14,000

On my goal to clean out my white shelf, I found my book called "14,000 things to be happy about." Let me just say, I did have any intention of buying it, and yet here I am 3 years later, perusing the pages because my boyfriend at the time thought I should have something to cheer me up when I'm in my "destructive sadness". Which is to say, when it's that time of the month for us ladies. Anyroad...for the rest of the summer, I will post 5 things I picked out of the book that made my day. Here is today's list.

The Beach Boys (488)

Strawberry Sandwiches (145)

Long Socks (65)

City Squares (209)

Tea Kettles (2)

(postponed) spring cleaning: part deux

Here we are with the second installment of my Spring Cleaning. After much ado, I now have the time and energy to dedicate myself to minimizing my belongings, so it won't be much of a burden when I move next spring. My strategy is to be minimal, yet make sure to keep all the objects I'm going to need when I'm in a tight spot in the future. At first, this sounded like a very difficult task, but as I got a better look around on all the things I've amassed in the last couple of years, I know I'd have an easy time picking over what I can recycle for my future projects (I'll be using this word a load from now on, in honor of my re-found love of crafts, it's more that I now have time, rather than lost appeal), and what I need to chuck in the bin.

Of course, I have music setting my background while I bust out my mad-cleaning-skills; bringing out my inner Snow White. Though I will not exploit woodland creatures to lend me a paw. If I don't eat them, I certainly do not have them clean. Anyroad...a sample of my mix-tape includes: "Coffee Shop Soundtrack" - All Time Low, "Dance Inside" - All-American Rejects, "Dressed Up To Undress" - Breathe Carolina, "Five Minutes To Midnight" - Boys Like Girls, "Get Over It" - OK Go, "Secrets" - OneRepublic, "Summerboy" - Lady Gaga, "Thunderstruck" - AC/DC, and "Weightless" - All Time Low.

I dusted, laundered, and sorted a section of my closet. I now have dust-free shelves, a clean stack of clothes, and organized shoe racks. On my next cleaning, I'll be going over my shelves again for books and sorting out clothes to donate, and clothes to put in the "recycle/project bag", which is expanding. I'll need to run out to Joann's and grab a new measuring tape, seam ripper, pins, and floral print fabric. Why in Merlin's saggy left, did those items (except for the fabric) disappear? I'm just going with the previous reason: my friends filched from my supplies thinking I meant "take" instead of "borrow".

summer of sorts

As typical as it is to be so excited bout summer, I have some good reasons why I'm ecstatic of the coming months. (Anyone want to venture a guess on where the photo is of?) If I should be asked to list out the more momentous happenings, well, here they would be, in no particular order:

- Summer classes! Yes, this would classify my semi-newly acquired "nerd status", thank you very much. I'll be taking Yoga and Pilates (as always).

- Working part-time again. I used to be such a workaholic, well, what better time to get back into that old habit, it's been absolute ages in my opinion.

- I'll be back on the road. I cannot believe it. I'll be free of taking the train all over the place. As for buses and cabs, goodbye. The only thing holding me back is my lack of auto. Hopefully that'll rectify itself by the end of the month at least.

- More time to get my old hockey physique. I'm not saying I'm fat, else I'd receive a slap from certain individuals, but it can't be denied that I've let myself go, terribly. I miss the days when I can run 8 minute miles. Now, those are 11 minute miles. Shameful. My coach would be so disappointed in me.

- I can work in a new novel every 2 days again! With the literary classes on the down low, I can have my old jaunts in the park to read the days away, weather and work permitting of course.

- There's less reason for me to go partying and clubbing (sorry?) as I plan on keeping myself busy with the fitness classes, reading, work, blogging a few times a week, reaffirmation of my creative outputs, and spending some time to organize myself.

- Bonfires and a few relaxing gatherings with friends. Do I hear a picnic?

- My friend Tiffany is coming to live with me for the summer in a couple of weeks..

