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…

Remember that time I salivated on TED? Yeah, it was awhile ago, but it still holds true. Only now, yours truly really sorta got to make out with TED. OK, maybe we didn’t make out but we at least said hi to each other. Virtually.

Now, for the record, I refuse to watch this unless I have another TED talk to do. Then I’ll revisit and correct. However, otherwise, I don’t want to fixate on all the things I did wrong and what I forgot. So yeah, not watching. But don’t let that stop you from watching.

Now that it’s safely in the rear view mirror, I do have to say that retrospectively, it was fun and that the talk itself touches on why I started taking classes in the first place.

Admittedly, I’ve been pretty hit or miss with the blog lately (mostly miss) but because of some of my less-than-stellar decisions in the semi-recent past, I’ve had to sacrifice some of my spending on classes. I’ve also been spending more time working than I’d like.  But I view this as a short-term issue.

If you haven’t added JOST to your Reader or signed up for emails, now’s probably a good time to do that.

Hello friends,

It’s been quite some time.  I rather dropped the ball. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. See while I was enjoying my downtime and posting like a madwoman during November and into December (woo!), I was simultaneously hemorrhaging cash out of my savings account(s).  As I became gradually aware of my diminishing cash stash, I became increasingly panicked. I occasionally panic while making sammiches.

OK I don’t panic while making sammiches, but I do love MST3000 and that line will forever make me laugh.  I do, however,  mildly panic when it comes to finances. It’s one of the few things that legitimately stress me out.

So friends, I panicked and I ditched the blog. I hustled my booty along searching for a wide variety of sources of income.  And I found a couple.  Yes, perhaps you want to know what they are. Let’s just say I’m learning a handful of new things and I’m learning a lot about people. Anyhoo,  my apologies for being MIA for an entire month.  I wasn’t spending lots of money on lessons. But I see 2012 as a transition year – and for the record, yes, I’m still planning on learning how to sail. And I’m also planning on visiting pops and getting a bit more of a lesson on Superstar (a name I’ve JUST given the Beetle – feel free to suggest your own – variations of superstars, supermodels, supernovas, superwhatevers are all welcome).  I have video from my holiday visit   with pops (who seriously completely rocks ass) but in the midst of hemorrhaging cash, my Flip also died and my computer crashed. Suffice it to say my netbook is not a fan of video editing. Good times! Great for blogging! You’re totally jealous, right? Right. I knew it.

I haven’t learned any new impressive skills in the past month(s) although salsa and burlesque are on the way. So, I’m sorry, I’ve been bad. I should be spanked. Or something. I’m working on getting back in the groove. Thank you for being patient with me.

<3

Yep. That’s right. Hula. Dancing, not hoops. Though evidently hooping is also all the rage at the moment with some of the cool kids.  I, however, am keeping it real. Out here in the desert. The tropical oasis that Phoenix is. Anyhoo, so I picked up some hula classes at Tropical Polynesian Productions. Rarely one to lack enthusiasm or preparation for fun things, I watched a video or two to get motivated.

OK maybe not quite like that, but close.

I was pretty stoked to learn some Polynesian dance moves. See, my friend May runs a Polynesian dance studio called Polynesian Dance Productions in New York (videos below!), but I never took any of her classes while I was there. Because I was a big slacker.Which is unfortunate because May is all kinds of awesome. So with thoughts of making May proud, I put on my pareo and headed out to the northwest side of Phoenix for some hip shaking instruction.

Now, there are two main types of hula – Hawaiian and Tahitian. Hawaiian hula is the slower, more fluid looking dance.

Tahitian hula is the wicked fast hip shaking dance.

Guess which one I was dying to learn?

Our class was small and comfortable. A few students had been taking lessons for awhile, so I was the only noob. Kalena, the instructor, was really all about making sure you master the basics. We started with Hawaiian hula and some really basic steps.  We pretty much did the same step for about 5-7 minutes before moving on to the next one. After learning a few steps for Hawaiian, we switched over to Tahitian and did some basic steps there. Again spending 5-7 minutes on each step. We paraded ourselves around in a square while practicing turning and rehearsing each step. While it didn’t seem like you were exercising, you should know that there was enough hip movement that my hips were actually tired at the end of classes.

Alas, Kalena would not let me shoot video during class, so no sexy hula videos for you. Sad. Warning: rant- I hate when people do that. I can genuinely recognize and respect the art of things and all; however, I’m not out to steal your secrets, people!  Not to mention there’s this little thing called the Internet, where you can find out how to do just about anything on your own. All I’m trying to do is document and demonstrate my lack of skill. Not broadcast all your teaching secrets on the Interwebs. I mean, jeez. /rant.

Thing I learned: Repetition is good (sometimes). Though I generally resist mastery for a lot of things, I can appreciate laying the groundwork for upcoming layers. I suppose I’ll need to apply that to more things in my life. Probably could’ve used that for rock climbing…

So, I genuinely liked the hula classes and would’ve continued on (and joined the dance company!)  if it weren’t for 2 things:

1) It was wicked far away from my house. Not a fan of long commutes.

2) Tae Kwon Do runs on the same nights.

However, I do feel that perhaps a Hawaiian luau themed party may need to happen in the backyard. You bring the coconuts, I’ll bring the hips.

Photo by Prestonise

Image by Immrchris

So friends, I started Tae Kwon Do this week. I’m pretty stoked about it right now. Full post to follow in a few weeks. It got me thinking, what do you do when you have a lot of interests? Or when you’re good at a lot of things? How do you decide what to do? I really like most of the things I’ve done so far. You know I love archery and shooting. I love car racing too, though it’s a wee bit cost prohibitive. Jury is still out on outdoor rock climbing, though I’d do it again after a bit more indoor practice. But how do I decide on what I’d really like to continue on to do? I mean there are only so many hours in a week, and while I’m currently funemployed (it’s getting less fun by the day, but I AM getting some great workouts in), at some point I’ll have more work to do and less time to play. Probably like how you also only have a certain number of hours for playtime in a given week.

Image by marmit

Have you dropped a hobby recently? Have you added one? What helped you make the decision? I can’t figure out what to add to my regular curriculum. Archery is doable because it’s just on Saturdays and I can borrow equipment. Shooting is a little different. Neither of my roommates are especially fond of guns so I’d like to respect that and maybe hold off on getting one. At least until they feel slightly more comfortable with them or we work out some sort of agreement. So that means I can either go to the shooting range on ladies night (awesome, btw) but I’ll still A) be using rental guns – which are generally sucky and B) be paying for ammo at the range. Motorcycles even are a stretch unless I actually buy one (which I’d still like to do. When I actually have income).

Image by evobrained

Obviously some of my choices are financially limited, but aren’t everyone’s? I mean you make conscious decisions on what to spend your money on. If you don’t, you probably should. I don’t especially care about dining out, but I recognize some foodies really love scoping out new restaurants. So dining out takes priority for some people, for others, shoes are their main concern. Some people really highly value travel (me too!) while others value their home. How on earth do you choose? I mean, I’d really love to have some nicer furniture or say, less drafty windows in my house. And I’d also like to take a trip to Thailand. And shoots bullets and arrows on the regular. I can’t have it all. Or at least not all at once. What’s a girl to do? Sigh. I’m really not good with patience.

OK so, seriously, what do you do? How do you make those kinds of choices and decisions? Do you actually make a conscious decision or do you just “let things happen”? I’m not really that passive so I prefer to actively make choices but that whole paradox of choice thing comes into play.