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bookofmirrorsWell, I haven't updated in a while, and I have both the time and the inclination right now, so I figured I'd better take advantage. Since it's been so long, I'll try to give the big picture overview.
Work:
I'm still working Monday-Thursday at David's office. I get to his house in the morning between 9:30am-10:00am, and generally leave the office around 6:00pm to take him home. This varies (more often later rather than earlier), but generally, it gives me enough time to run home and have dinner with
BlckwngdOrcl and run back for my evening job at the house. I get there between 9:30pm-10:00pm and get home around 1:00am. This part I do 7 nights a week, which is why, sadly, evening activities are out of the question for me.
I'm half-heartedly looking for another job to replace the office job. I want to do something in nursing, 3 12-hour days.
School:
I finished year three of Core Energetics. One year to go. I'm less and less enthused about it as time goes on, which is no fault of Core's, and I still fully believe in the process and the work. I'm just not in the MOOD anymore. That's worth a whole entry on its own, but I probably won't get around to it. There is an optional fifth year, which I lamented to Pam that I wanted to take to get the cred, but I had no interest at all any more in seeing (human) clients. She suggested that I could take the fifth year, and incorporate the animal communication rather than counseling humans. This intrigues me, and if I can tolerate the whole thing in general, I think I'd like to do that.
I'm still very interested in the animal communication classes. I've finished level one, and had a good experience with one reading, and a very bad experience with another reading. Since then, I feel like I've been blocking any communications. I'm continuing to take the classes, though. It turns out that the lady I took the original class from now offers teleclasses, and I can complete almost the entire series of courses online. I had already planned to go up in October for the shamanic class, and I'll still do that, but almost everything else can be done from here. Most are on-demand classes, but there are a few I need to be available at a specific time for; so far no problem with that.
Play:
Dreaming was lovely. I was in a very relaxed headspace the whole time, and the chronic tension in my shoulders just went away. Since then, I finally remember what it feels like for them NOT to be tense, and I can usually re-create that condition. It was fantastic to see all the people I hadn't seen in so long, and to remember just how much being a part of that community meant to me, and means to me. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate more of that in my life. I had a couple of revelations there.
Along with the quickie dinners with the Beastie, we're feeding ourselves a steady diet of DVR Star Trek. With a few exceptions (botched recordings), we've now watched the entire Enterprise series, and we're a couple of seasons into Voyager. We had also recorded the Dresden Files, which we never seemed to get around to watching, so I finally started watching them without him; they weren't spectacular, so I'm watching them and deleting them without sharing. I'm enjoying that.
I have "discovered" audiobooks for the Atlanta commute. I remember a long time ago
Isarma raving about them, but I never really got into trying it. However, on my last trip to Indiana, I was just really sick of the radio and my CDs, so I stopped at a Barnes and Noble in Noblesville and picked up an audio copy of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, and was completely engrossed the rest of the trip, and I've been hooked ever since. I've "read" some stuff I borrowed from David, mostly non-fiction (still hate Michael Moore, it would seem), and I went to the library and picked up a bunch of stuff that I figured I probably would never have read otherwise. I'm currently in the middle of Anna Karenina.
I finally started reading Atlas Shrugged, a gift from
GaeasSon, but I haven't gotten into it very far yet. I have to be in a mood to really pay attention, and normally I'm not. I think, however, the next time I go to the library, I'm going to see if I can grab an audio copy of it, 'cause I think I'll have better luck getting through it.
I have 3 more animal communication books in my collection to read before I've read everything I have on the subject (which is undboubtedly way more than most people have, or have even heard of). I also have a DVD to watch prior to my October class. I'm approaching that as almost sacred, and haven't taken the time to do it yet.
During bookstore dates with the husband, I've been re-reading the Harry Potter books. I've only finished 2 so far. I'm hoping for another date this week, maybe more, to finish the rest. I don't have my own copies, so I'm using Barnes and Noble as my personal library and coffee shop. :) I did splurge and pre-order the last one, though.
I haven't done much leisure since Dreaming. I've been relaxing a lot, and that's been a good thing. I need to do laundry and some other house-cleaning things, but I'm not freaking out about any of it. Maybe I should, then it would get done.
Animals:
My cats are fine. We're still fostering Romero for
BabyIrishCub. I'm pulling in a more experienced communicator to talk with him about some things. I get some pretty good impressions from him, but I can seem to clarify anything, and I can't seem to make it a two-way street, and there are a lot of things that need discussed. Hopefully doing so will give everyone involved a better idea of where to go from here.