- Last but not least, August is full exciting things to do, and I for one cannot wait to get the summer done with so I can see my dearest friend in the world; Mark Kristian Suarez [Pajarillo], who is now Private Pajarillo! Of course other than our reunion, which I will be driving to Oklahoma for his graduation from Army boot camp to attend, I have my Napa excursion and "makeover" to look forward to that first week of August.

On a final note, though I've been told to consider love in summertime, I really cannot think of a good reason to even bother. Honestly, I don't think I'd be tempted to dive into that particular scenario anytime soon. For the moment, romantic pursuit holds no significance for me. Besides, I could never be complacent with a "safe" relationship; I believe that if the people you care for don't challenge you in some way, then you only feel obligated to care for them.

As one of my favorite authors, Ursula LeGuin, said: “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” So, as much as I look forward to my destination, I shall endeavor to enjoy the time I have ahead of me, the said journey. I hope to come out a better person when I write the response to this post in two and a half months' time. Bonne chance à moi.

spring cleaning: part un

It's that time of year again, the weather is having sudden bursts of warmth and sun, it's a sign of Spring Cleaning! There are only two things in my room that's accumulated in a craze, and those would be my book collection ("The Library" as my friends refer to it) and clothing. Every summer, I tend to go on a reckless shopping spree. What can I say? Retail therapy is amazing, even though I have no reason to need the therapeutic part. It's just this bad habit, whenever I pass by a thrift store, I must pop in for a second. That second lasts for at least half an hour, and I rarely leave empty handed. If I don't go in, the thought will just keep nagging at me for the rest of the day, until in the end, I surrender and go back anyway.

Back to my anecdote. By the end of summer, after galavanting through thrift stores, garage/yard sales, discount stores, and the occasional mall, I have amassed a small Everest of items that takes over half of my floor space. I know I have to stop, I'm working on that. Bit by bit, I'm weaning off. This summer, my goal is to only spend, at the absolute most, $200. Including back to school clothing. As for food, school fees, gas, car insurance, bills; basic necessities, that's a completely different matter. But I refuse to spend more than $50 a month when eating out, not including groceries. As for school materials, there's WalMart and Office Depot and their sales. I'm definitely signing up early to rent texts from the school bookstore for the Fall. From now on, I'm not treating friends, until I have a steady income coming in, and all my financial needs are met.

Here's a photo of my pile of novels I got rid of, and donating. Count: 50. Left: around 300. I have a very long way to go from here. Good luck to me!

boredom

When boredom consumes me, I tend to change my appearance or living space drastically. Just because subtlety isn't going to cut it for me. Sometimes, I just can't focus on reading one of the many historical fictions I currently own. Maybe it's because I need to move around every now and then, if I had a book plastered on my immediate vision, I'd probably make a mess of my whole apartment. Which reminds me, I need to stop buying books. I should just make one day in the week for me to spend the whole day in Barnes & Noble to read. Sure, the option to buy from thrift stores or garage sales are there, even online scans of novels, but I just like having the material rather than through technology. Either way, I should just cut down on constantly shopping for books. Used or new. I'm in college, I need to conserve my money for tuition, textbooks, and materials. Unfortunately for me, those textbooks are bout as interesting as watching paint dry.

So what I've caught myself doing lately is slowly changing my physical appearance. Yes, slowly, though in not-too-subtle-ways. So far, I've gotten a haircut (3 inches); shorter fringes, more layers, and a bit of light ash blonde under at the back as well as a bit of under my fringes. Oh, I have natural black hair. Not dark, dark brown or brownish black or blue black. Just black. Really, really, really black. Not even any undertones. In the past few years, I've been dyeing and bleaching my hair though, so it's been through a lot. Now, it's back to normal, color-wise. I'm bored of it now, so back to multi-colored hair! It's been a few months since I've had colors on my hair, the last was natural red and honey blonde. I've some purple hair dye just in the wait, incase I feel spontaneous again, I'll add it into my current state.

