Been going around like a crazy person meeting up with friends and taking care of errands before heading back to work on Sunday.
Sadly, I am not at all ready to return to the craze of work since I hardly feel rested.
But, it’s been worth it to do a Ladies’ Night out, have tea, lunch and dinner with different friends this week. Guess I’ll just have to wait until March to rest up again. π Or…do a better job in the meantime to take care of myself so that I always feel rested!
π
So, I’ve been taking some time to mull over my life now that I have time to think. As always, I’m not a resolution kind of person, but I do like goals. Maybe it’s the same thing with a different name – not sure, but it makes me feel better.
Here we go:
1. Finances – Continue to pay off my debts and maintain my budgets so that I am saving, paying and spending according to my salary. This might mean sacrificing on pampering or traveling a bit, but it can be done. π
2. Relationships – Try to focus more on reaching out to those who are really important to me and not waste time or energy on those who are not. This means perhaps less Facebook time and more letter/email writing, phone chats, and hanging out. I want to balance my friendships, so that we are mutually benefiting from each other’s presence in our lives.
3. Professionally – Focus to finish the PhD according to schedule. Continue to work towards my goals of moving out of the foundation programs and towards an administrative/leadership position or as a full professor in an educational department. This might mean networking more, taking on a bit more responsibility in parts of my work for a season, etc.
4. Spiritually – I will try to refocus my attentions on finding spiritual balance. This may include finding a Bible study or simply reading and praying more regularly. I will not join a church or put myself into communities of discomfort related to religion. Rather, I will seek within myself a reconnection to the divine – God.
5. Myself – It is important for me to remember to take care of me. Thus, I will do regular activities to ensure that my mental health and emotional well-being are being taken care of through my hobbies – continuing pottery, knitting/crocheting -, regular pampering (as it meshes with Goal 1 of my finances), and going out regardless of what the BF is in the mood for. π
I think these five goals about cover all the important aspects of my life. I find that when I am happy and confident in my own activities, I get along better with R and seem to be more successful in the things I take on. A friend told me that “when I’m happy with me, then I can take anything” and this is a good mantra to hold on to.
So, here’s to the adventure of 2012!
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So, a while back I read a post on a blog that I follow about the blogger’s new obsession with this site – Pinterest. It seemed like something I should avoid as yet another way to spend my time unproductively. However, last week I kept getting emails from the site saying a friend here and a friend there had started using the site. Thus…I caved.
Although I’m not obsessing yet over it, I do find it to be rather useful in bookmarking sites of interest. It seems easier and more interesting than delicious, which has been around forever as an online bookmarking site. So, I’m trying it out. You can follow people, people follow me and it’s all part of this great world of social networking and adding to my digital footprint – sigh -.
I find it most useful for recipes that I can just bring up quickly on my iPad when cooking in the kitchen. Although I’ve only ‘pinned’ one site thus far as I’ve got the others saved on my iPad. Will work on that later when I’m avoiding academic reading! π
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It’s been a rather long while since I’ve updated on my balcony garden.
Things are coming right along, I think.
The tomato plants are starting to flower. My beans are producing baby beans and also flowering. The herbs are growing like crazy and all the other plants are going strong. My only disappointment are the carrots…I think I shall have to start over with them, but all in all, my little garden grows! π
We had a laid back New Year’s Eve.
In the afternoon, MJ and I went for massages. Then, we headed to Cooper’s nearby for dinner. It was a more relaxed atmosphere and cheaper than paying about $100 per person for a course-meal that may or may not be that great. Good thing, too, because although my food sounded delish, it wasn’t that great in flavor….
Afterwards, we headed to Marina Mall to watch “Sherlock Holmes 2” at the theater there. Unfortunately, the Coldplay concert was also in that area (usually concerts are at Yas or the Emirates Palace), so we hit some traffic. However, we enjoyed the movie and made it just in time on the way back to see some of the fireworks on display. The fireworks were nothing by Japanese standards, but still nice.
Emirates Palace Fireworks video
Thus, we have rung in the new year! π
