Whoops. A little bit late.

I am a bit late this weekend. I wanted to get at least one of my goals done before I wrote my post this weekend, and I couldn't do it yesterday because I slept pretty much all day yesterday. I got it done today so we're good to go. So on to the resolutions...

1. Update once a week. Technically it's been 8 days since my last post but I figure as long as I post every weekend, it still counts. So, we're 5 for 5.
2. Get a new job. I actually had 3 call backs this week. That's about as far as it went. The first call back was from a company with a position in Edmonton. I'm not really ready to move across the country just yet, so that's where I left it. The second call back left a message, I tried calling back and left a voice mail, but I haven't heard anymore. The third one left a voice mail which I didn't find out about until Friday at 8pm which seemed like a poor time to call back. I'll call back first thing tomorrow. Fingers are crossed. I feel like I am making progress now though, so that's good.
3. Cleaning my room. Now that I look at what I wrote last week, I realize what hasn't been done. I have one of my chairs more organized, so that's progress. The last one, not so much. I really have to get to it though. Looking at what was on one of my chairs, I realize part of the problem is I don't have a specific place to put all of my dance stuff. Back home, I had a container that I would slide under my bed. It was convenient and it didn't take up the same amount of space. Next week for sure, I will clean my chair and clean up my floor clutter. 
4. Lose some weight. Still holding at the same weight. That doesn't really surprise me. I am happy I am not gaining weight at least. 
5. Go to the gym twice a week. Made it twice this week again. I may have gone a third time but I hurt my knee and decided to give it a rest. We'll see how I do this week. 
6. Go through old clothes and books. I brought my books in today, so that's progress. I didn't get much money for them but I am just happy they are out of my house at this point. This week I'll look at my clothes in the closet upstairs again and try to get the ones I don't want anymore out of the house.
7. Swear less. I don't know. I've noticed myself using the word 'fudge' a lot, but I've also noticed myself swearing. I definitely don't think I am swearing as much as I did before Christmas, so that's good.
8. Dance practice. I haven't practised everyday. I had a rehearsal with my teacher on Friday night for about an hour. She challenged me to choreograph a dance for myself. I think that is what I want to work on in the next few weeks. This week I want to go through some old videos or YouTube videos to look at moves and combinations, and practice the ones I like. It may help give me ideas when I choose which song I want to dance to.

So anyway, that was my week. Hopefully I'll do better next week.

Titles are hard..

Wow, I think updating once a week is working out much better than everyday. So far at least. The hardest part is thinking of a title...which I suck at. Pretty much a work and sleep sort of week again. I did go to the mall yesterday for a bit. I bought myself a scarf and a wallet, which I am happy with. I saw a similar wallet at the Bay last week but it was $70 and I didn't really want to pay that much. The wallet I bought was $40 less, which still means it was $30 but that is much better anyway. On to my resolutions.....

1. Update once a week. Yay, 4 for 4. I kind of want to write a non-resolution post sometime but who knows when that will happen.
2. Get a new job. I applied for a few more jobs this week. Haven't heard back from anywhere yet. I should look into computer and French language classes in the community or online to enhance my skills. The trouble with looking for a job in Ottawa is that everywhere seems to require some level of bilingualism and, while I understand and speak a little French, I am no where near bilingual and the French I do have is a bit rusty.
3. Cleaning my room. Well, my chairs have not been cleaned off yet, so that was a fail. I will try to get to it next week. I did go through my clothes shelves to organize and get rid of the stuff I don't need anymore. I should go through the closet upstairs and do the same thing. I did manage to put most of my clothes in the shelving unit, though I don't have a place for my underwear yet. Next weeks job, I guess. Also, my floor is getting cluttered again, so I should clean that up again.
4. Lose some weight. I am still holding steady at the same weight. I think I am now a couple pounds down but I am not really counting on it.
5. Go to the gym twice a week. Yay, I did it. I actually exceeded by going three times instead. YAY!!! Also, Tuesday morning I used the elliptical for the first time since probably September and I did better than I normally do. I don't know what unit of distance they use on the machines but whatever unit they use I went an entire one (km or mile or whatever) in under 10 minutes (if that makes any sense). Before it took over ten minutes for me to do that. I was pretty dead by the end but I was quite happy with myself.
6. Go through old clothes and books. As I said earlier in the post, I went through most of my clothes this week. Colette wants me to go through my books this week so I can take them in (and take hers too). So that's next weeks goal. It has the added bonus of getting them off my floor, so that helps my other goal.
7. Swear less. I have decided that this is a very hard goal to quantify. I figure I am going to have to start keeping track of how much I swear everyday and try to swear less each day. I don't think I am swearing as much as I did but it is very hard to judge.
8. Practice dance everyday. Hasn't happened this week. I did an hour and a half of practice with my teacher on Sunday because we are getting ready for a show. I have been practising my glut squeezes which probably sounds weird, but it is really hard and is something we use all the time. It helps when you try to shimmy while doing something else like a hip figure-eight. Now, squeezing the glut doesn't sound hard but trying to squeeze one than the other in rapid succession while doing something else can get complicated. I end up with a funny look on my face from trying so hard. So I have been practising every day. For a little bit anyway.

