By Sarah, on January 23rd, 2010 …and instead, put my life on a successful and fulfilling career path. That is Resolution #2 for 2010.
I’ve mentioned many a time how hateful I find my current job. Over the past year I must have applied for 50 jobs. But despite my education and work experience, nobody is hiring in this economy, not even entry level positions with salaries that would leave me barely able to pay the rent. It’s depressing. I should know, because I let this apparent failure on my part depress me for a good chuck of last year. I felt like I had no options available to me, like I wasn’t even hireable for the crappiest crappy job that was really no better than the crappy dead-end job I currently have. Worst was that few of the jobs I was being rejected for were even things that I really wanted to do.
So I started thinking real hard and doing some soul searching. After a while the answer became so clear that I wondered how I couldn’t have known what I wanted to do with my career the whole time. I’m going to be a Professional Organizer and Interior Decorator.
I’ve always been madly obsessed with organizing and making things more useful and functional. I’ve also always had an eye for aesthetics and seem to know when things go together and when they don’t. Looking at catalogues or magazines, I put together possibilities in my mind’s eye. In every room I enter, I look at what works and what doesn’t and how it could be made better. It’s what comes naturally, and what I should be doing as a career.
So that’s my second resolution for 2010: to stop being afraid, to take the plunge into doing what I love and to work at it every day until I have successfully established myself in the field. It’s gonna take a lot of hard work, maybe some night school, and a lot of believing in myself even when I have nothing to show for it. But if I’m ever gonna have a career it has to be started now. I just gotta remember to take baby steps until I get there.
By Sarah, on January 21st, 2010 …let the Year of Change begin!
How did 2009 go by so fast? Wasn’t it just summer? Didn’t we just move into our new apartment? The Year of Freedom turned out to be nothing like I expected it to be. Yet, it was definitely a year of growth. Looking back, I know I am not the same person I was a year ago. And I can honestly say that the differences are all for the better.
I have already dubbed 2010 The Year of Change, and so it shall be. There are two babies scheduled to arrive in our families come April. I’m going to become an Aunt (for the first time) twice in the span of one month. Exciting! Plus, of course, I’m getting married. By this time next year I’ll be a wedded woman, with a completely different last name. That thought is still taking some getting used to. If it felt like 2009 went by quickly, I just know that 2010 is going to go by even faster.
But I can’t just let it fly past. I need to have a direction and a plan for this year so I can tackle all the wonderful changes as they come. Which leads me to New Year’s resolutions. Everybody has an idealized conception of the person they could be if only: If only they weighed less, ate better. If only they were more spontaneous, or more organized, or more motivated, or more something. But is holding onto this ideal so wrong? I don’t think so. (Unless the goals are ridiculously unattainable and/or unhealthy, that is.) I always make New Year’s resolutions, and this year I’m spurred on by last year’s resolution successes.
I think it’s healthy to see yourself as a work in progress. To know that every morning, or once a year, we have a chance to make a fresh start. It’s a chance to get one step closer to that ideal person we wish we could be, knowing that having an ideal is not necessarily the same thing as having an end goal. Ideals change and grow just as we do as people. So though they can never be completely reached, they are always good to have.
So yeah, I think I’ll do the same thing for this year’s resolutions as I did for last year’s resolutions review — one a day for five days. Sound cool? Okay, then check back here tomorrow for the first of my 2010 resolutions!!
By Sarah, on January 20th, 2010
By Sarah, on January 19th, 2010 This is it, the end of the line. The last look back at 2009 before looking forward to the new year ahead.
My last resolution of 2009 was to get a “financial” life. And how did I do? Well, not so good. But not for lack of trying!! I reconsolidated my student loans (but they’re still there, looming). My employer put a pay freeze in place for 2009 (which meant no raise for me). And the gym/trainer turned out to be a huge financial investment (though WELL worth it). So, as you can probably guess, there really wasn’t any extra money floating around last year.
Still, I didn’t give up and I not only reduced my credit-card debt, but I cancelled my crazy high-rate card and switched to one with a much lower interest rate. Less interest means debt gets paid off faster! So I guess I will have to call this one another tie. I may not have gotten all the way to my goal, but I was able to make some progress.
