Admittedly, I've not been as good with updating as I originally intended to be!
Happy 2018, readers. I hope you, like me, have come to the realization that "New Year's Resolutions" are best made at any time throughout the year, when you feel most driven to make healthy, important changes in your life. I made by last resolution some time in the fall last year. My latest resolution is to let go of my inner critic. I tend to be very hard on myself with most things in life and will let myself down if I don't attain a certain goal by a certain deadline, or if I don't get everyone on the planet to like me. I don't know if it's just me getting older, but it is slowly getting easier to just slow down and let the stupid things roll off my back and focus on the more important things in life (family, health, friends, happiness). What resolutions have you made for yourself lately?
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Now that I've figured out how to post updates from my phone, I hope to be writing more often!
The once-monthly newsletter I started may turn in to more of a quarterly newsletter, as my schedule is fortunately being filled with new friends and activities that are keeping me extraordinarily busy. I just arrived about 30 minutes ago to Toronto from Windsor, on probably the smallest plane I've ever flown. I can't remember boarding a plane from the tarmac and not from the boarding gate directly. That goes to show either A) how infrequently I fly, or B) my inexperience with smaller, lesser known airlines! I sat next to an older woman named Henrietta, who was probably in her seventies. We immediately engaged in conversation from the moment I took my seat next to her on the aisle. I found out she got three music degrees, was a mezzo soprano, and basically lived and breathed singing. She told me about her favorite pieces, those she both loved to perform and loved to teach. She told me about her son Steven, who created four or five different companies and merged them into one, and sold the company at the age of 39, and retired promptly thereafter. She was so warm and pleasant, she made me forget entirely any anxiety I had about the flight itself. The glass of wine the stewardess brought me helped a bit, too... Now I wait to board the connecting flight to Montreal. I'm looking forward to experiencing a new city with so much culture. The break couldn't come at a better time. I've gone and experienced a little bit of an internet blackout of sorts.
The new(ish) modem I've been using for the past year or two took a dive - I therefore was forced to take a bit of a blogging break. But - after the necessary time spent on the phone with support, and $10 in shipping costs later, we're back up and running! Whew. Not sure how long I'd have been able to last without being able to use my desktop. The first day sans-internet was pretty damn productive, though. I spent the majority of that Saturday deep cleaning my house, and it felt great, exhausting though it was. Now that I'm connected again, I hope to be posting on a more regular basis. :) By the way, I turned 30 recently too! I spent the day surrounded by my closest friends, and we played an array of board games, from Taboo to CodeNames. All of them were most enjoyable. I've decided that I need to add to my board game collection, as I have several that I rarely play and the ones I've been enjoying most recently are not yet in my possession. There's a board game store I hope to visit soon nearby. Maybe a trip there will allow me to expand my collection. It's 6:42 and I haven't gone for a run in several days (birthday excuse), so I'm off to hopefully burn away the apple pie, cupcakes and beer that I've ingested over the past few days. Something tells me it's going to take a little more than an hour on the treadmill to burn all of that off, though. Welp, you'd think working in a profession that involves domain transfers, I'd have thought the whole e-mail setup process through after launching this new website.
Nope. So, I connected the dots and did some Googling, only to find that I had not tied my new domain to my Google email account. So - all day yesterday, I received no emails at my new address. This was especially worrisome as I had just shared the link to the blog with my family and wanted to make sure I received any and all form/email notifications that were generated off the site. The sad part is, I deal with this all the time at work and should have thought this through after I launched the domain. I'm no domain expert - but I did know that there's more work to do than simply picking a domain and choosing what email address you would like to use for that website. You need to add the appropriate e-mail MX records to the domain host/provider so the two can sync up. Derp. At least it will be in the forefront of my mind with the next site I launch. Speaking of which, what should that be about? Right now, my thoughts are creating a French language blog (I know there are a lot out there, but maybe one that focuses on French activities around the Michigan area too, to help locals find language learning resources). This particular topic has been weighing quite heavily on my mind.
Specifically, the changes I've implemented lately (increasing student loan repayment amounts) has caused quite a setback in my budget, and I'm brainstorming ways to either A) increase my income or B) cut back. The difficult part for me is to identify which ways I want to spend my extra time, to earn the extra income. Finding a side job that I'm not interested in is not an option - I need fulfillment in my life and the feeling that I am wasting away precious time on a meaningless job is not worth it, to me. I have always operated with a "do what you have to do to get by" kind of mindset, which was an okay way to fill my pockets, but left me feeling empty and/or exhausted at the end of the day. I've even considered taking part in those take-a-survey-and-get-paid opportunities, but this would again fall under the category of wasting my time. I'll be honest with you - I enjoy spending money. A lot. My last (relatively) large purchase was a battery-operated weed whacker, which was (in my mind) a necessary expenditure. Yes, I had one already, but it was not cordless. I live in one of those ancient houses that have no outdoor outlets - so the cord had to be plugged in from the inside of the house, and would have to be finagled around me as I cleaned up the front and back yards. It only got me so far in the backyard before I had no further cord left - thus came my decision to go cordless. If it improves my quality of life, I consider that a necessary expenditure. I could have it much worse than I actually do - I know that and I try to remind myself every day that I am lucky to be where I'm at. However... I know I can do better at saving and investing my money in the right places. It's going to take more effort and creativity on my end to figure out where to go from here. The long-awaited beginning to my Blog journey has begun.
I'm thrilled to be getting back into writing... but also somewhat anxious (surprise, surprise). Anxious that I won't be able to keep this up on a regular basis... but I'm determined to anyway. I should have maybe saved the first post for the morning...when the caffeine has just started to hit and my creativity levels are at their all-time highest for the day. The beer I drank earlier has made me tired and sluggish...so let this only serve to be the official first post of what I hope to be a long and fruitful journey. Until next time... |
AuthorAn owner of two cats, a lover of coffee and The Beatles, a crossword fanatic and choir nerd at heart (among many other things). Archives
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