A much better week all around.

This week was so much better than last week. I guess it really couldn't get much worse (without something terrible happening). The only thing that sucked was that I still didn't have access to my online accounts since I was waiting for my cards to come in the mail. But really, that is nothing compared to last week. My cards came on Friday so I was happy.
How did I do this week? Lets see....

1. Updating the blog. Here we are...13 for 13. 1/4 of the way through 2011. 
2. Get a new job. I had a test on Thursday for a government job. Hopefully, something comes out of that. I think I did pretty well on the test. 
3. Room cleaning. Not much has come of that this week. My floor is pretty clear but I still have extraneous papers all over. My main goal for this upcoming week is to work on my computer desk. It is getting kinda ridiculous.
4. Lose weight. Still holding out at the same weight.
5. Going to the gym. I made it twice this week and I made it to Zumba yesterday. I am glad I went yesterday, I had a lot of fun. So my plan for this week is basically the same, I might try to go after work 3 times instead of two this week. 
6. Old clothes and books. I haven't really done anything with that since last week. Will try to do more this week.
7. Swear less. Not so much. Not as much as last week but more than the week before.
8. Dance practice. I went to practice on Tuesday again. I also practised a little at home a couple of times. It turns out that there is one more class this week, so I will try to make it this week. After that, there won't be any classes with my teacher until nearly the end of April.

So, it could have been better but it could have been worse too.

In other news, I am completely addicted to this song:

Beware the Ides of March.....seriously.

What a week. Actually, it wasn't so much the week as the day. Specifically, the two hours between 7 and 9am on Tuesday. It would have been hard to have a worse two hours without severe bodily harm or death involved.  Luckily, it didn't come to that. So what happened? Well, I worked till 6am, as usual. I went to the gym, as somewhat usual. On the way to the gym, I was listening to the radio, They were talking about the Ides of March and how it's generally not a good idea to be too cocky or over-confident on the 15th of March because bad things happen. Let's just say I didn't think that overconfidence was an issue.
On my way home from the gym, I noticed the stoplight too late and ended up in an accident. I would have been fine but it was a bit on the icy side that morning and my brakes weren't as effective as usual. At least that's my contention. So, we pulled off to the side of the road  to exchange information. I had my wallet in the trunk so I had to get my license and insurance info out of the trunk. I drove into the parking lot we were right beside to gather myself and put my license back into my wallet. No wallet. I checked the trunk. No wallet. I ran back to where we pulled off the road. Still no wallet. I ended up going home and telling Colette what happened. She was sympathetic......at this point. I was kind of freaking out - more about the wallet at this point than the accident. I checked the car again. Checked my work bag and gym. Still no wallet. Where could it have gone? I called the other person involved in the accident to see if it had gotten mixed up with her things. It hadn't. So I cancelled one of my credit cards, put a hold on the other one.
Before Colette left for work, I had gone downstairs. I went back up after she left to get some of the things I had forgotten. On the way back down, I fell down stairs. It was only three stairs but it was still just one more thing to add to my already bad day. I sent Colette a text saying '...and then I fell down the stairs.' She called me back hysterically laughing. Yes, she was sympathetic about the accident and about the wallet, but as soon as I fell down the stairs it became funny...one more thing in this series of calamities. Luckily, no one was hurt.
Someone phoned the next day to tell me they had my wallet. Colette was nice enough to pick it up for me on her lunch break. I was able to cancel the hold on the one credit card and was able to use it to pay for the repairs to the other person's car. Mine had no damage. As far as accidents go, it was really quite minor. I am still waiting for my one credit card, one debit card and my health card (I had cancelled the debit and health card before they called to say they had found my wallet). So, that was my week in non resolution news. How did I do otherwise? Let's see.

