.... when you're totally unfocused and finding the weirdest things to fixate on. My current preoccupations include:
1. The Daily Frenchie: Pictures and captions of adorable little doggies, anyone?
2. Christmas cookies: or how many I can eat without gaining more than one full pound (I've only gained 1/2 pound since the baked goods madness started)
3. Orlando shopping Recognizance: Actually plotting out my day of shopping (3 malls, one epic day) and imagining how far my shopping allowance will stretch.
4. Daydreaming not of the vacation itself, but of boarding the plane for a 12-hour trip to the destination. I need a break so badly that I'm looking forward to the PLANE RIDE. Seriously?!
2 1/2 hours until the weekend, then I just have to suffer through Monday at work... but let's be honest, I've been mentally on vacation all week.....
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Roaming Thoughts
Being bored at work or just plain tired of my daily routine gets me thinking about alternative options. Without a doubt, I will be spending the next 5+ years working an office job and living a fairly common American lifestyle: I will focus on paying off student debt, making a comfortable home, staying in shape, making strides toward starting a family, maintaining friendships and building on hobbies.
Many people in their twenties and early thirties will spend this time living a more vagabond lifestyle, a lifestyle I would gladly embrace were it not for the gobs of student debt I took on in order to attend law school. If I could have it my way, I'd go the route of Jodi Ettenburg and use my education to build a self-employed, part-time career out of traveling and having interesting life experiences. But Ettenburg is Canadian, so her government caps her student debt somewhere more reasonable AND she worked at a major NYC law firm for several years. Odds are her financial situation is what I can only hope mine will be in 15 years. So I need to adjust my thinking. Instead of being a 27 year old vagabond, I hope to be a 35 year old expat of sorts. Basically I'll live my life in reverse: work my ass off as a young attorney then call it quits and live a very frugal but fulfilling lifestyle until the money runs out. Repeat.
I have a lot of different travel/life experience dreams for Leigh and myself: setting up shop in Southeast Asia to work for a non-profit or write a book, seeing the world by bicycle with intermittent stops in places that speak to us, taking epic journeys like the new cross-continental train from Paris to Moscow. completing a fellowship or two in various locations to do research, and going to business school in Europe all sound amazing. Of course I can't do all of these things, but the fact that I'm excited about so many different options tells me, at the very least, that I have a lot of living to do. The key is making it happen.
Last night I found a page on Matador advertising their new travel writing/photography/film programs. The courses are online and cheap, really cheap. It's no guarantee of a job and it's possible that it's just a way to get people like me to fork over a couple hundred bucks to further a hobby, but it's something to think about. I already have an education and I'm building a career in a lucrative field, so I'd hardly be putting all my eggs in one basket. If I was ready to take a career break now I'd probably start by enrolling in a travel writing course and relocate somewhere interesting with a low cost of living to use as my living classroom. If things took off I'd take on assignments and ride it out for a while. If not, I'd enjoy my leave of absence and go back to my life. No harm, no foul.
Leigh thinks I just have a lot of ideas, and she's right, but when I mention these things and say "and you could volunteer or take cooking classes!" she gets pretty excited about it. It just goes back to my life motto: everyone should live their best, most exciting life. Right now my best life is finding a job that is challenging and uses my education. I want to see where that takes me. My best life is also honoring the family I'm building and the community I'm becoming a part of. Later, when I have the financial and professional freedom to make decisions based on inspiration, my best life will be something very different.
Many people in their twenties and early thirties will spend this time living a more vagabond lifestyle, a lifestyle I would gladly embrace were it not for the gobs of student debt I took on in order to attend law school. If I could have it my way, I'd go the route of Jodi Ettenburg and use my education to build a self-employed, part-time career out of traveling and having interesting life experiences. But Ettenburg is Canadian, so her government caps her student debt somewhere more reasonable AND she worked at a major NYC law firm for several years. Odds are her financial situation is what I can only hope mine will be in 15 years. So I need to adjust my thinking. Instead of being a 27 year old vagabond, I hope to be a 35 year old expat of sorts. Basically I'll live my life in reverse: work my ass off as a young attorney then call it quits and live a very frugal but fulfilling lifestyle until the money runs out. Repeat.