Finances:
They come and go. The Beastie lost his job, and is looking for another. With luck, he'll be able to work with
Lupaloo, but that won't be for a while. I sat down and did a budget for us, which was both encouraging and frustrating. Encouraging, because it seems that we should have no trouble living on my salary alone. Frustrating because we haven't been doing so very well, which means we've been making some poor choices. And, in fact, there are times when I've just gotten scary-self-destructive about money. That needs to stop. I'm hoping that actually writing things down will help.
That being said, we did splurge in a couple of places, including putting LJ back to paid status.
IndigoSkyNet, I'm ready for my close-up!
Hair/Hygeine/Cleaning/Low Impact/Et Cetera:
I did the 3-week thing with my hair, using only conditioner to wash it, and I washed it twice a week with shampoo. The shampoo I used was actually of the poo-less variety, with the conditioner that went with it. The website is here, but I can't link to the actual products; we use the Italian red grape. The fact was that my hair felt greasy to me most days, and didn't look all that hot to me. The curls were certainly coming out, but I noticed that I liked my hair most on the days I shampooed it. I would leave the conditioner in my hair to keep it moist and as the styling gel, and I really loved the way it looked on those days. So, about a week ago, I started washing my hair every day again with shampoo. I mean, it's still the good, won't-strip-your-hair stuff, so it's OK and all, and I made sure to use it as I was using it before. But, lo and behold, washing it every day started to dry it again. So, I'm thinking about doing the every other day thing. It's still a work in progress for me. I'm not sure if I'll go back to the baking soda and vinegar thing or not... since I'm planning on going to pretty much all-natural with other stuff, I can't say that I'm chastising myself much on splurging on shampoo/conditioner.
Speaking of which, I made this ridiculously obvious discovery the other day. I love the company that makes the shampoo/conditioner so much, I decided to get their soaps, too. It's turned out that the liquid soaps come out all foamy, which I looooove for hand soap, but notsomuch for shower soap. So, I'm in the shower the other day, when I suddenly wanna smack myself for not realizing how much less impact bar soap has on the environment. So, that'll be the next purchase. I can't believe how long it took me to figure that one out. Bleh.
I've decided I'm just plain allergic to any lotion I use for more than a day or two. Even the sunscreen I used at Dreaming made me break out in a rash. I initially mistook it for a mild sunburn, but it became clear this wasn't the case. And the sunscreen was all natural, and mild, an' shit, so I figure I'm doomed. I will likely be giving away any extra lotions, bath soaks, etc. I have (nothing fancy, mind you), if anyone wants them. Otherwise, I might use them on special occassions. One day doesn't seem to hurt me. Sadly, though, once the rash starts, nothing but the prescription stuff (nystatin/triamcinolone) seems to work. I'll just have to do better about keeping myself well-hydrated, I guess.
I'm struggling with the deodorant issue. I think there are some people on my friends list who use alternate methods, or nothing at all. Care to expound on this - your thoughts and experiences?
I haven't yet run out of my old household cleaners to start using all natural stuff yet. However, I totally wanna make my own laundry detergent - I've found some stuff online for this, and I'm excited about it, especially since I do laundry almost every night (my work clothes). Anyone have any experience with this? I wanna make the liquid kind, so I can add essential oils for scent, but the powdered looks to be a lot more convenient, so I might just do that.
Today:
About 10 minutes before I saw the post about The Reef's Fourth of July get-together, we had called the Beastie's parents to see what was going on at their place, and had agreed to stop by there. However, I woke up today at about 11am, grabbed some breakfast and watched an episode of the Dresden Files and crawled back into bed. The Beastie and I ended up sleeping until 3pm, and we were both feeling incredibly lazy, so we called and cancelled the visit. I hope everyone's having a great Fourth. I'm quite enjoying what I'm doing, which is typing around a warm gray cat, periodically touching and smiling at my husband, who's on his computer next to me. When we did finally get up, we had omelettes and watched the last episodes of Enterprise, which made me cry. Later, I'm going to make something out of the bananas that have gone black, and I do have to work tonight. I love having virtually no plans.
In Closing:
I was going to write more, but I'm ready to go and do something else. This is the longest I've written in a while. Perhaps not much of an update, but hopefully I'll get back into that as time goes on. I've been making sure to keep up with other LJs since Dreaming, my attempt to get back into the community even when I'm not out and about as much as I'd like to be sometimes.
