Summer

Hello!

As of April 27, 2014 I'd lost 15 pounds. As of June 18, 2014 I've lost 26. Geez! I'm hovering around 139 right now, hopefully will get to 135. I've been working a lot lately so it has been hard to manage my crazy specialized diet.

Work is insane. Legal issues that are insane.

This morning I was checking progress on my 2014 new year's resolutions:

• Get to 145 pounds. Status = met that and exceeded it, down to 139.
• Play fantasie impromptu. Status = I can play 3 out of 9 pages.
• Get a new job. Status = I have my first interview soon. Not a lot of jobs are open, but I'm in full applying mode now just watching and waiting for jobs to open up here.
• Go on 12 vacations. Status = 2 vacations, San Juan Islands and Kauai.

I've been having difficulty at work. I'm afraid to talk about it here so I won't. It is a legally precarious situation that is causing me/us a lot of stress.

Hawaii was amazing. The money I shelled out on the penthouse on Kauai was definitely worth it. Comfort and award-winning views.

Here is a view from the dining room table

Here's one of our views from the lanai

Our sail/snorkel cruise along the Na Pali North Shore coast:

I felt so relaxed and happy after being there for a week and a half. The day before we had to come home I started to remember work situations and the anxiety hit my stomach like ghost peppers. It was clear to me what effect this job is having on me. 

Don't get me wrong about the anxiety -- there is a lot of great stuff here. This town is beautiful, the work is exactly what I want to do (minus the legal stuff which I have now spent over 100 hours on...), and I like a ton of the people I work with. It's other things that are forcing me to leave. One reason is that I want to settle down in a bigger city. Other reasons are more important and scary, which is why I'm forced to leave.

I have a list of projects that I want to accomplish before I leave so that I can put them on my resume and use them in the future. This job is amazing in terms of being able to do what I want...it's almost ideal in many ways. I can work on so much stuff and have control over what I work on. I'm trying to work hard on getting those projects accomplished and am starting to make progress -- I have nearly completed 2 of the 6 projects I wanted to push through before I leave.

I'm also excited about traveling. I am currently planning out these trips over the next two years:

2014

• Oregon coast (summer, weekend)
• San Juan Island (summer, weekend)
• Olympic National Forest (summer, weekend)
• Crater Lake (summer, weekend)
• Pacific Crest Trail portion (summer, weekend)

2015

• Mexico (winter, 1 week)
• Philadelphia (week spring, .5 week)
• Ireland/Scotland (summer, 3 weeks)

It's ambitious. That's why I'm planning now so that I can see how much I need to save up. I also am wanting to do this now so that if I get a job soon I can try to bargain in a long trip. For example, when they hire me I could say, "I have previously booked a 3-week vacation next summer -- is that going to be okay?" I'm hoping J can do the same and we can spend 3 weeks over in Ireland and Scotland. 

I feel like right now I could really use an "awakening" trip to get back in touch with myself. Like hiking the whole Pacific Crest Trail, quitting my job and camping for a few months, traveling a foreign country for a couple months, something like that. I decided that I can't do that right now (even though the "live life!" side of me wants to drop everything and do that) because the job market is tough. There are so few job openings here that I don't feel confident I could quit without having a new job. Therefore, I decided I'm going to try to fit in regular traveling while continuing to have a normal working life:

• 1 week tropical vacation every winter
• 2 weeks foreign travel every summer
• Every 3-day holiday weekend should be a local weekend trip

I'm also hoping to work for a global company so that MAYBE someday I could get permission to work from a foreign office for a period of time. I'm visualizing working in London for a summer or something. Especially if I decide to have kids (that is increasingly becoming a really big "if") it would be awesome to live somewhere else during the summer so they can experience other life. Seems like a lot of places on earth aren't really good for traveling right now (Africa, Central America, Middle East, Russia, China), so I'm trying to focus my travel on safer countries for the time being. I've decided that I want to allot a significant portion of my annual budget to travel...maybe $10,000. Maybe less. I dunno. I also need to start a retirement account and pay off huge student loans though...lol.

The ideal life I'm working toward right now is acquiring skills and experience at work, getting a job in Seattle, setting up a garden, and starting to travel and do hobbies again. See friends. I'm getting there. I've made a ton of progress in changing my life in the last year. A ton. Dropped 26 pounds, gained a PhD, another year of relevant work experience, mental health is much improved since the PhD, and I've started to get back to myself. Playing the piano multiple days a week, working out multiple days a week, traveling more, it's all getting me back to myself.