Day 113: My Lifetime Horroscope...it ain't pretty

Allow me to rant. Actually, I can do what I want here because it's my blog. Hah.

Okay, so for the few of you who actually read this, Katie & Rian, my dad, Katie S, Neil...(is my boyfriend even reading these anymore? unlikely), I feel comfortable enough with you guys to let some nervous energy go...

I'm starting my moody teenager phase that, to the blessing of my parents and chagrin of my boyfriend, is occurring during my early twenties. I started this project to bring some jazz into my life, spice it up, make it fun, but due to the fact that I have a 9-5, a yoga practice I'm trying to maintain and a relationship that needs a healthy amount of attention (NOT doing New Things), I'm just failing. Miserably.

A story. Not long after I started this, someone told me that I could make money off the blog with advertising. I had never thought of that before, but the idea was infectious, and I thought about it a LOT. I don't think this blog is the best place for making money, so I started a new website that would be useful for such a venture (which I haven't launched yet). THEN, I read Tim Ferris's book "The 4-Hour Workweek," about the fact that I should have a REAL product, not just a website, and that in doing so, I could quit my job, work less and make more. The life! (The lies!)

And now I have a bajillion project and ideas floating around in my brain and in the cyberworld, in an attempt to enjoy my life and get out of this 9-5 nonsense.

And I'm not enjoying my life.


Le sigh.

So somewhere along the way today, I saw something about how my "Birth Chart" will tell me what my natural strengths and inclinations are, like a sort of "lifetime horoscope" and I thought, why the hell not?? I can't figure it out on my own, so rely on the stars, right?

Well, what I found was troubling.

Quotes from my Birth Chart: 

"Not all Virgos are workaholics. However, when Virgos are not involved in some kind of project, there is generally a vague feeling of discontent. Even when their lives are filled up with work, they are restless and somewhat nervous creatures. The fear of under-performing is often strong."

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be stuck in this rut of project idea to project idea forever...and I'll never be content.

"The work that you do, and the services that you offer, are very important to your sense of identity."

Expressed this way, it makes sense of all that I feel about a career. It is my identity. I can't just do something for eight hours a day and let it mean nothing about me. Personality flaw? Yep. Ingrained in my birth chart.


"Your identity rides on your sense of personal freedom. It can be quite a challenge to get you to do what you don't want to do, simply because you see any attempts by others to push you in a certain direction as threatening to your sense of freedom."

Yes, don't tell me what I could be good at for a career. I'll rule it out immediately because I didn't think of it on my own.


The kicker:


"It can be difficult to hold a 9 to 5 job or to develop steady routines. You work best when you can manage your own schedule, and you work in spurts. When you are hit with creative inspiration, you are capable of tremendous effort. However, you can be quite temperamental, and it is very hard for you to pour your heart and soul into something that you don't "feel" for at the moment."

Hence, my lack of enthusiasm for doing New Things right now. But today, I looked at my birth chart.

Oy...

vey...

I'm scared I'll never change...but I hope I "feel" it tomorrow.

Day 112: Playin' Hooky from Work

I have reeeeallly loved these three day weeks and weekend that I've been having due to the holiday season.

For most of the month of December, there's been a "Do Not Disturb" sign on my body and mind, but now the working world keeps knocking at my door giving me the wake-up call I asked for and knew was coming, and I'm digging myself back into the sheets. No need for me to say, "I can't help it," because I know I can, but it's hard.


So, on Day 112, I was facing a full and solid month of work--no vacations from here til summer. This is not acceptable to my still-a-little-out-of-touch body and mind. I decided to remedy this feeling by using a long-overdue gift from my birthday (112 days ago) and playing hooky to get a facial at Facelogic. Now, I don't get enough paid-time-off days to really play hooky for a full day, but I did leave around 3:45, telling my co-workers I was getting my car serviced (which does in fact need to be done), which makes me a workplace liar and hooky-player.

Go me!


I've been really good so far in the working world, staying as long as I need to to get the job done, being honest about my whereabouts and not rocking the boat very much, so I deserved this. Ethics be damned--I'm a twenty something not having enough fun with her youth--let me play hooky for an hour.


I only wish that I had enough PTO to make a couple weeks out of every month a three-day weekend. In fact, I have a theory where I think I would be more productive if I worked five days a week and had a three day weekend EVERY weekend. It's a little clever scheduling, but I think it could work. Roll that idea around in your mind a little bit, and I think you'll start to like the idea that you'd have other days of the week off other than Saturday and Sunday and that playing hooky isn't necessary (but it is still awesome).

