you're still struggling to figure out what you want to do as a career. It seems that everyone that I was close to for so long has a different plan and new interests and I feel like I should too. Well, although it's too early to tell yet, I feel like I'm finally starting to realize that the things that I thought might stay the same forever, don't. Other than the dying grass in my front yard. That seems to be a consistency in my life.

However, I've been spending the last few days smiling and completely content with myself and enjoying the one thing that HAS been consistent within myself; laughter. I enjoy making people laugh and I have enjoyed laughing and smiling and loving life more in the past few days than I have in a long time. I'm going to go smile some more now, as I eat some leftover chili and CORNBREAAAAAAD (you have to say that with Southern accent...DO IT!).

The chili and cornbread was DEEEEEEELISH and work was average. After work I decided to go to my new favorite place again and get some more dancing in. I took a two hour nap after work and headed to Cowboy Country around 8:00. Yesterday and today I met some cool new people, and seem to be getting closer to some people that were merely long time acquaintances. I spent virtually four out of the five hours I was there dancing. It makes me happy and it's a pretty damn good workout! Plus with a live band, you can't beat the atmosphere. This is the first time I've ever gone dancing three times in one week and my feet handled it surprisingly well. I left the bar and now here I am ready to PASS OUT! So goodnight. Until tomorrow, there's day 9 of 365

1.8.10

I woke up thinking it was going to be a good day. Even though Fridays are my Thursdays, I was still going to go out and have a good time and that kept a smile on my face. I don't have a lot to say today as it's already almost noon on the day after and all the particulars about this day have seemed to vanish.

Work was relatively painless today. I worked more on the error I made the previous day and finally got it resolved, which was nice. The only highlights of work was dropping off a new mailer to a good friend of mine, and getting to leave early. After work I did a little shopping with the store coupon I had from buying new boots a week ago.

After debating between two shirts for a good fifteen minutes, I finally picked on and bought a few bandanas (slash sweat wiper offers for dancing) and headed to Cowboy Country before they started charging a cover. This is a first. Normally I'm the type that will wait until the party gets started then show up, however, I had nothing else to do so why not save $5? This turned out to be a good thing, as I was able to partake in the lessons I normally miss, and I learned a new line dance that I've been wanting to learn.

After a few hours, some more friends showed up and it was just hours of dancing and a few beers from then on. Seriously, I think it was a good solid six hours of dancing, as I didn't leave until about 1:30am already dreading my alarm going off for work in a few hours. Oh well. 'Tis the price I pay for being such a party animal. Riiiiiight. It was another great day with great people. Until tomorrow (which is already well underway), there's day 8 of 365.

1.7.10

I woke up today well before I had to get up, so I went back to bed, which always ends up with me waking up late. Rushing to get ready for work is just NOT the right way to start the day off. However, having NO traffic and making it to work on time quickly evens things back out.

Work was frustrating today. I made a stupid error in accounting - why is putting the right year so difficult to remember? - and posted some stuff that was supposed to go into 2009, into 2010, then when trying to fix it while talking on the phone, managed to royal screw things up. I spent much of the day trying to rectify this error, as well as do the other "Thursday" tasks.

On top of working, I was trying to coordinate a pseudo-reunion with a group of friends I used to hang it with in high school. I think it's 90% finalized and should be an awesome time. From what I gathered from the responses, everyone is as equally excited as I am!

After work I came home and made some chili and cornbread and watch the NCAA Championship football game, hoping Texas would think they had a shot only to get CRUSHED! I could have gone to a friends house and enjoyed THEIR chili, and in hindsight probably should have as they had brownies for dessert, but decided to relax at home instead.

Now it's about 10:30 and apart from some good conversations with new friends, there's not much going on, both upstairs and in my house. I think I'll end the day doing something I love doing: watching stupid funny videos. Until tomorrow, there's day 7 of 365.

1.6.10

Today was the first day in a long time that I woke up happy and excited. What a great way to begin. I could only hope that by the end of the day, I'd feel the same way.

There wasn't much thought or action for the first part of the day, as it was just work and I was fairly busy. I spent my lunch eating in my car while sitting the car wash, which is always exciting, then cleaned out my car. Having a new car makes me want to keep it clean, unlike old Geraldine that I only washed once every six months. It also makes it more comfortable to be in. After that, I went back to work and, that's right, worked! Little did I know, I was going to become even more happy.

Being a new year, we finally got to the first payroll. After going through to check every one's vacation time to determine if anyone was getting an increase, we discovered that I was due for an increase in vacation time as of 1/1/09, which was never given to me. That means that I now have about a full week of vacation time in my back pocket. This made me ecstatic. I may be able to actually use that free round trip flight anywhere JetBlue flies that I received from Amex!

Feeling even happier than when I woke up, I hopped on the freeway for a LONG drive up to Studio City for dinner and great wine as well as the always great company. The wine, as always, was GREAT. It was a blend that the host made himself and it was so smooth! I could have spent the rest of the night drinking it, but other plans were on the mind of some of my company. I said goodbye, and drove down to my favorite place right now, Cowboy Country.

It was still early, about 9:00, when we got there and most of "the regulars" were there. I spent the next two hours or so two-stepping, cha-cha-ing, and line dancing. Another great end to a great day. Doing something I love to do to end the day may just have to be a new nightly occurrence.

I didn't spend too much time thinking about what I'll be doing come the end of my job here, but it was discussed briefly during dinner. I seem to be leaning heavily towards trying to get into grad school. I probably need to get into working on that process fairly soon. But for now, I'm exhausted from dancing, driving and dining so it's time to sleep. Until tomorrow, there's day 6 of 365.