So that was my week. I have been a bit sidetracked the last two days because I got Lego Harry Potter for my DS and have gotten a bit addicted. Anyway, have a great week.

Some successes, some failures.

So, I was actually back at work this week, all five days in fact. My pay cheque wasn't as bad as I thought it would be based on the fact that I only worked one day in that pay period. Luckily, there was a statutory holiday in there. Not a whole lot else happened; as usual, the week pretty much consisted of working and sleeping. But here's how my resolutions went this week:

1. Update blog every week. So far so good. 3 down, 49 left to go.
2. Get a new job. This week, as far as job hunting goes, I applied for a few jobs. I also put my name in at some staffing agencies, such as Kelly Services, Adecco, and Randstad. Hopefully that will assist with the job finding process. 
3. Cleaning my room and keeping it clean. The floor is still visible, so yay. One of my chairs is mostly cleaned off. It has a couple of papers on it as well as the socks whose mates I can't find but other than that, it's good to go. I really have to reorganize my shelving unit. I have no room for anything more it in. So I guess that would also qualify as resolution #6. So that's my goal for next week, as well as tackling the other two chairs.
4. Lose some weight. Weighing my self this week, it looks like I lost some weight but I am pretty sure that I am holding steady at the same weight as before. I should really weigh myself when I wake up one day, before I eat anything, and use that as the base number.
5. Go to the gym twice per week. I actually made it to the gym twice this week. I was quite happy with myself. In addition, I went on a long walk Friday morning. I had to go to the bank by bus to fix some money issues. Unfortunately, a water main broke which created a sinkhole, so the main road was closed, which rerouted the buses. According to the website, the bus stop I would normally use was still in use (the detour was farther along), so I waited...and waited...and waited. I finally decided to walk down the street in the direction the bus would be coming from so I could get to the other main road and not miss the bus I wanted to take. I made it to the other main road and caught a different bus, but the walk was longer than I had expected. 
6. Go through old clothes and books. Not yet.
7. Swear less. I think I am swearing less but occasionally, one slips out. I am trying to pay more attention to the language I am using.
8. Practice dance everyday. Sadly, this did not happen this week, officially. I occasionally practice one of the exercises we use but it's usually while I am doing something else. I do think that move is getting better though.

So that's how I did this week. Hopefully, the giant sinkhole will be fixed soon, because I have to the bus to the bank again next week as my money saga continues to unfold.

Happy New Year!!!

Wow, it's been quite awhile since I've even attempted to write anything in this blog. Let's see if this time around goes any better.

Being that it's January 1st, New Year's Resolutions are going to be my focus. In this post, I will discuss what resolutions I've made. In subsequent posts, I hope to discuss any progress I've made with them. I won't have the resolution updates more than once a week, but I may post about other things in between.

Now for the resolutions.....

1. My first resolution is to update this blog at least once a week. I figure I should put that in writing. It's an easy resolution to keep track of and potentially easier to do than updating everyday.
2. Getting a new job. This has actually been my goal for awhile but hopefully by Dec. 31, 2011, I will in fact have a new job. I don't just want another fast food or retail job though. Every week, I will try to post about the job hunting progress I have made so far.
3. Cleaning my room and keeping it clean. Bwahahahahaha. This should be interesting. I hope to at least be able to see 85% of my floor at all times. Hopefully with this in writing, I will have the motivation to keep cleaning and maintaining the cleanliness. First step, unpacking from Christmas.
   
