Alright 2012. I'm ready now

I fell into 2012 feet first and full on. I danced in the new year with friends old and new before traveling to Mexico and then back to New Zealand. Once there I was met with a full on load of work as clients also scrambled to catch up with the new year and I tried to keep up with that and 1,000 other things that piled up. Today I had enough. I have too much crap in my life, so with that in mind it's time to cull the herd. Last years goals went something like this:

And so the tally for this year begins as follows:

Goals for 2011:
- work on learning Spanish
- get over fear of syringes
- go spelunking
- be completely debt free
- learn basics of drums
- create more artwork
- learn more about html and css to the point I can build web pages properly
- visit another country (again) or better explore the south island of NZ

Just as important to me as what to do with this year is what NOT to do with this year since it consumes valuable time and resources that could be spent more productively.

Not-To-Do list 2011:
- World of Warcraft
- more than an hour of tv or one movie per day
- waste money on things vs experiences
- nothing

Most of this I failed at because halfway thru the year I made new goals as my interests changed and my experiences here grew. And so, here is the new list:

Goals for 2012:
- continue learning Spanish
- go spelunking (doing in april?)
- be completely debt free (minus student loan) and save money
- get website published

- eat and maintain a healthy lifestyle- visit another country (again) or better explore the south island of NZ (dec?)

Just as important to me as what to do with this year is what NOT to do with this year since it consumes valuable time and resources that could be spent more productively.

Not-To-Do list 2012:
- World of Warcraft
- more than an hour of tv or one movie per day
- waste money on things vs experiences
- nothing

My nothing list pretty much stays the same. Cut out the waste, enjoy the fruit. I also have to cut out other projects such as Kung Fu, art projects, some free lance and gaming. Do less to do more.

Only Tuesday

It may be only Tuesday here but it feels like the week has already been full on. Some of it comes from a weekend of sleep depravation some because I had 5 'urgent' ads given to me on monday that were also due on monday. In any case I survived but man what a long week already!

This weekend was some good fun as I went to Himatangi Beach with Rachel, Marc and Evan in the caravan. The beach has black sand that stretches out endlessly out of view in either direction of the shore line. There were cars parked along deeper close to the dunes and the ocean was filled with swimmers, kayakers, and small time surfers. There were a few lifeguards on duty to keep watch on the kids in the water while others built small sandcastles. There were dogs barking at waves and people going by on horses. Good times.

Valentine's Day

I usually try to ignore Valentine's Day every year, even if I am dating someone. Of course this is completely futile especially in a workplace where everyone is dating but me. We've been busy all week and working late but the upside to the holiday is that even with the work load we all got out 'early'. So I spent my Valentine's Day at work and sleeping in a hammock which was completely awesome by my reckoning.

The only thing I really missed was getting flowers from my dad like when I was a little girl. They always made me feel special. My family did send me a card in the mail!

Speaking of which, a very happy anniversary to my parents!

It seems my single friends state side also had some fun :) Incidentally it was also his birthday.

Monday

Case of the monday:


My scooter tyre is flat and since it's a holiday all stores are closed. After pushing my scooter to the air pump do I: 


a) ride it home, closer but have to bring tyre back or 
b) the further- may-not-make-it-to- closed motorcycle shop to get a tyre in the am? 


Correct answer is c. Tyer is so slashed by drunk peoples broken bottles scooter can't make it out of parking lot

Recognize this guy?

Anyone remember him??

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this cracked me up! Any case you can see more stuff about NCIS at the address below :)

http://tv.yahoo.com/slideshow/840/photos/1

Gypsy Faire

Gypsy Faire came into town again this year with a lot of the same stuff as last year. As always the food was good and the caravans were awesome.

$5 pony rides for kids

awesome wooden caravans

really cool doors

caravan dogs snuggling chew toys sleeping

First week back

It's my first week back in New Zealand and it's been a rough one. My plane landed in Auckland on Sunday and I managed to get thru customs fairly quickly which was nice since I had yet another plane to catch. What didn't help my time table was that my luggage didn't make it to New Zealand. Lost Luggage said that it had been left in LAX but they would ship it to me and since I had a plane to catch I didn't argue much. On the upside when transferring from American Airlines to Air New Zealand there would have been an baggage fee (international vs domestic rates) so I wasn't going to be charged that and I didn't have to lug my gear across to the other terminal which involved co-ordinating a 3 min bus ride.

I was also hoping to score a free ride home by texting friends however my phone was not having it. I ran a lot of updates on my computers while in the US because of data caps in New Zealand and apparently one of them screwed up my phones ability to work in New Zealand. One stupidly over priced taxi ride later I'm finally back to my now dusty apartment with no food or phone but hey my bed still looks comfy. A fun little scooter ride later in the cold (because it was warmer in Alabama than here) I've settled in with food and get some sleep. Jet lag is a incurable hangover that has lasted me a few days.

Monday back at work was nice just to see everyone. Rachel and I got almost nothing done as we spent most of the day catching up. I went to her house afterwards to continue our talk so that we could actually get something done on Tuesday. It was nice to enjoy her new house (which she just built with her family) and hang out with her son Evan who didn't seem to miss me all too much ;)

Tues afternoon my luggage could be picked up from the airport so Rachel was kind enough to take me after work but unfortunately on the way we were hit by another car on the rear passenger side. Foolish driver tried to cross two lanes of traffic at 5:05 instead of just going out where the light was.  We were all ok but it was just one more thing for the hectic week at work. Stress was piling on.

By Wendsday my phone still doesn't work and continues to mock my efforts to use it. We all have back to back meetings which end up giving us more work which is good but no time to do it in. Wed night I noticed my kindle doesn't want to turn on. The button at the bottom wont click on. I can turn on my kindle with my computer but the power switch is non functioning. >sigh<

Now it's Thursday and I feel just as behind as yesterday. Poor Todd and Rachel had a 3 hour meeting. Rachel had two before that and one with me after. Phone still doesn't work and kindle is glitchy. So I decided to update my blog with all the posts I wrote on my phone until I realized that 15 posts have been erased. Super.

Come on Friday

Backup

Well I've managed to get majorly backed up over the christmas holidays so I'm going to post things on the day they happened. Be prepared to skip all the way back to Dec 22 and hold on. You are in for a wild ride!