Final Tally: Sarah – 3, Bad Habits – 2.
Well, it looks like in the grand scheme of things I was able to kick more of my bad habits than not last year, and to make some good progress on a couple more. Yay! I think I would call 2009 a successful year, resolutionarily speaking. (Is that a word? Probably not. Whatevs.)
And I’m looking forward to 2010. I’ve already decided on my resolutions for this year, but that’s a post for another day.
By Sarah, on January 18th, 2010 This brings us to my penultimate resolution of 2009: To join a gym and get in shape. So, how did I do?
I am more than proud to say that despite how may times I had made and failed at this resolution in the past, in 2009 I finally succeeded. For those who know what this gobbledy-gook means, I reduced my total body fat by almost 10% and my overall weight went down by 15lbs. So if you remember that muscle weighs more than fat, you can understand what a drastic change this has been for me.
I’m a tiny person (5′ 1″) and to drop two whole dress sizes in less than a year has been huge. And to be able to look this way on my wedding day is going to be just the best feeling in the world.
Sarah – 2.5, Bad Habits – 1.5. Score one for me!
Tomorrow we come to the end. My last resolution of 2009: Get a financial life.
By Sarah, on January 17th, 2010 My third resolution of 2009 was to take more pictures.
I think I started out strong with this resolution, but midway through the year my vigour wained. There’s probably a direct correlation between my lack of photos and my amount of stress at work, leading up to the Month of Freedom. After that, the rest of 2009 moved by in a speedy blur and just as I started wanting to take more pictures again, I realized that my good camera had broken (most likely during the move) and all I was left with was a crappy point-and-shoot that couldn’t take a sharp photo to save my life.
It was excruciating, and I tried to make it work, but it didn’t really. So I finally gave in and got my first DSLR at a Boxing Day sale. Hopefully, this means I’m gonna be taking copious amounts of photos in 2010. Just oodles and oodles.
But for the purpose of tallying my 2009 resolutions, I’d have to say this one’s a tie. Sarah – 1.5, Bad Habits – 1.5. Hmm…we’re neck and neck it seems.
Coming down to it now. Tomorrow, Resolution #4: Join a gym and get in shape.
By Sarah, on January 16th, 2010 Okey-doke. Moving right along. How did I do on my second resolution of last year, namely:
2. Stop falling asleep with my makeup on.
Wah-wah. That’s the sound of the sad trombone. Here, I am sorry to say, I was a total failure. Total. So total, in fact, that I’m putting that sucker right back on my resolutions list for 2010. With the wedding coming up, I really need to get my skin in better shape and this is definitely Step 1.
Sarah – 1, Bad Habits – 1. Blarg.
Next, Resolution #3: Take more pictures.
By Sarah, on January 15th, 2010 So, two weeks into the new year and the question still remains: How well did I do with 2009′s resolutions? Let’s break it down, one a day for the next 5 days. Before I delve in though, how about a recap?
Sarah’s 2009 New Year’s Resolutions
1. Clear my inboxes down to zero and then keep them clear.
2. Stop falling asleep with my makeup on.
3. Take more pictures.
4. Join a gym and get in shape.
5. Get a financial life.
So, after a year of working at it, how well (or poorly) did I do in these 5 areas? First up, my inbox.
Well, I’m proud to say that my struggles with overflowing email inboxes are over and my work at this resolution has been a total success. After years and years of feeling overwhelmed by hundreds and hundreds of emails just sitting there yelling at me, I finally took the bull by the horns. I developed a better labelling and filing system for my email, did a lot of kamikaze deleting of old stuff and unsubscribed from A LOT of useless newsletters. After that, it was all about slowly but surely reading through more emails every day than I received, till I had finally whittled it all down to zero.
And this doesn’t mean that I’ve become a compulsive email checker, either. I don’t answer every email as soon as it hits my inbox, or anything crazy like that. Instead, it’s more of a once or twice a day thing, generally morning and evening. And if I notice things starting to pile up, I nip it in the bud before it can balloon into an even bigger problem simply by blocking out some time and dealing with it.
So I guess that makes the score so far Sarah – 1, Bad Habits – 0. Not a shabby start.
