Pay off student loans from undergrad ($9,438.58 to go! Original amount borrowed: $29,901.98) [as of 8/24/2010]
Set monthly budgets
Make $2000 from eBay sales ($874.13/$2000)
Eliminate unnecessary music from my iPod
Rate all of the songs on my iPod (6510/7981)
Beat Tomb Raider 5, the only game in the TR series I haven’t played through completely (currently on level 11/13)
Play one family on the Sims 3 through at least 10 generations (8/10)
Reach skill level 55 on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (46/55)
Force myself to use keyboard shortcuts on my Mac; set up [and use] Spaces on my Mac
Back up my hard drive 1x/month
Learn yoga
Stop biting my nails (FOR GOOD)
Use only reusable bags for grocery shopping
Stop buying bottled water and use something more environment-friendly
Inspire 5 people to make their own 101 goals list (4/5)
I am on track to finish on time in May 2011 (which used to seem impossibly far away and is now starting to seem a whole lot closer).
I have also only failed one goal…the one about not purchasing a microwave. This is because Corner and I inherited a microwave when our friend Katy moved to South Dakota. I suppose we could have declined it, but really, the root of this goal had to do with cooking more and avoiding frozen dinners/pre-prepared foods. I am happy to say that we pretty much only use the microwave for heating up leftovers of yummy stuff we have cooked previously, so I suppose I didn’t exactly fail. Do you think it’s okay to replace that goal with a new one? Or is that cheating? If I replace the goal, what kind of new goal should I achieve instead?
Just a quick update to post some iPhone pictures related to roller skating.
Thursday nights are roller skating nights for me and a few of my lady coworker friends. My coworker Jill has expressly forbidden me from posting pictures of her in roller skating gear anywhere on the Internet. The past two weeks we have met a handful of the derby girls already on the team and they all seem very nice.
I submitted my application packet to try out for the Monterey Bay Derby Dames on September 18. I’m pretty excited. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Next month is going to be pretty crazy as Corner will be out of town for a portion of September, we are going to his parents’ for Labor Day weekend, I’m trying out for roller derby, AND I will be taking the GRE at the end of the month. Yikes!
I discovered a bunch of Sourpuss socks and legwarmers on clearance for $4/pair, so I stocked up on 3 pairs of each. I debuted my first new pair of socks last night. So fun! Perhaps I should choose a derby name that lends itself well to some sort of costume elements. Hhhmmm…
On Tuesday night I went to see Lady Gaga at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. WHAT AN AMAZING CONCERT! In fact, it was so amazing that I already purchased tickets to her show in Oakland next spring!
I left work around lunchtime, went home to do my makeup, ate a quick lunch, and headed up to San Jose to meet Megan. She let me into her apartment and then she went to finish up class for the day. I hung out with Moose (her roommate’s dachshund) for awhile until Megan returned. Then we were off to the mall so Megan could get something to wear. We grabbed burritos at Chipotle on our way out of the mall, gobbled those down once we arrived back at her place, got dressed, drank some beers, and we were off! We grabbed the train at the light rail station next to her apartment complex.
On the train we met a bunch of other people who were also headed to the concert (which was cool, because we thought we were running a bit late). No one could agree what stop we should get off at in order to have the shortest walk to the Pavilion. These two very fabulous gay boys decked out in leather and giant sunglasses, whose names we later learned were Adrian and Santi, offered to split a cab with us. “You girls are NOT walking there in those HEELS!” they said. We happily shared a cab with them, which worked out to be only about $2/each. My feet were definitely thankful.
We arrived at the Pavilion, had another beer in some random parking lot, then ventured inside. We were greeted by people holding clipboards asking if we wanted to register to win a phone call from Lady Gaga. Megan and I politely refused; we were much more interested in finding a bathroom and then finding our seats. The people watching was pretty fantastic, and I was asked by several groups of people if they could take a photo with me (apparently my outfit was just that good). We also (conveniently) arrived just in time to miss the opening act.
It was a very theatrical show. There weren’t as many costume changes as I was expecting, but there were still quite a few. The show actually had a plot that moved along based on the songs. Bits of it were very reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz and Cinderella….with some allusions to Peter Pan (specifically Tinkerbell) as well. Oh, and that phone call that Megan and I declined to sign up for? Lady Gaga called the winner DURING THE SHOW (boy was I kicking myself!!!) and invited her down closer to the stage. Then she said, “Oh hold on, I’m getting another call” and segued perfectly into “Telephone”. She played the piano for a few songs in the middle (including “Speechless”) and they lit the lid of the grand piano on fire. “Paparazzi” turned out to be a very beautiful song live, as it occurred near the very end of the show and I’m pretty sure symbolized Lady Gaga facing her personal demons/obstacles, because she had to defeat this monster thing that looked a lot like an anglerfish.
They saved “Bad Romance” for the end and it was awesome. Lady Gaga and all of her dancers held hands and bowed at the end…it reminded me very much of a curtain call at the end of a play. All in all she was absolutely amazing live!
Here are some crappy videos I took at the show…I promise they don’t do her any justice:
Corner had an onsite interview on Friday for a job up in Woodland, CA. He also has an interview tomorrow for a government job in Jamaica, NY. Still no word on the jobs in the Moss Landing office. All I can say is that it’s super stressful not knowing exactly what is going on in our lives. We all know I’m a bit of a planner, and taking things one day at a time has been pretty excruciating.
In other news, I am hoping to try out for the Monterey Bay Derby Dames next month. I have been going skating every week with some of my lady coworkers and I feel like I’ve been improving each time. I just ordered some fun socks and legwarmers yesterday, so hopefully I will have some good pictures to share soon.
At work I am helping out the Recruiting department with their upcoming AdWords campaigns and it feels good to learn something new. I had lunch with Nikki on Friday (at Cannery Row Brewing Company, yum!) and she gave me a bunch of good ideas.
I have a few personal web projects in the works…I would be much further along on these if I wasn’t up to my eyeballs in freelance work at the moment! I have been editing a lot of resumes and building a lot of web portfolios. The past couple weekends I’ve also been putting a ton of miscellaneous stuff up on eBay. I suppose I’ve been feeling a little broke since I just paid off another student loan this past week. I am now down to less than $10k in undergraduate student loan debt! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel…only a few more months…
Perhaps the best news of all is that I am going to see Lady Gaga with Megan on Tuesday night! I am so pumped. My outfit is pretty awesome, too. I will report back afterwards (hopefully with lots of photos!).
Well, I am officially registered to take the GRE on Saturday, September 25. That will be one more goal down on Day Zero list. Wish me luck, as I’m pretty sure my quant score is going to be fairly abysmal. :)
In other news I have been doing some freelance work for Next Generation Nepal and for my future step-brother, Rob.
In other other news, my life remains fairly unexciting except for the fact that I may be trying out for a roller derby league this fall. Oh, and Corner still isn’t sure whether or not he will be employed on October 1. I’m hoping something pans out for him fairly soon here since Dad and Robin are visiting California in late October and I really want to go on the Eastern Caribbean cruise with Mom and Les in November.
