JUST BOUGHT WELDING here for $85 through LivingSocial.

So. Freaking Excited.

I’ve been itching to take welding for FOREVER.

Anyhoo, my performance here has been languishing since I had to opted to get another job to pay my bills. I know this. I haven’t taken as many random classes – partially because of the money involved and partially because my money has also been going to acting classes. But that got me thinking about my semi-disposal income and what I’ve chosen to spend it on. Then I was wondering how much money I’ve spent on classes. I generally appreciate other blogs that include lots of transparency, so I started to draft this post and calculate the costs associated with them. Holy crap, I’ve spent a lot of money on classes! My very loose estimations/calculations put this around $1500.

Which is a decent amount of money. However, that said, if you average it out over the course of say, 18 months, it’s <$100 month. In which case it doesn’t sound so awful.

So here is a general breakdown of how I’ve rocked it in classes:

LivingSocial:

Note: I worked for LivingSocial Adventures for a few months and was able to do some classes as a guide so I didn’t pay for them, like standup paddleboard.

Sailing $350 -(not included) I recently sold this on dealsgoround because I wasn’t going to be able to make it back to NYC this summer for it. Very sad.

Climbing $110

Acting (life’s a stage) $49

Beer class $10

Shooting $23

Acting -donelli $48

westside rifle – gift!

stunts (30) – gift!

driving $250

cooking – gernis -$25 each

burrito bar $10

GROUPON

horseback riding $25

Salsa (dancing)- $20

boot camp $29

boot camp (bcor) $35 – yet to use

fishing $37

grilling $49

hula $29

boxing/kickboxing $19

photography $49

boot camp $29

hot yoga $19

knitting $17

make up $19

sewing $60

purepower boot camp $80

boxing $48

crepes $32

My own resourceful researching:

poker ($50)

Archery $65

more sewing

Gardening – $35

Composting -$35

Krav Maga – $20

So while I’ve tossed healthy chunk of change at classes, I really truly love learning new things. In fact, I’ve been remiss with non-acting classes lately but getting geared up for welding class is making me excited all over again. I miss getting new settings and learning random things. Maybe those Mastercard commercials are kinda right. Rich is nice. Priceless is better.

It’s Father’s Day! For me that makes me think of old cars, Click and Clack (sad! but understandable), Hot Rods, purple safety glasses, and Hersheypark.

As I’ve mentioned, my pops is  the shiznit. He’s always been a Mr. Fix-it and has immense knowledge and talent around home improvement, mechanical engineering and design. He’s built dorm-room lofts, lights, mailboxes, porches, cars. You name it, he can make it.

When I visited the ‘rents last December, Pops & I hung out a bit. We chatted about lots of things and a lot about cars and people. Knowing I’ve been working on being a Jill of Some Trades, my pops spent some time giving me some background info on VWs so we can take our baby steps on working this most adorable VW Beetle.

He’ll hate me posting a video where he’s involved, but sorry, Dad! You’re amazing! This is a brief snippet where my pops is explaining a bit about VWs and heating. Tthe amount of knowledge he has in his head is incredible. I would’ve posted this video ages ago but ran into some computer issues (namely mine died and it took me forever to get a new one).

So here’s to dads of all trades. Take a minute to think about what learned from your dad. How has it changed who you are? It doesn’t have to be something huge like auto repair or how to make a 7 course meal, but could be something small like how to make really excellent bacon,  the difference between a phillips head or a flat head, or righty tighty, lefty loosey.

*Note: Yes this post is about my pops and no, I didn’t do one about my mother. However, my ma is impressive in her own right and was largely responsible for my ability to read, figure out public transportation and become an absurdly independent woman who is more action than talk, resulting in actually tackling said trades.

This post goes under Random Musings. Over the last month or so I’ve been deliberating on doing a  challenges. Lots of people undertake challenges. Some people live Biblically for an entire year – The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. Others don’t buy anything for a year Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping. Some opt to wear only 30 items for 30 days. Others wear one item for one year. Most of people tend to do this around January every year. Well, I’m not most people. And I’m ADHD so maintaining something for an entire year seems like a bit much. So I’ve opted to do one year of 30 day challenges. When am I starting? A week ago. Yeah. I know.

What types of things will be occurring and when? This was a bit of a strategic decision. I didn’t want to do anything too drastic that I wouldn’t actually follow through on and I didn’t want anything too easy that would make it insignificant. I also didn’t want it to be a Year of No. I didn’t want it to be a year of no this, no that, blah blah. Way too negative. So I tried to balance it a bit. So here’s what I came up with:

June 
Get rid of one thing a day – photos posted on Instagram _keylor_

July
Take a photo every day – photos posted on Instagram

August
No sugar for 30 days

September
A thank you card a day

October
Workout every day

November
Write for 30 min every day – this corresponds with NaNoWriMo. I mean, I should write a book or something, right?

December
Cash only – this means advance planning for holiday gifts ordered online and cash budget for December. This does not include regular bills paid by online banking.

January
No dining out – This makes sense on the heels of the indulgent holiday season.

February
Only 30 items from wardrobe – this should help curb the urge for spring shopping

March
Take Lola out to play for at least 30 min every day.

April
Read for an hour (this may also involve no TV/Netflix/Hulu)

May
No cellphone – this will be tough.

A few random ones that didn’t make it into the official list for this year but have the option of being included or swapped out for one this year:

• No spending
• No dairy
• No car
• Talk to a family member every day

Wanna join me? Wanna swap out a month of mine for something of your own? Sweet! Tell us about it, maybe we’ll switch one out too. Invite your friends. A month is just long enough to make it challenging but just short enough not to make you crazy.

