specifically

It's been about a month since our last goal check-in, and I am feeling like my goals were a little too vague. I didn't really plan any steps to reaching them... oops, actually I did. I just didn't schedule those plans, so they didn't happen. anyways...
Now to revisit, get specific, and schedule next steps!

creativity + productivity
Specific goals: Utilize my studio space on a regular basis, to a) create some artistic work & b) make the monetary investment of rent worthwhile. I want to create some project-specific goals in the near future, like do more portraits.
Plan: Studio Wednesdays! I will make Wednesday evenings my time that I have to go to the studio. Starting tomorrow. Also, plan Syd's session.

abolishing the snooze button
Specific goal: I want to go to bed at a reasonable hour so that I can wake up happy and rested when my alarm goes off, turn off the alarm, and get out of bed!
Plan: I think Andy & I need to rearrange the bedroom so that we can both have end tables. I will talk to him about that tonight.

being healthy + glowing + awake
Specific goals: I want to build more muscle and lose my extra fat. I want clear skin. I want to have a clean bill of health. I want to fill out my health insurance application and get signed up!
Plan: I've begun biking to work! So there's cardio. Now I need to throw in some sit-ups, something to work my wiggly triceps, and other strength exercises. Any suggestions? Maybe ballet! I've been drinking a lot more water lately--even before this April heatwave--so I am hoping that will have positive effects. I am reading "You: Being Beautiful" which seems to have some good tips sprinkled amidst a lot of ideas I don't agree with. I'm only in part 1, so I'll let you know what I discover. Lastly, I'll call my agent this week to see if he can help me fill out my form.

conquering my apparent fear of housework
I am skipping this one for now because I can only do so much at a time. The kitchen looks great still and we don't live in a sty. Our apartment is just untidy!

being reliable + available
Specific goals: Be a person that people can count on to not leave them hanging, even if my answer is "no." Be on time. Take care of my day-to-day business promptly so that I'm available for anything exciting or urgent that may come up.
Plan: This one's hard to nail down! I know I can do all of it but the specific plan is eluding me... I'll just pick a couple specific things I can do: Be on time for work & appointments. Continue using my planner & don't procrastinate on what I've written in it!

getting a job that i love
skip. I'm happy & busy & really enjoying the long bike commute. I was just thinking, "Oh that would suck to work downtown 'cause then I wouldn't have to ride as far." So I'll just stay put for now.

nourishing my relationships
Specific goals: I actually have really specific goals for this one. I'm supposed to hang out with Richard soon. I've got a date with the fam for the Ducky Derby (You could come, too!). I need to write my cousin a letter.
Plan: Call Richard & my mom. I put my cousin's letter in my planner as a to-do this weekend.

collaborating
I actually did go visit that guy I was talking about last time! He told me to work on shooting in fully manual mode (I use aperture priority right now).

becoming debt-free
Specific goal: Obvious.
Plan: Balance my checkbook tonight and plan out the next month.

continuing my education
Arg. I really want to say "skip" but I know that getting back into school in a reasonable amount of time (read: Fall 2010) could be difficult if I don't take the GRE this year. So,
Specific goals: Learn about the GRE. Take a GRE practice test. Study for the GRE. Pass the GRE with flying colors!
Plan: Sign up for a free test. Use the book you lent me to study.


It was good to get back into these!
Man, how quick does a month go by?!

take that, credit report!

I just finished paying off my credit card debt!
Woohoo!
Only a couple more bills to go!

grips 'n' gears, who needs em?

My cruiser loves me! The feeling is mutual.

My happy news is that I went ahead and did a test ride to work & back last Saturday!
After Andy & I went on a long ride a couple weekends ago, I decided maybe the cruiser could handle the trek--and I wouldn't have to wait for my purchase of a nicer commuter bike. It was a lot of fun and only took me about an hour each way. As much as I love the cruiser -- gears, grips, and a 'tween-the-crotch water bottle holder are definitely on my wishlist. Oh! and, strange to say, I'd be down for some bike shorts with the padding between the legs. Or corn starch. Oh god, am I going to become one of those biker types?

So, now that I know I can do it, I think I need to suck it up and just start doing it. And cancel the gym membership I never use. I was thinking it would be interesting to keep a running tally of the tons of CO2 that I avoid emitting from my Honda. I'm trying to figure out my car's emissions but I'm not 100% sure about the data I've gotten yet. Maybe you know something about this?

I went to CarbonFootprint.com and went to their home calculator. I set the time span for 1 year, then under the "car" tab, I entered "12,000" as my mileage for that time period, then entered my car's efficiency at 23 miles to the gallon. It told me that I emitted 4.57 tons of CO2 last year. ugh. Bill Chameides of the Environmental Defense Fund explains one way of visualizing the gas in his Climate 411 blog post, Picturing a Ton of CO2. I finally get it. I'm just curious to verify the information I got from the CarbonFootprint.com calculator. You can't believe everything you read on the internet... or can you?

Anyways, assuming the information is correct...

