The Thirtieth Year

While the intention of this journal is mostly for me, and whomever happens across it, I’ve thought about the possibility of a potential audience. I’ve started posting on the apartmenttherapy.com boards, and if people are going to visit, I want to make it a little less mundane. However, I don’t want to spend too much time making this super interesting, because all of that valuable time could be used to work on my goals, right? Right! To make things less wordy, I’ve created a filter called “photographs.” My Flickr account is also easily accessed from this blog. If you happen to come upon this post, and have any ideas, please do share.

Now that all of that is out of the way, I’m going to make a list of what I’ve accomplished today:

1. Socialized with friends – I’m getting out of my hibernation phase! Personal Enrichment
2. Started list of work objectives – This is required of me, but I’m having a few good breakthroughs for my focus. Career
3. Cleaned out work inbox/sentbox – I deleted over 2000 emails! Career
4. Browsed internet for apartment improvement ideas – I found this for the kitchen (the room I’m currently working on)! Apartment

Here it is, 10:30 p.m. As previously explained, I’m a night-shift worker, so it’s still pretty early for me.  The goals I have for today:

1. Resize and upload photographs of kitchen “before”
2. Work on German homework
3. Quick clean of bathroom (I’m still maintaining it, but it still needs to be cleaned regularly! Germs!)
4. Continue work on kitchen.

Tomorrow, my main goal is to go to the recycling center and drop off the materials that are sitting around my house!

Wow. It’s been ages since I’ve updated! I’m starting to feel overwhelmed by all of the things I hope to accomplish in such a short time. I broke my rule of not traveling until everything was complete/or by my birthday/whichever came first. I’m going to DC in two weeks. I’m glad I’m doing it. I haven’t been back in about a year and some change. A good friend of mine is leaving, and most likely, I won’t be back after he goes. I still have friends there, but all of my close friends seem to have gone. Let me summarize where I am with all of my goals:

Apartment:
I am slowly chugging along at the kitchen. Most of it is done. I have a few unpacked boxes I need to go through. I refuse to just put them in another room, because that’s just not solving anything. The bathroom is still neat, but the essentials need to be cleaned. The Spring Cure at apartmenttherapy.com (the idea that inspired this whole thing) has started. I hope to follow along with them, and stay focused. A couple of trips may get in the way, but I think I can stay on track.

Career:
Things aren’t really progressing here. I do have to make a list of goals before the end of the month, per the policy of work. I hope that will get me more focused. I really haven’t a clue where I’m going within the company right now. I’m not really worried about it, either. I am working the best that I can, and at this point in time, that’s ok. I have a LOT on my plate to focus on, and as far as I know, my job isn’t going anywhere. I feel like this sounds very slackery of me. Don’t get me wrong. My job is very important to me, however, it is very redundant, so there’s not much going above and beyond. I also feel that once all of the other aspects in my life are in focus, I won’t be weighed down so much. I’ll be able to put all of my energy towards advancing my career.

Environment:
I’m still sorting my recycleables. I haven’t made it to the recycling center yet. Next week, maybe? I’ve started unplugging electronic things that do not need to be plugged in when not in use. I’ve read that even when something is turned off, it still uses some sort of energy when it is  plugged in.

Finance:
I think I’ve adjusted to my raise by now. My first credit card is at a balance of zero. Now, I can focus on paying one card. I’m going to try to make more than one payment a month. I started sending my shift bonus to my mother. I owe her some money, as she paid off my student loans and is now charging me a much smaller interest rate. I’ve set up an automatic deduction of $150 into my savings account each month. Additionally, I’m having 3% of my check sent to my 401k. It is matched by my work, so that’s about 6%. Oh, and my taxes are done! Yay!

Health:
I still haven’t made it to the gym. I get 4 days off a week. One would think that I’d have all of the time in the world. I honestly don’t know where it all goes. I sleep a LOT. I blame it on the night shift. I set my alarm clock for 9:00 am today. I hit snooze ONCE, and I did not wake up again until 1:30pm. It’s really frustrating. I have lost a few pounds, though. I’m trying to limit my soda intake. I do have an addiction. I’m trying to limit myself to no more than one soda per shift. It’s hard to make it through the night without caffiene, but we’ve got all of the coffee, hot cocoa and tea we want to drink. It saves money AND calories. I’ve also been watching what I’ve been eating. I mess up here and there, but overall, I’m doing pretty well.

Personal Enrichment:
I don’t know why I loathe going to German class. Part of it is because the instructor insisted that I take the second course, but I really feel like I should be in the first course. The class focuses more on structure than actual vocabulary. I guess it makes sense, since the class is only one night per week. There’s a lot to cover already, and we all have dictionaries. I’m just used to taking language classes every day, or at least twice a week. I’m thinking of skipping the next cycle, just so I can focus on vocabulary. My workbook covers the next cycle, so I can get familiar with that before class starts. I have class tonight, and I just don’t want to go. I’ve forgotten everything, it seems.
In other personal enrichment news, I treated myself to a day at the spa. I got microdermabrasion,  a facial, and an eyebrow wax! It was really nice. I think I’m going to try to treat myself once every three or four months. It can get expensive, but I’ll set a budget and stick to it.

That’s about all for now. I have to finish up some German homework and be on my way. Tonight, I’ll do some more in the kitchen. I need to keep an ongoing list of things I need to buy for the rooms I’ve done. Maybe I should make some time and go buy them! I need to get back on track with the list thing. I seriously don’t know where the time from my last post until now went! It seems to happen every weekend. Hopefully, once I’m back to the dayshift, time will be easier to manage. It’s very hard to do daytime things at 10:00pm.