1. Update the blog. Here I is. 12 for 12. I am happy that I have been able to keep up with this one - if none of the other ones. 
2. Get a new job. I didn't do much on this one this week. I think I applied for one job this week. I also looked at French classes. I haven't signed up for any yet though. 
3. Room cleaning. Well, I finally opened the file thing I bought a few weeks ago. I even put some papers in it. But compared to the sheer amount of papers I have hanging around my room, I haven't really done much. To give you a reference point, I found credit card bills in my room from Oct 2009. Hopefully, this week will be less of a gong show and I will actually feel like cleaning (that'll be a first - me feel like cleaning??)
4. Lose weight. I am pretty much still hovering right around where I was when I started. Sadly....But at least I haven't gained weight.
5. Gym twice per week. I made it twice this week. I was thinking about going a third time but by the time Thursday morning rolled around, I really didn't feel like it. I am thinking about adding a weekend Zumba class to the schedule though. I really enjoyed it before and want to get back to it. So the plan for this week is to go to the gym after work at least twice and then go to Zumba on Saturday. We'll see how it goes. 
6. Old clothes and books. I spent much of Monday morning organizing the books in my book cupboard. Sorting them by series/author. I discovered that I am missing one book from a series (I own it, I am just not entirely sure about it's whereabouts). I also found a few more books that I am not planning on keeping. It's not finished, but it's a start. 
7. Swear less. I am pretty sure I swore more this week this week than I did last week. But given the week I had, it was understandable I guess. 
8. Dance practice. I didn't practice every day this week. I did attend class on Tuesday night. It helped get my mind off the disastrous day I had. I also practised two other times this week, at least. I am going to try to go to class again this week. That will be the last class for awhile because my teacher is going to be gone for much of April.

So that was my 'lovely' week. Hope yours was better.

Sleep would be good.

I had a busy week involving less sleeping than I would have liked. Mostly, my fault - I really need to schedule appointments better - but it was annoying. As I mentioned last week, I had an interview on Wednesday. The interview was scheduled for 4:30 but I had to be there 20 minutes early. They said that the process would be about 30 minutes but in reality it took an hour and a half because they were interviewing about 50 people, so it was a lot of waiting for your turn.
But anyway, I originally had an appointment with a specialist on Wednesday at 1, but if I had kept that appointment, I really would not have had any sleep. So I called to change the appointment on Monday, and the doctor had an opening on Tuesday at 3:45. So, I had to wake up early on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, my doctor wanted an extra test done so I had to schedule that appointment. I, in my brilliance, scheduled that appointment for 4 on Thursday. So that's three days in a row I didn't sleep as much as I should have. At least,I went back to bed after my Thursday appointment. Then on Friday, I had a meeting at the bank at 9:30am. So I didn't get to sleep till after 12 that day. But I now feel all grown up with Mutual Funds and all. So that was my busy week. This week shouldn't be quite as hectic.

So, how did I do?

1. Updating the blog. Here I am again. 11 for 11.
2. Find a new job. I think the interview on Wednesday went okay, but I do think that they are looking for someone who speaks more French than I do. I am going to wait a little bit, just to see if this job pans out and then I am going to look for French classes in the community so I can improve my French and increase my chances of getting a job here in Ottawa. I should find out about the job soon since it starts in April.
3. Room cleaning. Yeah, not much happened on that front this week. My floor is not full of stuff though so that is good. I do want to re-clean my chair and organize my papers (finally) this week.
4. Lose weight. Amazingly enough, I did not gain any weight this week. I say that is amazing because last night we went out for supper to 'The Works', which is a specialty burger place here in Ottawa. The food is sooo good, but it is very filling. I also had 1/3 of a lemon pie today. So there is that too.
5. Gym twice per week. Well, I made it once. The rest of the week I was pretty tired. Next week will be more about sleep so I should be awake enough to go to the gym. Hopefully, I'll make it three times but at least two.
6. Old books and clothes. Not much happened there this week. 
7. Swear less. I continue to use the phrase 'crap on a cracker'. I am surprised my language hasn't gotten worse considering how horrible I am at the Wii game I bought last week. 
8. Dance practice. Didn't do any practice this week. I am going to try to go to a dance class this week, and practice at home as well.

So, I really didn't get a lot done this week. Hopefully, I'll get more done next week. Sleep will help.

Not too bad this week.

Have to say, after last weekend, this weekend was rather anticlimactic. No show, no workshop. It is, however, possible that Colette mentioned playing a certain Wii game and liking it. It is also possible that I went and bought it. And we may have ended up playing it for three hours this afternoon. Not saying it happened, but it is entirely possible. (I actually don't know that it was three hours, it could have been 2 and a half. Just saying...)

So, how did I do this week?