Hasta!
Work:
I'm still working Monday-Thursday at David's office. I get to his house in the morning between 9:30am-10:00am, and generally leave the office around 6:00pm to take him home. This varies (more often later rather than earlier), but generally, it gives me enough time to run home and have dinner with
BlckwngdOrcl and run back for my evening job at the house. I get there between 9:30pm-10:00pm and get home around 1:00am. This part I do 7 nights a week, which is why, sadly, evening activities are out of the question for me.I'm half-heartedly looking for another job to replace the office job. I want to do something in nursing, 3 12-hour days.
School:
I finished year three of Core Energetics. One year to go. I'm less and less enthused about it as time goes on, which is no fault of Core's, and I still fully believe in the process and the work. I'm just not in the MOOD anymore. That's worth a whole entry on its own, but I probably won't get around to it. There is an optional fifth year, which I lamented to Pam that I wanted to take to get the cred, but I had no interest at all any more in seeing (human) clients. She suggested that I could take the fifth year, and incorporate the animal communication rather than counseling humans. This intrigues me, and if I can tolerate the whole thing in general, I think I'd like to do that.
I'm still very interested in the animal communication classes. I've finished level one, and had a good experience with one reading, and a very bad experience with another reading. Since then, I feel like I've been blocking any communications. I'm continuing to take the classes, though. It turns out that the lady I took the original class from now offers teleclasses, and I can complete almost the entire series of courses online. I had already planned to go up in October for the shamanic class, and I'll still do that, but almost everything else can be done from here. Most are on-demand classes, but there are a few I need to be available at a specific time for; so far no problem with that.
Play:
Dreaming was lovely. I was in a very relaxed headspace the whole time, and the chronic tension in my shoulders just went away. Since then, I finally remember what it feels like for them NOT to be tense, and I can usually re-create that condition. It was fantastic to see all the people I hadn't seen in so long, and to remember just how much being a part of that community meant to me, and means to me. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate more of that in my life. I had a couple of revelations there.
Along with the quickie dinners with the Beastie, we're feeding ourselves a steady diet of DVR Star Trek. With a few exceptions (botched recordings), we've now watched the entire Enterprise series, and we're a couple of seasons into Voyager. We had also recorded the Dresden Files, which we never seemed to get around to watching, so I finally started watching them without him; they weren't spectacular, so I'm watching them and deleting them without sharing. I'm enjoying that.
I have "discovered" audiobooks for the Atlanta commute. I remember a long time ago
Isarma raving about them, but I never really got into trying it. However, on my last trip to Indiana, I was just really sick of the radio and my CDs, so I stopped at a Barnes and Noble in Noblesville and picked up an audio copy of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, and was completely engrossed the rest of the trip, and I've been hooked ever since. I've "read" some stuff I borrowed from David, mostly non-fiction (still hate Michael Moore, it would seem), and I went to the library and picked up a bunch of stuff that I figured I probably would never have read otherwise. I'm currently in the middle of Anna Karenina. I finally started reading Atlas Shrugged, a gift from
GaeasSon, but I haven't gotten into it very far yet. I have to be in a mood to really pay attention, and normally I'm not. I think, however, the next time I go to the library, I'm going to see if I can grab an audio copy of it, 'cause I think I'll have better luck getting through it.I have 3 more animal communication books in my collection to read before I've read everything I have on the subject (which is undboubtedly way more than most people have, or have even heard of). I also have a DVD to watch prior to my October class. I'm approaching that as almost sacred, and haven't taken the time to do it yet.
During bookstore dates with the husband, I've been re-reading the Harry Potter books. I've only finished 2 so far. I'm hoping for another date this week, maybe more, to finish the rest. I don't have my own copies, so I'm using Barnes and Noble as my personal library and coffee shop. :) I did splurge and pre-order the last one, though.
I haven't done much leisure since Dreaming. I've been relaxing a lot, and that's been a good thing. I need to do laundry and some other house-cleaning things, but I'm not freaking out about any of it. Maybe I should, then it would get done.