I have a lot of different travel/life experience dreams for Leigh and myself: setting up shop in Southeast Asia to work for a non-profit or write a book, seeing the world by bicycle with intermittent stops in places that speak to us, taking epic journeys like the new cross-continental train from Paris to Moscow. completing a fellowship or two in various locations to do research, and going to business school in Europe all sound amazing. Of course I can't do all of these things, but the fact that I'm excited about so many different options tells me, at the very least, that I have a lot of living to do. The key is making it happen.
Last night I found a page on Matador advertising their new travel writing/photography/film programs. The courses are online and cheap, really cheap. It's no guarantee of a job and it's possible that it's just a way to get people like me to fork over a couple hundred bucks to further a hobby, but it's something to think about. I already have an education and I'm building a career in a lucrative field, so I'd hardly be putting all my eggs in one basket. If I was ready to take a career break now I'd probably start by enrolling in a travel writing course and relocate somewhere interesting with a low cost of living to use as my living classroom. If things took off I'd take on assignments and ride it out for a while. If not, I'd enjoy my leave of absence and go back to my life. No harm, no foul.
Leigh thinks I just have a lot of ideas, and she's right, but when I mention these things and say "and you could volunteer or take cooking classes!" she gets pretty excited about it. It just goes back to my life motto: everyone should live their best, most exciting life. Right now my best life is finding a job that is challenging and uses my education. I want to see where that takes me. My best life is also honoring the family I'm building and the community I'm becoming a part of. Later, when I have the financial and professional freedom to make decisions based on inspiration, my best life will be something very different.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Ready for 2012
It's not New Year's yet. Not even close, really. But next Monday is my last work day of 2011 and my last day in Alaska until the New Year. So in my mind 2011 is over and done with and I'm ready to start feeling good about 2012.
I've never been big on New Year's Resolutions, but some years they're more necessary or desirable than others. I think 2012 is the ideal year for me to have some serious resolutions. Why, you ask? Because my 2011 was really difficult and strange and my life changed a lot. I finished up one clerkship and started another. So this was the first year I was employed the entire time as a legal professional without being enrolled in school. I also had some major personal changes like buying a house, dealing with a family loss, and changing my lifestyle to fit a recently discovered medical issue. I gained new friends, started a new chapter of my life and started losing weight and getting healthier in all manner of ways. So, for me, 2012 will be an opportunity to build on these positive changes.
Here are my resolutions for 2012:
1. Find a new job: My current position ends in August 2012, so I need to focus a lot of energy on finding a new way to make my mortgage payments when that ends. I also see this as an opportunity to finally get a position that is permanent, challenging, and something resembling the reason I went to law school.
2. Reduce my body fat by 10%: Weight loss is a common resolution. It makes sense- we spend roughly a month eating holiday foods and being lazy in the winter weather. 've been really lax about counting calories and exercising since Thanksgiving. I'm sure by New Year's I will have regained a few of the pounds I lost this past year. But that's not the reason I added this resolution. Since May 2011 I've lost as much as 14 pounds. Now that I've put a few back on, I can safely say I'm a good 10 pounds lighter. But I still have a ways to go before I feel like I'm at a good stopping point. Instead of saying I want to lose 15 more pounds, I would rather focus on body fat percentage. Sure, it will seem like a slower process, but this will help me to refocus on fitness rather than thinness. My ultimate goal is to have roughly 21% body fat, or at least under 25%, which is the average for women. This means lots of lean muscle and general weight loss. How will I achieve this, you ask?
3. Join a gym: I know, I know, so cliché! But it works. Leigh and I love to ski and I love to ride bikes in the warm months, but sometimes playing outside just isn't practical because of dark afternoons or crappy weather. Sometimes you need motivation, nice facilities, or a group class to keep you on track. We already found an awesome gym near our house that we can afford and it offers everything we had both hoped for. It even has a sauna, steam room and massage services. These are creature comforts that we can all benefit from but that I rarely allow for myself. Which brings me to #4.