1. Updating this here web log. Here I am, again. 10 for 10. I am actually quite happy considering before this had not done it for over a year.
2. Getting a new job. I don't have my French test results yet, but I do have an interview for that job on Wednesday, so my finger's are crossed. I hope it goes well. It is only a temporary position but it will get me some much desired experience with the government, so I am quite hopeful.
3. Room cleaning. I did get the whole pile of books off my floor, so yay. The shelf I keep my books on is getting rather full now though. It's a good thing I have my Kobo, because otherwise I would have some real space issues. I also put most of my DVDs that were in my room in my shelf. As you can see, I have a few DVDs, so getting them off the floor went along way to help get my room a bit more cleaned up.
4. Lose weight. Nothing has changed. At this point, I am happy that I am not gaining anything.
5. Gym twice per week. I made it to the gym three times this week. I was going to try going four times next week, but with the interview, I don't know if that's going to happen. I even went for a walk yesterday.
6. Old books and clothes. As I mentioned before, my book shelf is getting full. I am going to have to go through my books again and be even more ruthless. There are a few I know I want to keep, but I am pretty sure I don't need all of them.
7. Swear less. I really think I have been swearing less this week. I have been saying "Holy crap on a cracker" a lot though, so I don't know if that is much better.
8. Dance practice. I have been dancing almost everyday. I think last weekend's workshop inspired me. I also bought a belt last weekend, which I love and I like dancing with it on. 

So anyway, not a bad week.

Here's hoping my interview goes alright on Wednesday. I'll let you know how it goes next week.

Busy, busy, busy

As expected, didn't get much done this week, particularly since most weeks I tend to wait for the weekend to do anything and this weekend wasn't available. The show on Friday night was quite good, and the workshop this weekend was quite informative. Anyway, on with the show...

1. Updating. Still here - 9 out of 9.
2. New job. I haven't heard back from the French exam (with my undoubtedly poor marks) yet. I did, however, find out that the company I had an interview with last week will not be pursuing my application further, which was not unexpected considering how the interview went. 
3. Room cleaning. Not much happened on that score this week. I have the night off tonight so I should be awake tomorrow and plan to get a bunch of stuff done then. 
4. Lose weight. Same as always.
5. Gym twice per week. I did go three times this week. Yay! I am hoping to go three times again this week and then try for four next week. We'll see how it goes.
6. Old books and clothes. Books are still on the floor. Will try to get to it tomorrow.
7. Swear less. I don't think I've been swearing as much as usual this week. 
8. Dance practice. Sadly I didn't get to practice twice per day last week. Honestly, my performance wasn't as good as it could have been. My mind wasn't completely where it should have been when I was dancing. The workshop this weekend really gave me some stuff to work on. We talked about being completely present in your dance whether you are just practising or performing. We also talked about the importance of dance expression. I found it really interesting and informative. There are a lot of things that we talked about that I want to incorporate into my own practice. 

Anyway, I had a great time this weekend. It was great seeing Beatbox Guitar and Ariellah perform live. I have a lot of stuff to think about now too.

In other news, my niece is turning 7 tomorrow-ish. I can't believe it - she's growing up so fast. Anyway, Happy Birthday Bella!

Not so good

Okay, this may be the least enthusiastic I've been about doing a post. Mostly because I had an entire post written, nearly ready to publish, and then I went to edit it and POOF! It completely disappeared. So this is take two. So without further preamble, here's what happened this week.

