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Hurray! I am very pleased to announce that as of July 29, 2010 I have finished all the items on my 30 before 30 list. It’s hard to believe I finished it nearly a month early considering I was out of the country for awhile. I’m so thrilled to have had an opportunity to challenge myself and do some fun things in the mean time too. My last 3 consisted of cooking something fancy, getting back on the piano again, and submitting to a conference.
Finished !!
As much as this was my own list, it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of several awesome people that I wanted to take time and mention now.
Well I have a little over a month left and three more items to finish. I’m planning on the speaker submission by the end of this month (as that’s when it’s due), and getting back on the piano by August. All that’s left is cooking an amazingly awesome dinner. I cannot believe how much shit I’ve done!!
Finished | Definite Plans to Finish | Finalizing Plans | Still on Backburner
So there, most of them I am on my own with now, but if I beckon you to try some odd ass dinner, don’t be surprised, and please come
I’ve spent the last month or so trying to make a better attempt at recycling. It’s been hard after putting it off for so long and having it be the last thing on my mind. I wasn’t sure how much progress I was truly making until a few days ago.
First and foremost, I’ve discovered that I have been recycling almost 3 times more what I end up throwing away in the garbage on average. Pictures like the one here, which is of the recycling bag and trash can in my bedroom are repeated all over my house. I have a bag/bin for recycling on each floor to ensure that I am being conscious before I toss something in the garbage. It’s amazing what you can recycle when you think about it.
Not only that, but I recently put a recycling bag in my office too. We have a recycling bin, but I often don’t think about it because it’s easier to toss things in my trash can at my desk rather than get up.
Sometimes it’s hard to change your habits, but with enough will it can be done. I can’t tell you how proud I am to cross this 30 before 30 off my list.
This has to be one of my absolute favorite parts of my 30 before 30 so far, probably tied with performing at Desert Bloom and visiting the Grand Canyon. Hmm, I just realized I never blogged about either of those events, my apologies.
Most of you that know me understand that up until this particular day in May, I had never painted anything really… especially not on canvas. I’m a sketcher - pretty much lo-fidelity is my game. I’m good at getting the ideas going and generating my ideas and thoughts onto paper for graphic designers to turn into reality. Occasionally I can use Photoshop to create a gem, but it’s rare - a true diamond in the rough.
I’m actually a little embarrassed about how poor my drawing art skills are. I know a lot of very talented artists and graphic designers and I’ve just never been that person. Even more reason to add it to my list.
Initially, my plan was to invite a few of my female folk over to paint in my garage and have a few glasses of wine. I had planned on asking one of my friends Jinia, who is one of the owners of Loveland. As I’m heading to personally invite her, I get an idea. Would she really be up for hosting it? Inviting customers and my friends alike. Would it work?
She was. And it did. I was amazed at how many showed interest, and how many of those had little or no painting experience. It was going to be a first for several of my friends and customers of Loveland, though a few of them had painted several times before.
When I was asked to describe the event, I used these words in an email I quickly drew up to Jinia, which became the message sent to everyone interested in the event:
I’ve really been trying to focus a lot on learning to do new things, and focusing on creativity outside my profession and everyday activities. By no means am I an artist by nature, and to be quite honest, I’ve never painted a canvas before in my life. That in itself made me want to do it. The more I talked with other people, the more I realized there were many people I knew that had never painted before, never having tapped into that part of their creativity before. Why? Some are probably intimated because they consider themselves art challenged (as I often do). Some may have just never thought about just painting a canvas before. Whatever the reason, I have seen a definite need for the mind to tap into different areas of creativity, and I wanted to create a way for my friends and others to do this without fear of embarrassment or intimidation. I can guarantee to them all, the only thing I can do is turn a lower case m into a seagull in the sky. Let’s do this together and create art for our homes, friends, offices, or to trade within our painting session.
Soon we had people donating time and supplies, including Arizona Art Supply and the amazing Jenny Fontana who helped those that had questions in regard to technique.
While I spent the beginning portion of the night watching what others were doing, by the night’s end, I had painted two abstract pieces - one for my bedroom and one for my dining room.
They are finally hung, and I am proud they are mine.
I cannot believe it’s almost been a year since I created my 30 before 30 list. I gave myself a tad bit over a year to complete these tasks. My purpose was to do things I’ve always wanted to do and never have, as well as experiment.. and try things I’ve always been afraid to do. I wanted to take some steps in becoming a better person, a better friend, and a better soul. Here is an update on my progress with a little over 3 months left.
I hopefully will have time to blog in a little more detail about some of the best ones, but feel free to let me know if there’s anything you’d like to hear about in particular. As always the ones in red I’m definitely looking for guidance on and the orange ones will hopefully not slip through my fingers either.
Don’t get me wrong. I am very glad to be home (though slightly bittersweet and missing my Marines and my Divas). However, now that reality is starting to set back in here, I am beginning to get the blues a little bit. Today was the first day at work that everything started to come together (projects, meetings, etc etc). While it took 3 days, it *only* took 3 days. And I love it. I’ve always enjoyed my job and looked forward to going to work. But I think it took so much starting to happen at work for me to start stressing out about how much I have going on in general that I need to get in order when I’m back.. I’m starting to wonder how long people think I need to recuperate as opposed to how long I think I need and at what speed of pace I can operate for the next couple months.