4. Make Time to Be Good to Myself: I'm a logical person. I don't do anything without a good reason. In my mind, the best reason to do anything is because it's frugal or practical or accomplishes multiple things at a time. This rarely translates to doing something nice for myself. In fact, it usually means I wear my clothes until they have holes in them, don't buy extra things without prompting from Leigh, plan trips on a shoestring budget even if I don't have to, and only get my haircut when I start to resemble a 14 year-old Harry Potter. I'm a 26 year-old professional with a liveable salary. What gives?! Well, I've never given myself permission to spend a little extra on the things that make all the difference. So by joining a gym with extra amenities and enjoying things like getting haircuts and wearing clothes I feel good in, I hope the small additional expenses will add up to a higher quality of life and maybe even a higher salary because of my additional confidence.
5. Give Back: As long as I am focusing on my own quality of life, hopefully I can take some time to focus on others too. Leigh and I have been talking about adopting a Little Sister next year through the BBBS Anchorage program. It would be fun to have a young person to play sports with, take to movies, etc. Plus this program is well-respected and worthy of our support. Another way we've talked about giving back is by taking collections next time we throw a party. We have over 20 people attend our Mad Men party. If we throw a spring party and ask everyone to bring a much-needed item for a local charity (like toiletries for a homeless shelter), we can enjoy the company of our friends and give something back to this community that has welcomed us so quickly.
I've never been big on New Year's Resolutions, but some years they're more necessary or desirable than others. I think 2012 is the ideal year for me to have some serious resolutions. Why, you ask? Because my 2011 was really difficult and strange and my life changed a lot. I finished up one clerkship and started another. So this was the first year I was employed the entire time as a legal professional without being enrolled in school. I also had some major personal changes like buying a house, dealing with a family loss, and changing my lifestyle to fit a recently discovered medical issue. I gained new friends, started a new chapter of my life and started losing weight and getting healthier in all manner of ways. So, for me, 2012 will be an opportunity to build on these positive changes.
Here are my resolutions for 2012:
1. Find a new job: My current position ends in August 2012, so I need to focus a lot of energy on finding a new way to make my mortgage payments when that ends. I also see this as an opportunity to finally get a position that is permanent, challenging, and something resembling the reason I went to law school.
2. Reduce my body fat by 10%: Weight loss is a common resolution. It makes sense- we spend roughly a month eating holiday foods and being lazy in the winter weather. 've been really lax about counting calories and exercising since Thanksgiving. I'm sure by New Year's I will have regained a few of the pounds I lost this past year. But that's not the reason I added this resolution. Since May 2011 I've lost as much as 14 pounds. Now that I've put a few back on, I can safely say I'm a good 10 pounds lighter. But I still have a ways to go before I feel like I'm at a good stopping point. Instead of saying I want to lose 15 more pounds, I would rather focus on body fat percentage. Sure, it will seem like a slower process, but this will help me to refocus on fitness rather than thinness. My ultimate goal is to have roughly 21% body fat, or at least under 25%, which is the average for women. This means lots of lean muscle and general weight loss. How will I achieve this, you ask?
3. Join a gym: I know, I know, so cliché! But it works. Leigh and I love to ski and I love to ride bikes in the warm months, but sometimes playing outside just isn't practical because of dark afternoons or crappy weather. Sometimes you need motivation, nice facilities, or a group class to keep you on track. We already found an awesome gym near our house that we can afford and it offers everything we had both hoped for. It even has a sauna, steam room and massage services. These are creature comforts that we can all benefit from but that I rarely allow for myself. Which brings me to #4.
4. Make Time to Be Good to Myself: I'm a logical person. I don't do anything without a good reason. In my mind, the best reason to do anything is because it's frugal or practical or accomplishes multiple things at a time. This rarely translates to doing something nice for myself. In fact, it usually means I wear my clothes until they have holes in them, don't buy extra things without prompting from Leigh, plan trips on a shoestring budget even if I don't have to, and only get my haircut when I start to resemble a 14 year-old Harry Potter. I'm a 26 year-old professional with a liveable salary. What gives?! Well, I've never given myself permission to spend a little extra on the things that make all the difference. So by joining a gym with extra amenities and enjoying things like getting haircuts and wearing clothes I feel good in, I hope the small additional expenses will add up to a higher quality of life and maybe even a higher salary because of my additional confidence.
