Career Options?

So out of the blue I have found myself gravitating toward personal training and perhaps physical therapy. It's funny how that happens. Life seems to be going in one direction, and then it takes a careening sideways slide before heading somewhere completely different.
I'm working at the YMCA right now, and I'm loving it. I just started working in the fitness department today, and it was pretty good. I think I'll get myself certified as a personal trainer through the Y, and then, once I've got some good experience under my belt, if nothing else turns up as a good career opportunity, I'll find myself a nice job as a full-time personal trainer. And then I'l save up and start working on my degree in Physical Therapy. And I think Yoga certification falls in there somewhere, too.
The only question now is, where and when do I start that natural foods cafe that I've been thinking of for so long? Or perhaps that's a retirement gig, like I'd origanally thought?
Oh well. Life is crazy. Good, but crazy I love it!

Washington, not DC

So I just got back from Washington a few days ago. What a gorgeous place! I'd not yet been to the Pacific Northwest, and I wasn't quite prepared for how awesome it is to see massive mountains rising out from across a huge bay. Mountains and Beaches in the same scene... How much more could you ask for?
I wish I'd taken more photos and/or video while we were there, but no, I was too distracted by the great time I was having to bother thinking about recording it! This pic of Serra and me is pretty much all I have from the trip, snapped quickly on my cell phone while were admiring the view from the top of Washington Park.
I'm now torn. I like the Boston area. I've been having a pretty good time here. My job, though, is not a permanent one, definitely not something I'm ready to settle into. I've been looking into what I want to do with the rest of my life, and for the most part I was thinking about staying in this general area. Now, though, I know how amazingly awesome the Pacific Northwest is, and I'm wondering if perhaps moving out there might be somewhere in my future... I thought the same things about Colorado, though...Oh well, no rush.
Except that there is a bit of a rush, in terms of my career. My current job is not cutting it in terms of paying the bills, and I'm really not liking the stress of wondering what bill won't get paid this month. It's not a pattern that I want to get into, and thus I'm looking to get a better job of some sort or other rather soon, if I can't make more hours/money where I'm working now... Again, oh well. No sense getting stressed about it. I've got a few options I'm looking into. Until then I'll keep up this experiment on how to be poor.

Christmas for the Poor

So yesterday was Christmas... well, I suppose two days ago, since it's after midnight, but you get the idea... We had our annual family gathering with the maternal side of the family. Always an adventure. Not really. I tend to get rather bored, but thankfully my cousin's baby boy Anthony was willing to keep me entertained.
In other pointless news about my life, I'm heading out to the west coast tomorrow. I'm flying to Seattle to see Serra and meet her family and chill with her for New Year's Eve. I'm psyched. This will be my first trip to the Pacific Northwest, not to mention the first time I meet Serra's family!

And finally... I'm going to save up to buy a digital camera, so that I can use it to take little videos like the one with my socks, and possibly turn this into a bit of a video blog... Don't expect that any time soon, though. First I've got to see if I'm eligible for food stamps, so I can actually afford to save a litte money each month. Ah, the joy of being poor!

Green, Brown

A moment with Serra and socks and the wonders of light... Courtesy of headsoff.blogspot.com

Finally

Ok, so I waited far too long to post that new segment for NakedMiles. My bad. I got sick again, shortly after Thanksgiving, and I've been in various states of health between then and now. This is my first New England winter in two years, and my body isn't reacting nicely.
I'm going to get back to posting regularly, I promise. I just have to find time to read that book I've got around here somewhere on organization and time management...

Haircuts and Missed Deadlines

Got a fresh haircut today! For free! Serra found a post on craigslist looking for "haircut models." Turns out what they really want is to drum up some new business. It's all good, though, since I got a pretty decent haircut for free, and it normally would have cost $25 at that salon!

Well, I mentioned last time that I would have a new NakedMiles post for y'all yesterday. It's not ready yet. I was pretty sure I could pull it off over the weekend... But I spent most of the weekend with Serra, so I wouldn't want to waste that time writing!

Well, it's gotten to be later than I expected, and it's time for this boy to get his beauty sleep. Stay tuned for an update late tomorrow evening... or perhaps late Thursday evening...

Feeling better... I think

I don't know, maybe it's the drugs, but I am feeling so much better tonight than I did last night. *So* much better. Plus, I got to ride around jacket-less on my bike commute today. What a great feeling! Physically, anyway. Mentally it was a reminder that we are doing very strange things to our environment. Now I'm not saying that global warming can be held accountable for all 20 degrees above average that it was today... but it certainly has an effect!
Global Warming is a very big deal, actually, as many of you probably know. It's not a 20 degree thing, though, or we'd all be dead already. The average global increase in temperature is more like one degree Celsius... but as far as global averages go, that's a huge thing. It throws off weather patterns all over the world in very unpredictable ways.
So I guess what I'm saying is that, although we haven't warmed the Earth by 20 degrees, we have warmed it enough that this bizarre weather pattern occurred, and this weather pattern has caused a local increase of 20 degrees. Have I lost everybody yet? I guess if you get it, you probably already knew it, and if you don't, I may not be the one to ask! ;)
Well, it's time to devote a good solid hour to editing my story for NakedMiles. Hopefully I'll have found a way to resolve the pacing issues in the next segment. And y'all can expect that new segment to arrive on your screens sometime next Monday. I say that so I'll feel pressure to actually get the work done by then, and I hope that leverage works better for me than it has for Arin and Susan over at Four Eyed Monsters. Episode 9 of their podcasts is about two months late!