Day 111: My New Most Favorite TV Show of All Time

Day 111 was shaping up to be an "oh goodness, think of something you did during the day and turn it into a New Thing" until about 11:30 at night where I ran across "The Vice Guide to Everything" with the editors of the surely-now-famous Vice Magazine.

It blew my brains out with awesomeness. If God divined a show that would make me happier than anything in the world, he couldn't have come up with this show.

The Vice Guide to Everything travels the world examining elements of life that have secret stories or just a really freaking cool call to be illuminated. Episodes included Jamaican Dancehall night life, Pakistani gun markets, Indian call centers legal narco border control terrorists, house arrest in Libya, Colonel Butt Naked, stream of consciousness ("based") music, and hydraulic cars among other things.

Armed with a sense of cool unrivaled by any TV hosts ever (except maybe Anthony Bourdain), shown through a "True Life" lens, capturing incredible occurrences unable to ever be reproduced, it oozes awesome like you can't touch. I was literally on the edge of the couch, with my fingers up by my mouth, salivating at the incredible world we live in, yearning desperately to drive to the airport at midnight and catch the next flight anywhere.

Day 110: Peter Piper's (Stuffed) Peppers

On Day 110, I slow cooked stuffed peppers. As I may have mentioned before, I finally got some cookbooks for Christmas, so I'm putting them to use. Frankly, I don't know how to cook much of anything except boxed mac & cheese, so I'm truly seizing the opportunity to learn a couple things or two about cooking before I become a real adult. And yes, I'm still pretending I'm not a real adult yet.

And, because it begs to be asked, Mark fried up those plantains on the dish too. So. Delicious.

P.S. We love dinner guests :)

Day 109: Korean Karaoke

I didn't have very concrete New Year's Eve plans on day 108, until I got a text from an old friend and IANTM enthusiast, Katie.

Katie was the first person at UGA to take me under her wing. This was an especially big deal for me. I had enrolled at Tulane University for college, had moved in to the dorm, and on the same day was evacuated due to Hurricane Katrina. Due to the severity of the storm, classes were canceled for the semester and they suggested students enroll in a college to get started and return the next semester. I came to UGA (a month after the school year had started) and was stressed, depressed and friendless.

My only friends at UGA had decided they were on to new and different people in college, so I was alone.

I don't remember how Katie and I met, but immediately she invited me to a football game with her, introduced me to her friends and gave me confidence that I wasn't alone after all. She holds a very special place in my heart.

Katie has since moved to Florida for work, and although our relationship was rather relaxed in college, whenever we meet up, its seamless conversation. When she called with plans for NYE, I was thrilled that she was in town and hanging out with other friends and blog readers, Eric and Neil, and sure that the night would be easy and fun.

Our night took us to Do Re Mi karaoke. This karaoke place was distinctively Asian, in that you basically rent a room with a three-wall booth and another wall full of TV screens showing lyrics and semi-serious montages of Korean people. It's a "traditional"-ish way to do karaoke with friends and not embarrass yourself in front of anyone you don't want to.

Now when I say this place was Korean, I'm meaning really, really Korean. As in, every shop in the two-story story, U-shaped, 50-store strip mall had signs in Korean. Two of three of the remote controls had Korean text on them, the other one was in English. Of the three inch thick binder, only about a quarter of an inch of paper was dedicated to American songs, and we had to learn how to convert the subtitles into English.

Snacks? Puffed rice concoctions with various flavorings.

The whole strip mall even smelled like I was in a foreign country...and I loved it.

About the karaoke, it was a lot of fun, highlighed by a rendition of "A Whole New World" sung by Neil and Eric, a putting-Queen-to-shame version of Bohemian Rhapsody sung by Neil and Katie, and an uber-fail "Forgot about Dre" sung by Mark and I.

It's way easier to let go of your inhibitions when you are just in the company of friends. It takes far less beer to do the trick when you're sure that the people who are judging you won't stop liking you due to any infractions.

It was a fun, unique and new way to ring in 2011, complete with karoke of Auld Land Syne (it's tradition, after all).

Video to come later, as YouTube is being a pain in the rump.

 HAPPY 2011!!!!