1. Update every week. It may be late, but here it is . 8 for 8.
2. Get a new job. Sigh. I had my Government French test on Tuesday. I really don't know how I did - I didn't understand half the test so that's not a good sign. About halfway through the first part of the test, my brain was fried. Luckily, the job it was for had a number of different language requirements so hopefully doing poorly on that test did not completely destroy any chance of a job. In other news, I had an interview on Friday with the company I had a store visit with last week. I don't think it went super well. They asked the same question that had asked on the phone, and still didn't seem to like my answer. I should have done more thinking about that question, I guess. Basically they asked me why I wanted to leave my current job at a fast food restaurant. The answer I gave them was that I felt that I had learned as much as I could there and wanted to move on. Apparently since I am not a manager, that isn't exactly true since I don't know management type stuff. Then we got into a discussion of why I am not a manager (why couldn't I move to day shift, switch to a different store, etc).  At one point I said something about not really wanting to be a manager at a fast food restaurant. Which lead to the question of  'Why not?' I brought up the stress level to pay ratio, and the interviewer said something like 'It's about the money, then'. I was like 'I guess so', happy that we finally reached a reason that she would accept. But much of the interview was like that. It almost felt like she was trying to catch me in some sort of contradiction. I just thought it was odd, considering they are the ones that contacted me after finding my resume on Monster - it wasn't a job I had actually applied for. At least now, I have thought of a more in depth answer to that question should it come up again. I do think part of my problem both times was lack of sleep. She caught me just as I was going to bed when she called the first time, and I went to the interview after only three hours of sleep.
3. Room cleaning. My room is in fact still a mess. I did buy a DVD rack from IKEA, and even managed to put it together unassisted. I just need to get the shelves in and find all my DVDS  to put those in as well. My papers are still scattered and my floor is still a mess. I will try to work on it this week.
4. Lose weight. Holding steady.
5. Gym twice per week. I had intended to go four times last week. Barely managed to go twice. Going to try to go 3 times this week. I am too busy this week to really push for more than that (although actually, the business is this weekend rather than during the week.)
6. Old books and clothes. Not much news on that front. My goal for this week is to get the books I intend to keep off the floor.
7. Swear less. I think I am swearing less. It's hard to keep track of. I don't think I am swearing more.
8. Dance practice. Sadly this hasn't been happening regularly. Since I have a performance on Friday, my goal for this week is to practice the choreography twice everyday. I have a workshop on Saturday and Sunday. I should take a notebook this time and write down the more interesting parts. I always think I am going to remember stuff from workshops and never do.

As I just mentioned, I have a show on Friday called The Dark Urban Cabaret featuring Ariellah and Beatbox Guitar. I am pretty excited to see both Ariellah and Beatbox Guitar perform live. Ariellah is from San Franscisco and she will also be teaching the workshop. Anyway, here's a video:

The name pretty much says it all for Beatbox Guitar - one guy plays guitar (or whatever instrument he's playing in the clip below) while the other guy beatboxes to it. Cue video:

Anyway, that's what is happening this weekend

Progress...

This has been a productive week for me on a couple of different counts. There is still stuff I have to work on but That will come with time. Anyway, here we go.....

1. Update once a week. Well, here I am.... 7 for 7.
2. Get a new job. Earlier this week, I got a call from a recruiter for a company that found my resume on Monster.com. She asked me a bunch of questions that I realize now I should have prepared for (in general), I found it hard to answer those questions off the cuff, especially when she wanted me to expand on my answers. Anyway, it has given me questions to think about. Ultimately, after that phone call, I phoned someone else to set up a store visit to see if I wanted to go ahead with an interview. I went on the store visit yesterday, and it seemed like a good place to work. I will phone tomorrow to set up an interview. Also, yesterday I got an email letting me know that I am scheduled for French Language testing for a government job I applied for. I am not bilingual but I applied for the job because it said they were looking for people with varying language abilities. Also, yesterday, I bought software to help improve my typing abilities. My sister mocked me because I was disappointment that I haven't improved in the last 24 hours.
3. Room cleaning. Okay, looking at my floor my room ain't so clean. Neither is the floor in the bathroom.  I did put the dance stuff I'm not using in the container I bought last week. I also got most of the stuff I need for the upcoming show together. I just need to wash the pants and I'm good. I bought a file organizer for my papers, I don't know exactly where is a good place for it right now, I'll have to think about it. I also need to actually put my papers in it. I keep buying stuff and then thinking of something else that would be good to have. Now that I bought a file organizer, it occurs to me that an entertainment stand for my DVDs would be good. Right now they are just stacked up by my TV, Or on my computer desk. Or upstairs in Colette's entertainment stand (which is getting quite full). I think a trip to IKEA is in my future. My last couch is getting cleaner, more work needs to be done with it. I also need to redo the chair. 
4. Lose weight. It appears that I gained weight this week, sadly. It's not entirely surprising since I made cookies today. I'll have to pay attention to how many cookies I eat this week, instead of gorging on them like I normally do. 
5. Go to the gym twice a week. Once again, I managed to go to the gym three times this week. I am going to see if I can up it to four this week. 
6. Go through old books and clothes. Not much happened on this front. I did stop myself from buying two books when I was at the book store this week. I realized I should check for the eBook before I buy a hard copy. I did manage to find it online so that's two less books I have floating around the house. 
7. Swear less. Yeah, um, not so much this week. 
8. Dance practice. I don't think I practised every day but I did practice a couple of days this week. I also bought myself a new MP3 player which should help. I had an hour and a half rehearsal on Friday night as well.

Anyway, not much else happened this week. Happy Valentine's Day!!!