Winter Break

Whelp, I'm home. I am sitting on my bed after unceremoniously dumping everything I brought home with me somewhere on my bedroom floor, feeling depressed about the sheer amount of stuff I own.

So I decided:

The theme of my winter break is Simplify and Focus. Clean, clean, clean and get rid of stuff that doesn't belong in my life. Organize, consolidate. Take what I feel others could use and attempt to sell it on ebay. I am feeling quite short of cash this holiday season. I listed my textbooks on half.com, though, so hopefully they'll sell soonish and I'll get some cashflow.

Goals:

1. This week is Christmas week. I've got to get knitting and sewing if my planned gifts are going to get done by Christmas. Thankfully, I only have a couple more presents I have to buy. Everything else is either already here or will be handmade.
   
2. Movies: My winter break is roughly 5 weeks long. 5 weeks until I go back to school for the spring semester. I'm shooting for watching 10 movies from the imdb top 250 list. I think I can handle two movies a week. The catch: 4 of them have to be made pre-1950. I tend to skirt around older movies when I'm picking ones to watch, so if I'm going to get everything watched I need to make myself see earlier movies. I don't want to be left with fifty movies from the 40's and earlier as the last movies I have to watch.
   
3. Reading: Anna Karenina. That's the only book I'm making it a goal to read. I figure it's so long I'm not going to have time to read it once the semester comes around. Hopefully I'll get through some more books than just the one, though.
   
4. Clean and organize. See above paragraph/mission statement.
   
5. Make 20 items for my etsy shop. 4 a week, can I do it? We'll see...
6. Finally, start and attempt to maintain some sort of exercise routine. Even if it's only using the elliptical two days a week. I need to make it a habit to stay in shape. I will: elliptical, run (maybe? it's really cold!), yoga. meditate.
   

Okay, I have six distinct things to focus my life on. In a week from now it'll only be five things.

Here's to a relaxing, yet organized, winter break.

Hey guys! I made a new button!

<a href="http://renardeaux.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="A Curious Fox" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Z9fugUD098CVO7iLP_VE9_surC_w_Z1E2cB2HntaaYRBruoFTDvsDJWMzEguCwe0cFIlam8dm8iHhIhQIvcNQkOmVsB11AT-T-la3w0GMvYU0aYCeYMYF2b78yB9QGXSbGUWju_Z-_g/" width="200" /></a>

Chunesy Chuesdays

Taylor Swift (as T-Swizzle! Best rap name ever!) with T-Pain

End-of-the-Semester Stress

It is almost gone. Today and yesterday I've been feeling very relaxed, which is quite a change from the past couple weeks.

Stuff I've been stressing out that's over now:

• Classes/projects/papers: All I have left is three finals and then I'm done for the semester! This is SUCH a relief to be finally done.
  
• Christmas presents: Yesterday I finally decided on a Christmas present for my dear boyfriend. Finding the perfect gift for him has been a serious source of stress lately. BUT it's over now. All I have left to buy are very minor gifts!

Actually, that's about all that's been stressing me out. But it was a lot of stress and I am sooooo glad it's over now.

Something else that's inspired me lately is this post over at Rabbit, Write. Really, everything she writes is like an epiphany for me, but I really enjoyed this one. It's about enjoying your body in a non-sexual way. I'm all about loving your body, but I will admit that's usually done in a sexual context. It was really interesting to think about my body as this awesome machine that is so efficient at getting things done.

Last night, I stared at my face in the mirror for like five minutes wondering what I'm going to look like when I'm old and wrinkly. Not in a worried about getting old way, but in an "I'm still going to be beautiful when I'm an old fart" way.

So the moral of the story is: everything that's awful now will eventually go away. And your body is awesome.

Whooh.

Tomorrow is my last day of classes! Then I'll be back to my blog, I swear. I've been swamped with papers, projects and presentations, but it's finally coming to an end.

Let's play a game: match the topic of my final project to the class it goes with!

Standardized Testing

Euphemism

Science Fiction

The Vagina Monologues

American Literature III

Grammar

Professional Communication

Teaching and Learning in a Diverse Society

Actually, that's not that hard. Meh. I'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for staying with me while I've been busy! :D

30 for 30: Days 19-24

I've been lazy/sick and wearing a lot of sweatpants (alot of sweatpants) lately, so these past six days have taken longer to six days. Only six more, though, and I'm done! Hooray!

Books I Done Been Readin

You gots to git yerselfs to the li-bay-ree fer these book learnins.

Seriously, though. I read a whole lot over my Thanksgiving break. And since Jillie asked me what I thought of I am Legend, I figured I'd tell EVERYONE what I thought of it! And the other books I read in the past week!

One. I am Legend by Richard Matheson
     I absolutely devoured this book. Seriously. I read it inside of 24 hours, while still having classes to go to and work to do. It's a post-apocalyptic vampire story, but it's not like any other vampire story I've read. It's more like a zombie-type story, where the hero is the last one who hasn't been infected by the plague. I haven't seen the movie, but from what I hear, the ending is changed in a way I would find quite unsatisfactory, having read the book.

Two. Blindness by Jose Saramago
     Yep. Another book in which the future is shitty. Actually, it's set in the present, but it's still got a post-apocalyptic feel to it. It kind of chronicles the apocalypse as it happens. Anyway, in the book, everyone in the world is blind except one person. Needless to say, chaos ensues. This book is not one to read if you don't like conflict. It's got everything: rape, murder, starvation, looting. It's an unsettlingly close look at the darker sides of human nature. But fear not, there is a happy ending!

Three. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
     I can't believe it took me this long to get around to reading this book. It's absolutely wonderful! There's nothing I can say about this book that will encompass all of its meaning and beauty. Just read it.

And that's it. Right now, I'm reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Unfortunately, though, I have a whole lot of work to do wrapping up the semester, so I don't have much time to read. As soon as winter break comes, though, there are two things I plan on doing for a month and a half: reading and sewing. All else is secondary.

Unrelated photo. I amuse myself.