Last night I had the pleasure of listening to Sir Chris Guillebeau chat about his experiences and promote his new book The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future at Changing Hands bookstore. There were a solid number of people in attendance – I thought a fight might break out for the remaining seats.

I must say I did actually read the book prior to the book signing and talk last night and was motivated by the variety of stories it contained. He makes starting your own business sound so easy. I’ve now even been contemplating starting yet another side hustle. But while I’m working out the details on that, I’ve been busy getting STOKED for #wds2012. Somehow I managed to let the energy of last year’s kickass conference slip away and  I’m glad to be getting it back.  I mean, what the hell have I been doing?! The road to hell is paved with my good intentions for posting… I’ve been drafting posts for about a month now.  Enough! I’m posting. Remove my section from that road!

I’ve been taking acting classes. Not just taking acting classes for the sake of taking classes but actively pursuing acting as an endeavor. I got a great photographer friend to take my headshots, I got an agent, started taking more classes and actually going on auditions. I’ve landed a few small roles in a couple things like this student film -

Scary, right?

I’m also now continuously taking classes. Everyone keeps saying that the good actors are continually taking classes and continually learning and honing their skills. Personally, I love taking classes and I love the people I take classes with. As we’ve previously covered I also love learning, so acting lines up perfectly.

Being new to acting lends itself to lots of questions: How long have you been acting? Umm, since February. What made you get into acting (now)? Uhhh.

GREAT question. I haven’t devised a good answer yet. What makes you take action at a certain point in time? What’s the last thing you started new and what made you finally take action? What is your catalyst? What makes you finally start?

Typically, I’m a woman of action. Once I make a decision, I’m on it. I don’t necessarily fear “failure” like many people do and I’m always willing to learn from my fuck-ups less than stellar decisions and truly view them as opportunities to grow. So my inability to take action wasn’t from a fear of failure. I realized it was more that I just flat out didn’t know what to do. The entertainment industry is not exactly easy to navigate. I wasn’t in theater as a child. Never took any acting classes in high school or college. Never really took any acting classes at all until about a year ago. I’ve done some occasional/casual modeling in the past but nothing particularly formal requiring any knowledge of the industry. So what made me (a decisive action taking woman) decide to start this now? Well for one, my beloved actor friend Salim has been harassing me for years (thanks, Salim!). Two, I’ve been asked before if I’m an actor or in the arts – I chalk it up to my oversized hair, animated speech, and plethora of indiscernible facial expressions but I’ll call that an element of reinforcement. Three, I took a class and then another as a result of this blog. In the last class I took, the instructor was really encouraging of me to pursue acting and handed me a resource list. This is what I credit with my finally taking action. Without having any information or even anyone to ask, I felt lost. Google wasn’t particularly helpful. Once I had a list of people to contact and outlets to pursue in this market I no longer had any excuses. I had support, reinforcement, and information.

Is there something you’ve been meaning to do and haven’t? What’s keeping you from starting? What excuses are you using to keep yourself from progressing? Have you been meaning to start your own business? The $100 Startup pretty much lays out what you need to do. Have you been meaning to pick up a new hobby? Pick up an old hobby that you let fall by the wayside? Ask yourself what’s keeping you from starting up. Then ask yourself what you need to do to just start. Need support or reinforcement? Let’s start a club. I keep you in check and free from excuses and you do the same for me.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really need to get moving on some t-shirts that I’ve been meaning to print.

Ahem. Service,  please.  God, does anyone even work here?

Ever notice how everyday life gets in the way of what-you-want life? Like how gradually things you prioritized fall by the wayside.  Mfer, that’s annoying.  Getting back on track is tricky too. I’ve been reading up on creating habits and how they help solidify the changes and behaviors you want. But it’s not always so easy to create a new habit. I’ve been meaning to floss my teeth every day for about 8 years now.

As you may know, I’ve been keeping busy while allowing this site to languish significantly more than I’d like. I’m not especially proud of that. Working for The Man has been creeping up on me and heyzeus christo, blogs take a lot of work. But what I want to do is get back to those glorious days of yore.  With classes galore, video posts,  learning, archery! I’ve been dipping a toe in, but my still depleted savings account and scheduling implores me to take it easy.

And then sometimes motivation just shows up and slaps you in the face. And sometimes it just shows up in the form of a seemingly innocuous email.  Like say from #wds HQ.

You may or may not recall I could barely contain myself last year upon returning from this conference. It was exactly the kick in the pants I needed to quit my job and start living life even more. For some crazy reason (finances!),  I had been contemplating selling my ticket to some lucky bastard who could take my place. But that email arrived with a listing of potential workshops and I almost peed myself. Holy balls they looked amazing! I couldn’t pass that up! I have to go.

Now, all that said, I’m working on getting back on track. I probably have been a bit too eager in the past and should post a little less frequently. That’s cool. I can do that. I don’t have ridiculous amounts of time (or money!) to throw at things, so I’ll have to be a little more creative. But we can do that. I mean that’s what you do, right? You fall of track and then you recenter, remotivate and get back on track. Some times it’s faster than other times, but you ultimately get your ass moving again. Because it’s about where you want to be, not necessarily where you are right this second.

Y’know, I think it’s time to break out the JOST t-shirt again and get crackin’. Speaking of, you want one? Portland hasn’t seen it yet and let’s be honest, the logo is badass…