Tomorrow, Resolution #2: Falling asleep with my makeup on.
By Sarah, on January 14th, 2010 
“When we lack proper time for the simple pleasures of life, for the enjoyment of eating, drinking, playing, creating, visiting friends, and watching children at play, then we have missed the purpose of life. Not by bread alone do we live but on all these human and heart-hungry luxuries.”
~ Ed Hayes
By Sarah, on January 11th, 2010 
My mind moves much faster than my life does and I’ve been noticing lately how much of an issue this is for me. How incapable I seem to be at just thinking about right now instead of 20 minutes, 20 hours, 20 days or 20 years from now. I focus too much on what’s to come, on what’s next, instead of what I have to embrace and enjoy right now. The more I think of it, the more I realize what kind of debilitating long-term problem this has been. I am a collector of possibilities that I never seem to get around to fulfilling. And waiting for later takes all the joy and excitement out of something that was once shiny and new. It becomes old news before it has even begun.
I’m sure a lot of this has to do with how much I hated (and how trapped I felt by) being in school. Living in the moment was always the last place I wanted to be. I don’t think I was always like this though. As a child I lived in the moment, I’m sure. But once my horrible school experiences started taking over, I think that’s when my collector behaviour began.
This problem has been niggling the back of my mind for a while and it’s not something that I’m just going to get over tomorrow. But I think that if I keep it as a goal in my mind, to not just live in the moment but to appreciate it and find joy in it as well, then things will slowly start to change. It is the Year of Change, after all.
I need to allow myself to have some time to just be, because for too long I’ve been putting off for tomorrow what I could’ve and should’ve been doing today. Reminds you of the name of this blog, doesn’t it. Coincidence? I think not.
By Sarah, on January 10th, 2010 
Why do people hate winter? Or any season for that matter? I know that up here in Canada it can get very cold and the realities of moving through snow can prove to be difficult on a Monday morning, but why the hate? Don’t they know that each in turn is part of the whole? There can be no summer harvest without first having winter’s snow melt into the ground to replenish the water table.
I’ve never been a great fan of extremes, be they in winter or summer. I’m much more of a spring/fall girl myself. More wardrobe options that way. But I am getting better at learning to take things as they come. Each season has something enjoyable about it that I think we’d miss if there was suddenly no more of that one time of year. Like, for instance, lighting candles in the early evening when you’ve barely turned your mind to dinner and yet the night already envelops you.
Note to self: remember this feeling and this sentiment come Groundhog Day when the brunt of winter is upon us and there are no more twinkling Christmas lights to make me feel good about it.
Also: remember to stock up on candles.
By Sarah, on January 6th, 2010
By Sarah, on December 30th, 2009
By Sarah, on December 23rd, 2009 Because you gotta have something to get you through the week. Even Christmas Week.
1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. holiday baking, 4. Sunset in winter, 5. my three trees, 6. flocked, 7. Wood Treads Plates, 8. enjoy, 9. Ninainvorm
By Sarah, on December 18th, 2009 
Well, my baking bonanza was a success. I spent the better part of 3 glorious hours in the kitchen, cutting out shapes, drizzling icing and sprinkling coloured sugar. It’s a good thing I had prepared and refrigerated the dough on the weekend when Melissa and Carvill and I had a cookie-baking day of our own. Otherwise, I might have been in that kitchen for at least a couple more hours. I did, after all, make a double batch.
But all of my efforts were worth it. These cookies were gobbled up by my coworkers and at the end of the day when I went to check there were maybe 5 remaining in the tin, which I left for the night crew to enjoy. (Whoever got their hands on one before they were all gone, anyway.)
After my busy day on Wednesday, I was glad to be working from home yesterday and today. I definitely needed the peace and quiet. And Daisy was definitely missing me while I was gone too. She followed me around on Wednesday night from room to room, where ever I went, keeping an eye on me and cuddling me whenever I sat down.
To think that this is the same dog who was so independent and spurned my attentions when she was young, only to grow so attached to me in her old age. I can’t believe she’s gonna be 13 in February. Has it really been 13 years since I was 16, demanding that my parents let me buy her with the first earnings of my first job? Wow. It really is incredible how fast time flies.
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