Work life

Work has been insanely stressful this year.  It's consumed me and that's not ok.  Everything was hard.  Not many things seemed to go well.  I'll be really happy when it's over.  One more week and then summer school.  Summer school was promising to be even worse than the school year, but it's looking better now.  Fourteen kids with autism and intense needs is too many in one room.  I feel like this is common sense but it's obviously not.

Why I went....

I'm not outspoken politically.  The more I heard about the women's march happening on January 21st around the country, the more I felt like I couldn't not go.  I don't feel that I marched, but I went.

I went because healthcare is a right, not the privilege it has become.

I went because a man's erection is not more important than my ability to keep my hormones balanced.

I went because no one can tell me what I can do with my own body.

I went because my students are people too and deserve the help they need without outrageous costs.

I went because everyone has a right to feel safe, no matter where they are.

I went because everyone should be heard.

I went because everyone should feel like they've been listened to.

I went because I can.

Getting my life together

I'm pretty proud of the steps I've taken these last few weeks to get my life together.  That's saying a lot since I've been asleep before 9pm every single day.  I don't even have all of my 14 students yet.

The biggest step is that I applied for a loan to work on my credit card debt.  During the worst part of my depression, I did a lot of online shopping.  A. Lot.  Like Seriously.  A. LOT.  I racked up some pretty bad debt.  I opened new credit cards to work on paying down the balance with low APR for transfers, but funny enough, when you don't stop spending, the balances only go up.  So I found a loan that had a lower interest rate on my two highest credit cards.  I shredded my cards awhile ago and I've still definitely slipped, my spending on ridiculous things has gotten MUCH better.  The only thing I plan to put on any cards this year is a trip to see a friend in the Caribbean.  They're only going to be there for two years and I know I'll regret it if I don't go, money or not.  Anyway, the loan lowers my payments and my interest over the payoff, so I feel good about this decision.

The little things I've done the last few weeks are following Apartment Therapy's January Cure.  It's a month of "assignments" that help clean and organize your apartment.  It's done in little steps so you/I don't get overwhelmed by the ginormous task of this cleaning and organization.  I really like it.  I don't do much during the week, but then I catch up on the weekend.  I actually could do more during the week, but getting back into the swing of work was harder than I expected, so I spent most of this last week being exhausted and sleeping when I was actually home.  I would say that this next week will be a little better, but I should have 13/14 students, so probably not right away.

I also signed up for Acorns, which seems to be a simple investing app.  That's all I got about that right now.

In food news, I ordered a week of Marley Spoon.  The first meal I had (lemongrass rice with shrimp and something else) was amazing.  The second, I made today, was kale and sausage soup, like a zuppa I think.  Delicious.  A lot of the recipes don't look as good to me as Blue Apron, but that could be because I'm used to Blue Apron.  Marley Spoon does pack almost all the meals separately, so you don't have to organize it yourself, but they don't label each thing.  That's fine mostly until I come across something I have never used before (lemongrass) and don't totally know what it is.  There's always google though.

2016 Slacker

I posted once in 2016. Good for me....*eye roll*  I thought about it a lot.  That counts for something?

My 2016 resolution was a good one:  Complete Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4.  Not only did I do it, I did it twice.  I'm even 60% through Years 5-7.

I ended up really liking Blue Apron.  Loving it actually, enough that while there are other meal delivery services, I'm afraid or something on trying them because it feels like cheating on Blue Apron.  I'm working on it though and thinking about trying Marley Spoon for at least a week or two.

My 2017 resolutions are much more resolution-y.  Be healthier, so move more and eat cleaner.  Ideally, I would like to lose weight, but I'm not too excited about putting a number on that because I want to actually be successful and not feel like crap if I lose 10 pounds but not 15.  Ah mental health, you're a tricky beast.

I also am continually working on my finances.  I suck at them, so definitely a work in progress.  But at least there's progress.

Blue Apron

This year, I'm continuing my attempts to eat healthier and to learn to cook. Enter Blue Apron! I just completed the third recipe of my first week. The salmon was totally the winner even though I used too much garlic. The buffalo chicken sandwich was good and much easier than the salmon. I learned I don't like endive.The baked eggs was ok. The cheese toast was good. the sauce was eh. It didn't have tons of flavor. One of my eggs was broken so I only had one egg in it. I might use the leftover sauce with pasta or something tomorrow.

I'm switching my delivery to Tuesday, but I'm pretty lazy after work during the week, so we'll see how it goes. 

Two years!

I've lived here for two years now.  Wow!  It feels shorter and longer.  The novelty has worn off finally, I think, but it's still surreal at times.  I realized that I stopped posting this year.  Maybe because of the novelty.  I haven't done as many "touristy" things, but I think I've settled into life here.  I like my job mostly.  It's a better fit than the last one, for sure.  It's harder, but I feel like I belong there.

I was trying to think of highlights this last year.  The main things in my head were leaving though.  Christmas in England.  Thanksgiving, spring break, and summer in South Dakota.  But the big things were Mom coming to visit in February and Kendra and Jon coming in June.  I like having visitors that I can go places with.  I have a few friends here, but it's nice to show people around from back home.

I was home for a few weeks this summer.  It was so nice, but by the last week I was ready to come back here.  That's a good sign that this is where I belong.

Exhaustion

I've realized that my hearing makes me absolutely exhausted.  The past weekend, my cousin was here.  It was nice to see him.  After four straight days of talking and listening and trying to listen, my brain totally shut off.  By the last day, hearing and comprehending was so difficult.  Maybe it was part the last few weeks at school as well and constantly on the go all weekend, but all I did yesterday was sleep.  I tried really hard to get something done, but I could not motivate myself.  I tried watching a movie (Mystic River) but between the sound levels constantly changing and the accents different from what I normally hear, I gave up and took a nap.

Whine whine whine.  I have a lot of students in my class.  I've been told I'm getting more help but it hasn't happened yet.  Honestly, I don't actually expect it to happen, so I guess I'll just live on survival mode for the rest of this year.  Other than having my cousin here and watching the LA marathon on Sunday, I haven't really done anything lately.  Triennials, IEPs, and progress reports have taken up most of my time as well as trying to keep up with the 12 students.  I realize that does not sound like a lot, but unless you've actually been in my classroom, shut up.  Yesterday I slept.  Today I went to the gym at 5:30 (!!!!) and went to Riptide and then Spin.  It's 10 and I'm still hungry.  I don't really want to do school work but I told myself I have to get it done today so I can not do it for the rest of the week.  I'm still debating on going to spin tonight.

I went to an Indo-Row class a few Saturdays ago and loved it.  I started ordering pre-made meals delivered to my house because I hate cooking.  That's going ok so far.  Um....my couch is really comfortable right now and cleaning and laundry is never ending.  That's about it in the life of Kir.