5. Give Back: As long as I am focusing on my own quality of life, hopefully I can take some time to focus on others too. Leigh and I have been talking about adopting a Little Sister next year through the BBBS Anchorage program. It would be fun to have a young person to play sports with, take to movies, etc. Plus this program is well-respected and worthy of our support. Another way we've talked about giving back is by taking collections next time we throw a party. We have over 20 people attend our Mad Men party. If we throw a spring party and ask everyone to bring a much-needed item for a local charity (like toiletries for a homeless shelter), we can enjoy the company of our friends and give something back to this community that has welcomed us so quickly.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Holiday Season
I'm told it's the holiday season, but the only indication of this is the amount of red and green everywhere. Leigh and I have been down in the dumps big time these last few weeks. I think it's the weather and we're not getting nearly enough exercise. We had a few weeks of good snow for skiing, but the temperatures were so low it was pretty uncomfortable to be outside for more than an hour, and that was pushing it. Then over the weekend the temperatures were in the 40's, which was great for a break from the bitter cold but also caused a lot of rain and melted snow. Now we have bare pavement and ice everywhere, so no more skiing for a while. I anticipate a lot of dark evenings watching TV, drinking wine, and slowly gaining a few winter pounds.
It's not all bad though, the weekend before Thanksgiving we threw a Mad Men party at our house. It was our "house-warming/Emily wants to throw a party" party. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing because I had never thrown a party before and it was proving to be quite a project. In the end the whole thing cost me about $300 in food, booze and decorations, plus Leigh and I had to put together outfits. But the result was completely worth it: We had at least 25 people crammed into our tiny house, great music, people brought snacks and drinks to help keep things moving, and our guests put a lot of effort into their outfits. I was so touched that they took the party as seriously as I did. It made the whole experience so much fun!
It's not all bad though, the weekend before Thanksgiving we threw a Mad Men party at our house. It was our "house-warming/Emily wants to throw a party" party. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing because I had never thrown a party before and it was proving to be quite a project. In the end the whole thing cost me about $300 in food, booze and decorations, plus Leigh and I had to put together outfits. But the result was completely worth it: We had at least 25 people crammed into our tiny house, great music, people brought snacks and drinks to help keep things moving, and our guests put a lot of effort into their outfits. I was so touched that they took the party as seriously as I did. It made the whole experience so much fun!
Some of our nearest and dearest: Joan, Leigh and I, our friend Leslie, my former co-worker Nicole, and a new friend Hannah. Joanie helped us a lot with putting this party together and was an amazing go-to person for ideas and coordinating.
We had Heineken, of course, and I drank most of it myself. Yum!
And a VERY full house. At one point I realized that I didn't know a lot of people there! Then I realized that a bunch of people were dancing. Amazing. I even got to see my old roommate from NYC for the first time in 2 or 3 years. Our house felt so warm and lively that I think we'll make theme parties an annual or semi-annual event.Speaking of parties, this weekend Leigh and I are going to Nicole's (see above) "ugly sweater party" and next weekend we're going to our other friends' Christmas house-warming party. Apparently when you live in a cold, dark place it's normal to plan tons of gatherings with friends, drink, and eat a lot. Sounds good to me!
In other news, my law review article is FINISHED and SUBMITTED. I don't find out if it'll be published until mid-January. That's fine though, I'm just glad to have that off my plate. Plus I finished a job application today. I'll be curious to see how much free time I have now that these projects are completed. Additionally, since I've submitted my first application all subsequent applications should be a lot easier. Maybe after Christmas I'll start papering the city with my awesomeness in hopes of getting some interviews.
So that's a recap of life in Anchorage. In exactly TWO WEEKS Leigh and I will be on a plane to Florida. Maybe then I'll start really getting into the holiday spirit....
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