1 year : 12,000 miles : 4.57 tons CO2
and
1 day : 19.8 miles : 0.0075409 tons CO2

Math!
1 day of work: 19.8 miles roundtrip
Approx. 244 days of work last year: 4,831.2 miles total
4,831.2 miles/12,000 miles = 1.84 tons/4.57 tons
1.84 tons/244 days = 0.0075409 tons/day

So far my tally is at zero. Time to get on the bike!

pesto tortellini

Image from CanaryGirl's Vox food blog. yum. I knew I shoulda taken my own picture last night!

You said you don't like any of the food you have made so far. Maybe you will like this. We made it last night & it was soooo good. We love buying the pre-made pesto (yay Buitoni! don't go for store-brand on this stuff) and we always eat it with cheese tortellini (frozen store-brand has treated us well so far on these). Last night we made the pesto from scratch!

First, go out and get yourself an herb cutter, food processor, or blender. I started out chopping the ingredients, thinking I could do it fine with a knife. I relented and brought out the blender and it made a nice creamy sauce (not too creamy though - pesto does have some texture).

Homemade Pesto Sauce

1 cup basil leaves, loosely packed
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp pine nuts or walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Salt & pepper to taste

The instructions are simple and you can't really mess it up, especially since the sauce requires no cooking. Chop, mince, dice, tear, blend, puree, whatever! until everything is teeny and mixed up and sauce-like. To save time, put your water on to boil & cook 2 servings of your favorite pasta while you make the sauce. It doesn't seem to yield a lot of sauce but once you stir it all into the cooked pasta it gives it a pretty good coating all around. And you don't want to overdo the sauce:pasta ratio 'cause that raw garlic sure has a kick! (in a good way). We ate our pesto tortellini with a little salad with all the yummies on it like tomato, a bit of avo, croutons, etc.

If you end up trying the recipe, let me know what you think!

bike to work week

Have I told you about Pictures from a Bike?
The blogger is an Aptos woman who used to bike to work in SC every day before she became pregnant with twins last fall. And she stops to take pictures along the way!
I can't even remember the author's name (don't know if I ever knew it), but I just thanked her via comment for the inspiration she has been providing for months now. I think I discovered her last summer, and have since had this tiny idea that maybe one day I would do the same commute in reverse every day and we would wave 'hi' to each other on our way to work. And then maybe she'd let me post my own pictures-from-a-bike, too! I have commented on her blog a couple times before and she was very nice with her response.
The important part is that I've set a date for beginning to bike to work. You may have heard of it, it's this thing called Bike to Work Week. A fitting name, I guess. So now comes the legwork of finding a suitable bike, purchasing it, getting a snazzy helmet & gloves & whatnot, and doing a few practice rides on the weekend. eek - lots to do. All of a sudden May 12th doesn't seem so far away!

the ukulele is blowing up

I totally agree with you.

you lucky duck

I'm supposed to be sharing One Year with you, soooo...
A WHOLE THREE WEEKS PACKED INTO ONE POST!

Week 2: Schedules & Routines

- Get a planner. Consult it often! Remember, it only works when you actually write stuff in it.
- Identify scenes in your life that play out again and again that suck up your time. Put a routine in place to eliminate those scenes. ex. Lost keys all the time. Get a key hook. Make it a Habit to always place your keys on it.
- Learn to say "no" when you need to, in order to create balance between all aspects of your life (including rest and me-time). This step has two sides.
1. You don't have to be responsible for everything, for everyone. If you need some rest, you will be surprised to see that other people can handle what you decide not to (aka moving your friend's couch or something).
2. You think you can do things better or faster than other people ("This project is my baby and no one else touches it!" OR "It'll be easier if I just do it"). Let it go, if necessary. Giving up one responsibility frees up room to learn something new. I just went through this at work. The one thing I totally love doing is putting together the weekly email blast for one of our clients. They recently told us they will soon be doing them in-house to save $. I was like "Damnit! My one joy, gone!" but then I remembered this advice from One Year and I can only look forward to what I will be learning next.

Week 3: Kitchen Questions

- What specifically do you like & dislike about your kitchen?
- How do you use it currently? How do you want to use it & how often?
- What changes can you make to fix the things you dislike?
- Do a speed elimination to get rid of junk and duplicates. Go through every space in the kitchen super fast & get all the crap out!
- Invest in kitchen organizing tools that make sense for your needs. ex. drawer and shelf dividers, stool to reach high areas, spice rack, food canisters, stacking totes, spice rack, caddy for cleaning supplies.

Week 4: Whip that Kitchen into Shape

- Divide your kitchen and its contents into Zones: Regina says: Prep/Cook, Bake, Clean-up/Store but I'd like to add Serve to the list, 'cause when I was organizing our kitchen I discovered placemats and serving dishes and they didn't really fit with anything else.
- So you've separated your kitchen tools into categories--now don't forget to tidy up the pantry/cupboards. Organize your food! ex. baking supplies, snacks, soups & chili, canned veggies, pasta & sauces, etc.
- When you clean the kitchen, don't forget the fridge--inside & out! Visual clutter causes mental clutter.
- Don't be a wimp! Tackle the whole room, even scary areas like under the sink. This goes for every project you take on. Don't do it half-assed!
- Keep a paper pad handy to serve as a shopping list. You should be able to find it and add to it easily.

I've been traveling through One Year like my name was Marty McFly. No worries--still making progress!