I love my blog. I really do. But my life is so boring that I don’t think that talking about my day is worthy of an update. I have thought on occasion to write about controversial topics, but that would require forming an informed opinion, i.e. doing research and such. Quite frankly, I’m lazy.

I suppose I’ll talk briefly of my personal life. I’ll start with the most important thing: my relationship. Kevin and I have been for about a year and a half, though our actual anniversary date is a bit skewed due to some… uncertainty in the beginning. We’re doing smashingly well now. We have been living together since December, and things couldn’t possibly be better. He is the most amazing man I have ever had the pleasuring of knowing and being in a relationship with.

There’s some confusion as to our actual status because of my wily ways on facebook. Right before I left for Japan in March 2009, I asked Kevin if it would be okay if I change our status on facebook to “engaged” to see what sort of reaction we would get. He said okay, even though we hadn’t been dating for that long (though at that point I knew he was the one for me). So I changed it, and every so often we will still get the occasional “congratulations!” I asked Kevin on several occasions if he wanted me to change it back to just “in a relationship” and he always says, “No, I like it as it is.” (AWESOME!) I’ve been getting renewed “Congratulations on your engagement!” because I decided to throw Kevin’s last name into my name. I’m just silly that way.

So, for the record, we are not currently engaged. Though the topic is talked about quite a bit.

I’ve been taking summer classes, one of which includes Ceramics II: Wheel Throwing. The class has been WORK, as is most art classes. The instructor, who is really knowledgeable and pretty solid (minus the lack of structure during actual class times), required us to make 50 bowls and 25 cups within this 6 week period. I’m sure to the experienced potter, this is very reasonable. It was hard for me, especially since I haven’t been on a pottery wheel since winter 2008, and even then it was very brief and dissatisfying (because of the previous instructor). I managed to make only 34 bowls (which doesn’t include bowls that were destroyed in the process of taking them off the wheel), but I did get all 25 cups made. This class has really made me want to continue doing throwing, but unfortunately I can’t fit it into my schedule for the next year. Too bad.

What else? I did my first river float about a week ago. I hadn’t realized how much effort you have to put in in order to keep yourself from running into the bank, logs, and the occasional gigantic rock that you don’t know is there until it smashes into your ass. It was really fun, actually, and I hope to do it again sometime this summer. My friend David is going to come for a visit, and we’re planning to do some kayaking around Seattle. Should be interesting.

Now that I’m getting older, my metabolism is slowing down. Which means, I can’t eat whatever the hell I want anymore without worrying about gaining weight. Currently I have a big tummy, which is really less than ideal. It’s hard to motivate yourself into going to the gym to work out, especially when you have work and class to bog you down. A change in lifestyle is in order, particularly in the arena of eating healthy and exercising. I’ve already killed my soda addition by replacing it with milk, which is awesome. But now I need to get out the veggies in place of the cookies, and stop eating out so much. But damn, there are some good burger places around here!

I also haven’t been keeping up on my writing. Ever since my uncle’s funeral, I lost the momentum to write everyday. School stress sort of demotivated me, and I haven’t really been trying to get back into it. I think I was up to about 350 words a day, and without having an actual story to work on, I couldn’t figure out what to write. It’s totally lame, I know. I’m making up excuses for myself! I’ve been in the writing mood lately, but I haven’t exercised it at all. I have one more week of summer classes, and then I hope to try to get back into it. Ugh. I suck.

I have another post I’m going to make after this. But what a great post this was! I’m in love, I enjoy ceramics, and I’m getting fat, and I suck at creating habits. Yay! My next post will be informational, and I’m gonna start writing it right now.

Having just a taste of living overseas has filled every pour of my body with the desire to do more. I want to go back to Japan to try living on my own without relying on anyone. To not have to live in a nazi dorm, or be obligated go to classes with other Americans. I want to integrate without the catalyst of a school or people of the same nationality to help me get by.

It doesn’t have to be Japan, I suppose. Though I do want to learn the language still. Europe would be interesting. Australia. Hell, even Canada. I guess really what it comes down to is that I want to be in a place that is novel. I want to rediscover things. To struggle a little bit, but have fun at the same time.

The problem with school is that it becomes static after a while. Every 10 weeks I’m introduced to a new teacher, new subject, new room. But the city I’m in is the same. There’s no opportunity to go out and explore because I have the obligation of classes. The city I’m in is small and has farmland surrounding it. Seattle is too far away to drive to every weekend. Winter especially sucks because it’s cold and miserable.

I’m hoping that joining this club will satisfy my need for something new and unpredictable. It’s going to suck at first because I’m socially awkward around people I don’t know and with whom don’t feel any connection. We’ll see how that goes.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll go out and take some pictures.

Weekly blogging has been going on over at my writing journal, but I hadn’t been cross posting them here until today. I’m sure I’ve said this before somewhere, but I feel like I’m wasting the use of my site. Meaning, I have my site, but I’m not using it.