Animals:
My cats are fine. We're still fostering Romero for
BabyIrishCub. I'm pulling in a more experienced communicator to talk with him about some things. I get some pretty good impressions from him, but I can seem to clarify anything, and I can't seem to make it a two-way street, and there are a lot of things that need discussed. Hopefully doing so will give everyone involved a better idea of where to go from here. Finances:
They come and go. The Beastie lost his job, and is looking for another. With luck, he'll be able to work with
Lupaloo, but that won't be for a while. I sat down and did a budget for us, which was both encouraging and frustrating. Encouraging, because it seems that we should have no trouble living on my salary alone. Frustrating because we haven't been doing so very well, which means we've been making some poor choices. And, in fact, there are times when I've just gotten scary-self-destructive about money. That needs to stop. I'm hoping that actually writing things down will help.That being said, we did splurge in a couple of places, including putting LJ back to paid status.
IndigoSkyNet, I'm ready for my close-up!Hair/Hygeine/Cleaning/Low Impact/Et Cetera:
I did the 3-week thing with my hair, using only conditioner to wash it, and I washed it twice a week with shampoo. The shampoo I used was actually of the poo-less variety, with the conditioner that went with it. The website is here, but I can't link to the actual products; we use the Italian red grape. The fact was that my hair felt greasy to me most days, and didn't look all that hot to me. The curls were certainly coming out, but I noticed that I liked my hair most on the days I shampooed it. I would leave the conditioner in my hair to keep it moist and as the styling gel, and I really loved the way it looked on those days. So, about a week ago, I started washing my hair every day again with shampoo. I mean, it's still the good, won't-strip-your-hair stuff, so it's OK and all, and I made sure to use it as I was using it before. But, lo and behold, washing it every day started to dry it again. So, I'm thinking about doing the every other day thing. It's still a work in progress for me. I'm not sure if I'll go back to the baking soda and vinegar thing or not... since I'm planning on going to pretty much all-natural with other stuff, I can't say that I'm chastising myself much on splurging on shampoo/conditioner.
Speaking of which, I made this ridiculously obvious discovery the other day. I love the company that makes the shampoo/conditioner so much, I decided to get their soaps, too. It's turned out that the liquid soaps come out all foamy, which I looooove for hand soap, but notsomuch for shower soap. So, I'm in the shower the other day, when I suddenly wanna smack myself for not realizing how much less impact bar soap has on the environment. So, that'll be the next purchase. I can't believe how long it took me to figure that one out. Bleh.
I've decided I'm just plain allergic to any lotion I use for more than a day or two. Even the sunscreen I used at Dreaming made me break out in a rash. I initially mistook it for a mild sunburn, but it became clear this wasn't the case. And the sunscreen was all natural, and mild, an' shit, so I figure I'm doomed. I will likely be giving away any extra lotions, bath soaks, etc. I have (nothing fancy, mind you), if anyone wants them. Otherwise, I might use them on special occassions. One day doesn't seem to hurt me. Sadly, though, once the rash starts, nothing but the prescription stuff (nystatin/triamcinolone) seems to work. I'll just have to do better about keeping myself well-hydrated, I guess.
I'm struggling with the deodorant issue. I think there are some people on my friends list who use alternate methods, or nothing at all. Care to expound on this - your thoughts and experiences?
I haven't yet run out of my old household cleaners to start using all natural stuff yet. However, I totally wanna make my own laundry detergent - I've found some stuff online for this, and I'm excited about it, especially since I do laundry almost every night (my work clothes). Anyone have any experience with this? I wanna make the liquid kind, so I can add essential oils for scent, but the powdered looks to be a lot more convenient, so I might just do that.
Today:
About 10 minutes before I saw the post about The Reef's Fourth of July get-together, we had called the Beastie's parents to see what was going on at their place, and had agreed to stop by there. However, I woke up today at about 11am, grabbed some breakfast and watched an episode of the Dresden Files and crawled back into bed. The Beastie and I ended up sleeping until 3pm, and we were both feeling incredibly lazy, so we called and cancelled the visit. I hope everyone's having a great Fourth. I'm quite enjoying what I'm doing, which is typing around a warm gray cat, periodically touching and smiling at my husband, who's on his computer next to me. When we did finally get up, we had omelettes and watched the last episodes of Enterprise, which made me cry. Later, I'm going to make something out of the bananas that have gone black, and I do have to work tonight. I love having virtually no plans.
In Closing:
I was going to write more, but I'm ready to go and do something else. This is the longest I've written in a while. Perhaps not much of an update, but hopefully I'll get back into that as time goes on. I've been making sure to keep up with other LJs since Dreaming, my attempt to get back into the community even when I'm not out and about as much as I'd like to be sometimes.
Hasta!