So far I haven’t been doing too bad in my opinion. I’m slowly unpacking and as I am, I’m figuring out what to do with things rather than just throw them everywhere. I’ve started sorting items and washing all that came back with me from Afghanistan. I’ve been checking my mail and I’ve started to get my checkbook balanced again and a hold on where I am with all my bills.
Likewise, I’ve been making a list of items I need to accomplish and know in the back of my head which ones can wait and which ones can’t. I’ve also been spending less time on the computer, so I don’t see the list as often.
I’ve made sure to see most of my friends and at least contact some that I haven’t had a chance to sync up with yet. I have the projects I do outside of work on my back burner and have started to contemplate them and where I need to pick up.
All the while, I’ve been trying to figure out how to keep my health in check and get this sleep thing figured out. That’s been the worst. Some days I only want to sleep 4 hours, and some days it’s 12. There are days I fall asleep at 6pm and days I’m still anxious and going at midnight.
However, today I started thinking of all the things I have to do… I have items that desperately need sold, thrown out, donated, etc… from before I left and while I was gone. I have taxes to do. I have random missing things I really need to eventually find. I have a budget to figure out and organizations I need to get back on top of such as IxDA at multiple levels, Smunch, and Phoenix Actually. I have 30 before 30 goals I am a few months behind on.
I’ve done some good things such as the weight I’ve lost while I was gone.. but because of it I have tons of clothes that don’t fit I need to do something with and I need to find some clothes I can wear in the mean time until I reach my goal and can go crazy on clothes.. and even that that’s going to be expensive.
I also was able to pay off all my unsecured debt (credit cards, medical bills, etc) from those bad times in my life when I was in between school and jobs and dealing with a crappy economy. This is good, but there are also things I want such as saving for a house, taking some dance classes, and all that. So, I really have to learn to budget without letting these pile up ever again. Part of this is learning to ride my new bike when I get it more, so that I am saving on gas and exercising at the same time.
I know I will get there eventually, but my overachiever self expects me to bounce back right away… or at the very latest by August when I have visitors for vacation. Hopefully this feeling will pass. For now, I’m going to forget about it and go to the gym.
Well, it’s about time I do a 30 before 30 update, especially since I am having difficulties scheduling my vacation right now.
My previous update was in mid October.
Once again, a recap on my list:
The Completed Items:
Items I have started that I will complete by my grand 30th in August:
And here are the items I have lined up:
As you can see, I have a bit to go. Between the completed, started, and on my radar, I am totaling 24. I don’t think this is all that bad of progress considering I have been gone for 4 of the months I was to use towards these goals. Some of them, due to changing circumstances may be traded for something of equal value as well, which will be discussed closer to my target completion date.
Can you help with any of these items? Want to take a dance class with me? Paint a canvas? Take a trip to the Grand Canyon for a weekend? Go on a date (LOL)? Let me know!!
So I have two side projects while I’m here. These are things that will help me pass the time (well, when I have time to spare) and also help me out in the long run.
One of them is learning a new language, to which I’ve slowly (and yes, I admit I’ve been procrastinating a bit) been learning Dari/Farsi. I have a phrase book I’ve started to read and in learning and picking up things here I’ve been able to to learn the basic phrase, “My name is Tonia.” Learning a new language is not in my 30 before 30, but I figure hey, if I replace one because there was something I couldn’t do here, it’s still a good skill to have in my basket and a great thing to add to my list.
The next one is part of my 30 before 30 in regards to getting in as good of shape as I was in college. I’ve started this crusade since I’ve been here slowly, and today decided to name it Operation Sexy Bitch (#SexyBitchOps).
This has included going to the gym at least 5 days a week for 45 minutes of exercise every time, doing the ab workout with my tent-mates 3 days a week, and trying to watch what I eat as much as I can here, although there isn’t much to cut back on and there aren’t many choices.
As of a couple weeks ago, I cut back almost completely on anything other than water. Occasionally I’ll add crystal light to it and one day last week I craved a strawberry fanta. I also have ice cream on a rare occasion. However, for the most part, I am trying to eat better as well as possible.
I’ve felt a little defeated up until this past week and actually felt like I was gaining weight. However, the past week or so it’s been noticed by others that are around me a lot that I’m looking pretty good and that my figure is showing more. I haven’t weighed myself yet, but I’m pretty happy with the new found energy I have again and that people are noticing.
The big highlight was being able to run a mile out of the two I did on the treadmill today. I couldn’t tell you the last time I was able to do that. It felt so nice and after I was done and cooled off I had an insane amount of energy again, as if I could do it twice.
Hopefully things will continue as well as they are doing now and maybe in a few weeks or so I’ll have a picture with an update when I take one I like. Who knows, maybe @TheWinterHat will be in it too
Anyone else that wants to take part in #SexyBitchOps, let me know. This is a team effort!
I successfully completed another item on my 30 before 30 yesterday - I went to dinner by myself. The goal was to go somewhere that was nice and had great ambiance that people would go to on a date. Nozomi hit it on the dot with ambiance, but there was almost no one there. I might give this one another go if I have time.
Here is my review on Yelp of Nozomi for all those interested. If you ever head to Carlsbad or drive past it on the way to LA or San Diego, you need to stop there. It’s well worth it, even if you’re by yourself.
Another month, another 30 before 30 update.
Here’s a recap on my list:
My September update was small but I was on track with many items.
Here’s my current progress.
Item’s I’ve completed:
Items I’m on track with and will complete at year’s end:
As you can see, I’m about half way there. However, the upcoming trip I will be taking might put a damper in some of these. I’m still going to try my best though.