My blog set up is pretty nice. I guess I shouldn’t be concerned about people commenting on it, because no one ever reads it anyway. The only comments I get are from robots or spam. I would love to utilize my site for something more than recording stats and the occasional opinionated rant. Right now my site is pretty much a very expensive image host.

I keep saying these things, but then doing nothing. I wish I had something worthwhile to say, or something more to offer. But then, my site is a personal one. I put some of my better pictures on my nearly abandoned portfolio. I need to update that badly…

Speaking of photography (complete tangent here), I’ll be taking a black and white film photography class next quarter. I’m actually quite excited to take it. Maybe I’ll buy a scanner and upload photos.

I keep getting distracted by the internet.

Anyway, if my life was more exciting and I had more worthwhile yet not horribly personal things to say, I would make an effort to use my site more. As it is, my life is rather dull, and unless you want to hear (read) me complain about people who drive me bat-shit insane, my posts would also be very dull.

Maybe next quarter, when I’m out and about and taking photos, I’ll write in here more.

OH WAIT. I have something. I joined a CLUB. Yes, misanthropic me has joined a club. Inadvertently, mind you. I wanted to get myself a Japanese conversation partner, and ended up joining a “friends” club that is supposed to help the Japanese exchange students be social with Americans. There are officer positions available, and given my rather horrid time in Japan because such a club didn’t exist at my university, I feel a sort of obligation to give these people a chance to speak English (while teaching me some Japanese). I think it’ll be a win-win situation. One can only hope.

That will be developing soon, so I suppose I can write more on that as it happens. Right now, I’m going to mix myself a drink and go be social with my pseudo-hubby.

When I woke up this morning, I went through my normal routine of looking at email/facebook/twitter. I had friends refusing to make New Years resolutions, others who decided to reflect on the past year or ten years, but mostly people talking about how they hope 2010 will be better than 2009.

New Years is a funny thing - an arbitrary date that holds so much importance. People think of it as this monumental event in which they should reflect upon their deed for the past year and try to find a way to improve themselves. They make goals that often don’t last more than a month, and long forgotten three months in, and only remembered as the year comes to a close once again.

Let’s see if I made any resolutions for this past year. … No, I did not.

Being a product of my society, I’m no different than others who have these reflective and goal-setting feelings that conjures up at New Years. Hell, I’ve been pondering mine for over a month now….

Most of the resolutions I’ve come up for myself have to do with reading, writing, and exercising on a regular basis. I want these things to happen, but I know I am not a creature of routine, and therefore I’m not sure if it’s going to work out. I’ve been told to start very easy. Instead of jumping into writing 1000 words a day, or reading two books a month, that I should start super light - say, 25 words a day, and maybe 5 pages a night - to build the habit. That magical 90 day mark, when supposedly habits take hold, won’t happen if you overwhelm yourself and make it not fun.

Just thinking about doing these things make me feel kind of excited. I think the biggest goal I’m going to set for myself in 2010, aside from building a writing habit, is to spend the next year doing all the necessary research I need for my novel so that by January 1, 2011, I will starting writing my novel. FOR REAL for real.

So, to put this in easy-to-read list form, here are my 2010 resolutions:

1. Build a writing habit
a. January - March: Starting at 35 words/day, add 35 words every week. By April 1st (90 days in), have a habit where I will be writing a minimum of 500 words a day.
b. By July 1st, have a habit of writing a minimum of 1000 words a day.
c. Maintain a 1000-1500 word minimum a day for the rest of the year.
d. Blogging!
i. Start with once a week for the first three months.
ii. Jump to two-three times a week for the next three months.
iii. Daily?? We’ll see…
2. Build a reading habit
a. Read 12 books or 4500 pages by December 31st, 2010. (A small goal, but I’m a slow reader.)
b. Read minimum 5 pages a day for the first three months.
c. Read minimum 20 pages a day for the next three months.
3. Get in shape.
a. This will sound silly: 2 hours of Dance Dance Resolution a week for the first three months.
b. Go to the gym twice a week for the first three months.
c. Increase to three to four times a week April - June.
d. By the end of school in June, be fit enough to do extended hiking/biking.
e. Continue keeping in shape for the rest of the year.
4. Do as much research as possible for upcoming novel.

Now I have a new apartment to try to organize. This is what happens when I get way too distracted by things like Amazon.com. =B

My daily blogging has fall to the wayside, but I’m making the excuse that it isn’t the new year yet.

Two fantastic things happened today. The first is that Kevin and I signed the rental agreement to move into our new huge loft on Friday. The second is that after we were done, we walked out of the manager’s office to find the first real snow sticking on the ground. After we had a delicious dinner, we went out to have some fun. I took a few pictures.

I’m excited to move in to the new place. It’s going to be amazing, and we’re going to get kitties soon.