I won't be going over the topic of my hair until there's yet another change to it. Though other changes are happening as I've mentioned. Including are: clearing out most of my 1000-something books, 2 medium-sized closets of clothing, and loads of papers from goodness knows where. Not to forget my room itself, I'm...redecorating. Taking down the wall posters, though keeping the door ones. I've been searching like crazy for black and white photos at thrift stores all over, but I've only had luck finding one fitting the look I'm going for. More shops to visit!

march to dos - film

Films are one of my favorite escapes from the drudgery of what we call life. I might not be so in love with driving or taking the train to certian libraries when they're more than half an hour away, but if the movie's really interesting, then I'm definitely there without second thought.

For March, I wanted to do a murder mystery marathon. One was suggested to me by my British friend who discovered it when he went back to England. It's a long-running series called Midsomer Murders. Based on the novels by Caroline Graham, which is also known as the Inspector Barnaby mysteries. And lucky me, my favorite library just happens to have most of the series! There's not much I can say bout them other than they must be really good to be in running for the past thirteen years. Actually, the pilot aired on 23rd March 1997, so the thirteen year anniversary of the series is in a little over 3 weeks. That's amazing, this has got to be the only series (I've heard of anyway) that's lasted for more than 10 years. I can't wait to start watching! Here's a list of the episodes (in chronological order) that I'm going to try to fit into this month:

- The Killings at Badger's Drift (pilot)

Series One

- Written in Blood

- Death of a Hollow Man

- Faithful unto Death

- Death in Disguise

Series Two

- Death's Shadow

- Strangler's Wood

- Dead Man's Eleven

- Blood Will Out

Series Three

- Death of a Stranger

- Blue Herrings

- Judgement Day

- Beyond the Grave

As you can see, the series aren't as long as most American seasons. But I think a version is around 100 minutes, so each series is over 6 hours long. Well this should keep me out of trouble and at home for a long, long time. I'm actually looking forward to shutting myself in for the month (excluding school, work, and weekly dinners with my best friend). As for the rest of the show, I'll draw up a new to-do for April; I might have to postpone the 'old movies' list that I was thinking of setting up for the next month. There's always May!

nocturnal yoga

It's time for another Yoga class! As always, I came over an hour early just have some reading time in the library on campus. I just started on Mary Carter's 'Accidentally Engaged'. It's a story bout Clare Ivers, a psychic who gets tangled up with an engaged man after trying to return the bride-to-be's rock of an engagement ring. Did I mention that Clare accidentally talked the bride out of the engagement? Well, I hope my prediction of how the story ends up playing doesn't happen in the way I'm thinking it would. It'd be more exciting if there was a plot twist, but I guess I'll have to wait for that seeing as I'm only on page 9.

Continuing on to Yoga; for class, we only had to do sun salutations and a small bit of a fitness test. So we would be getting out half an hour early today. Depending on how quick you are. The sun salutations took bout 20 minutes because we repeated the whole sequence 5 times. As for the fitness test, it's just flexibility and step ups. It was great fun to watch both classes do all that at once. I wish the class was Monday to Thursday, but then again, that's summer school hours. I'm really looking forward to taking it in the summer again! Along with Pilates. It'll be a productive and healthy way to keep out of trouble this summer.

In the case with my post from yesterday, I will now include an update of my "Sailor Moon relapse". I watched some more episodes of Sailor Moon right when I got home. I reached up to episode 19 and stopped for the night. Considering I left off with 14, I feel accomplished. Probably because I can't wait for the revelation of the characters' identities, that I can't keep myself from slowing down from watching.

Now I think it's time to get some more reading done, so that I can return the book to the library soon and check out another novel that caught my interest the other day.

PS: I'm really getting hooked on the SM beginning theme song! Even though it's Japanese. I'll be seeing that on my playlist as soon as I get a new USB cord for my iPhone.