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.

Nothing fun

I'm going to do something fun this weekend.  I don't know what, but I'll find something.  I've been doing so much work that I'm fairly certain that I've gone insane.

2015 Resolutions

I'm happy to say that I did ok on my 2014 resolutions. I read quite a bit. I'm going to say my new hobby is organizing my apartment. I guess Spanish is also one. I'm still fairly addicted to my electronics though, so I definitely need to work on that. The friend thing was about something specific and I got better at that too. Overall, not bad. I at least made progress on them all.

I am thinking about five resolutions this year. I can't do 15, but I think five is a nice number. I really haven't thought a lot about them before this second, so we'll see if I can come up with five. 

1. Be healthier. I'm making this kind of broad. I don't need to lose weight exactly, but I want to be more active and especially eat and drink healthier. A lot healthier. I'm not really starting out on the best foot as I am surrounded by sugar, but I'm really going to actively try to be healthier. Do more things at the gym. Go outside more.  Try drinking more tea and less fancy coffee drinks. Eat more vegetables and way less processed food.

2. Save money.  I might need to get rid of Amazon Prime. I love it but I'm fairly sure that I'm buying things because I can. I really want to pay down or off my credit cards and maybe even my car loan. I do really like the music part of prime so I think I just need to learn self-control. I need to learn it in a lot of areas, but I'll start with money.

3. Go to new places. I was great at this at first, living in LA, because everything was new. Now it takes a bit more motivation and research.  I'm going to be ambitious in a way and say 15 for 2015.  Spring will be busy with work stuff, but Kendra and Jon are planning on coming this summer and that will motivate me to go to new places.

4.  Cook at least four real meals a month. This doesn't sound like a lot, but it goes along with being healthy. I'm really good at packaged meals or cereal, but SUCK at cooking an actual meal. Easier on weekends if I'm not being lazy.

5.  Let things go/stop obsessing. This, again, like the friend thing, is related to something specific. That's all that needs to go on here.

I think that's a pretty good list. The special Ed teacher in me thinks they are attainable in a year. Measurable, maybe not, but attainable nonetheless.