4. Lose some weight. I am putting this here without an actual number because I know how hard it is. I mostly want to lose some weight and keep it off. I am not going to post how much I weigh here but I am keeping track of it.
5. Related to the previous resolution, I want to go to the gym at least twice a week. Especially in the last two months, I have been really bad about going to the gym. Ideally I want to go to the gym up to three times a week but some weeks that doesn't work out.
6. Go through my clothes and books, and donate the ones I no longer need. I started going through my clothes in July and, not only did I not finish that part of it, they are still sitting where I left them. I just started going through my books before Christmas. I just have to donate those now.
7. Swear less. Even two years ago, this would not have been an issue. I just need to be aware of the language and words that I use.
8. Practice dance everyday. Oy. Considering I only tend to practice when I have a show to prepare for, this should be interesting. But I think get back to the basics should really help me improve.

I think that's a good start. Some of them may take more work than other but I think I can do it. I probably should have one there about watching less TV or being on the internet less but that might be a result of some of the other resolutions. Hopefully.

Fingers crossed. Here's to a great 2011!!!

Yay! Something for me!!!

My sister came home today. She brought me presents. That's was awesome! She wasn't sure what I would think of one of the things she got me, but I loved it even though I may never actually wear it for it's true purpose. It's a blue hat with coins on it and a veil like thingy that she bought in Turkey. I put it on when she first gave it to me three hours ago and haven't taken it off on purpose since. It's pretty awesome but I really don't know if I will be something I will be able to actually use. She also got me really nice fan, a small purse, and a ring/bracelet thing. She also gave me a really cool pillow covering. My other sister got me a woven bookmark which was pretty cool, a pendant and a magnet. I really enjoy getting things from different places in the world, although I am pretty sure I would enjoy seeing them up close and personal even more.

I so thought I could dance....

Tonight, I watched most of "So you think you can dance". I don't watch it often for a variety of reasons, but since I was home tonight and they were finally through the awkward pre-top 20 stage, I decided to watch. Those dancers are amazing. After watching them and seeing performance of Flamenco and amazing tribal dancers in various places, it really puts my own dancing in perspective. Specifically, the fact that I will never be at that level. It is a fact that I am perfectly okay with but it is still humbling to watch. So today's favourite thing is watching incredible dance performances.

Putting the fun in fundraiser.

Tonight I went to a fundraiser put on by my bellydance teacher. It was to raise funds to help the family of a friend of hers. Her friend was badly injured in a motorcycle accident in India and the medical bills related to transporting her back to the US were astronomical. Thus far, there have been a number of fundraisers throughout the United States and now in Canada. Many of the performers and audience members there tonight did not know the girl but were there to show their support anyways. It was a very good show with a variety of different types of performance, many of them bellydance related. Those not related to bellydance included live musicians, a DJ, a VJ, a "visual artist", a burlesque performance, hula hoopers (that was pretty awesome), a Bollywood dance, and some sort of jester dude (that was just odd). It was a pretty great evening and I thought all of the support for someone who was a complete stranger was phenomenal.

"Listen to the rhythm, don't be scared"

Today was my last Flamenco class of the year. I really like flamenco, although lately I have been having trouble getting my feet, hands, head and torso coordinated so as not to look like I am having trouble getting my feet, hands, head and torso coordinated. The frustration with the moves was getting me down but today I was reminded why I like the class. I still had trouble with the moves but my teacher brought in a guitarist to accompany us. There is just something about dancing to live music that makes things so much better. There is just this energy that is involved that reminds me why I love dancing. The first belly dance show I saw after I started taking classes was one that only had live musicians and drumming. It continues to be one of the best shows I've seen. After the main show, the drummers continued drumming and audience members were allowed to dance. I remember doing the same move over and over and over because I didn't know many others but I was just so wrapped up in the music and the rhythms that it really didn't matter. I am more likely to dance if there are other people dancing as well, but once I am up there I have the best time and time flys.