Pixel Imperfect

Several years ago I dated a black belt and began to train with him in Kuk Sool Won. We dated for a few years and had some good and some bad times. Mostly good, I think. Mostly bad towards the end. Mostly my fault. Anyway... even after we broke up, I wanted to continue my training. By this point I was a red belt. In Kuk Sool Won it goes: white, yellow, blue, red, brown, black. And It takes as long to get from white to brown as it does to get from brown to black. I found a Kuk Sool Won school about 40 minutes from my college. I began attending and training under Sa Bum Nim Jason. He was an excellent instructor and I very much enjoyed being his student. However, health and finances intervened. I became a sporadic student. I received occasional emails from SBN to the tune of "Come back! We miss you!" and "Don't waste your potential!" I appreciated them all and made efforts to return. But eventually I stopped going. My schedule just didn't mesh with the Kuk ...

Lists lists lists. I love lists! I've seen many 30 before 30 lists. I've got 33 months until I turn 30, so I think now is the perfect time. I have to average around one each month. Which is a little intimidating since most of these are not at all doable in the next month or two. Yeesh. I've broken it down into sections: Travel, Blogging, Fitness, Finance and other. I also reserve the right to switch something out if it cannot be completed. For example, if my 10 year HS reunion is scheduled for when I'm going to be at AIR, that's out of my hands. Travel  Attend a JoCo Crazy Cruise with K-Swiss most probably. I've been wanting to go on a JCCC since the very first one. Co-Host a Major City Twinfest (Las Vegas, New York or Chicago) AHHHH! That would be SO MUCH FUN. Take a weekend trip alone . I think it's important to learn to be alone and be happy. You must be happy with yourself before you can be happy with others. Take a week-long trip al...

Buffy: Does it ever get easy?  Giles: You mean life?  Buffy: Yeah, does it get easy?  Giles: What do you want me to say?  Buffy: Lie to me.  Giles: Yes. It's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true. The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies and... everybody lives happily ever after.  Buffy: Liar.

I remember a couple years ago, K-Swiss and I were super broke. We ate a lot of spiced up ramen and bean & rice. We exclusively bought generic. Then K-Swiss got a full time job. For the first time, we had a small amount of disposable income. I remember I came home and he had Coke. COKE! Real Coca-Cola! Not Sam's Cola! I couldn't believe it. It was an ineffable luxury. And then, for Friday Pizza (every Friday night is Pizza night in our house!), we bought Little Caesar's Hot-n-Ready pizza. It was pretty much the best pizza I'd ever had in my life. I was sick of frozen pizza. It's a wonderful convenience to swing buy the Little Caesar's drive thru and have a pizza with incredibly minimal effort. A lot of people really hate Little Caesar's, but I don't see why. It's pretty damn good at five bucks. This week, our pay is jumping again. I've got a new job. I will now be full time and my hourly pay has increased by just over 50%. The combinati...

Welp, I just finished my taxes. I meant to do it a couple months ago but I always forget. I'm getting back a whopping $333. $267 from Federal and $66 from NC. When I was working two jobs, I changed the payroll deductions at my main job so less would be taken out of my paycheck. While it's nice to break pretty close to even (pretty darn close for the state taxes, especially) and stay content in the knowledge that I didn't give the government a tax free loan, I wish I were getting back a couple thou like some of my friends. However, I've got a massive pay raise coming up, so that softens the blow considerably.

If you click on the Starry Starry Girl blog above and you don't have access and you want it, let me know. 

I don't know about some people, but I LOVE going to conferences! I have a great boss and co-worker, and the other members of the organization are really great. Especially the State organization. You really get to know people in the State organization since it's much smaller (I believe 72 attendees this year). This year the state conference was at Graylyn. It was complete with butlers, a cadre of footmen, a couple suits of armor, and more free ice cream than you can shake a stick at. There was food EVERYWHERE. Except the first day, in which I was very hungry. But after that, EVE-RY-WHERE. I'll update this with pics later. Also, I suck at giving presentations. I zoomed through my section and then when I stepped back, I whispered to Sandra "did I talk way too fast?" She laughed and said yes, but it was fine. Ugh. But, I keep doing them. Hopefully, one day, I will suck slightly less. At least the state conferences are very small so that I'm not the only new...

After purchasing my new items, I wanted my to be able to find things easily in my closet. My closet is a little small and super crowded. I have a lot of clothes because I like to mix and match. So, off to TJ Maxx for closet solutions! It might not be the first place you think of, but I had a gift card. :D The first items in my basket were two sets of velvet hangers in hot pink and bright teal. They're honestly super lovely. They're perfect. They take up about 30% less space than my plastic hangers and they keep my clothes from slipping off. Oh and now my hangers all look nice together. Mostly. I need to buy another pack. (These are actually cuter. Because zebra print. Duh) The second purchase was a pants hanger, for all my new slacks. Previously, I'd just used hangers with pinch clips, but K-Swiss has hangers like the ones pictured below on the right. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous. Pinch clips take up a lot of prime real estate. They had to go. ...

My work environment is a business casual one. In Angie's Four Quadrant Model , we tend to fall between Casual Conservative (faculty) and Dressy Conservative (staff). Although sometimes faculty are just Casual Casual. Since I'm only there part time, no one much notices if I dress a little Dressy Creative, or sometimes Casual Creative. However, I've decided to start dressing a little  more Dressy Conservative for work. If my co-worker has some executive management over for an impromptu meeting, I want to look professional and put together. In addition, I've recently interviewed for a job working with one of the Deans, and this job will require me to dress a little more professional. So, off to Goodwill. That's right, not Dillard's, not even Penney's. I went to Goodwill first. It took a lot of time, trying on and discarding clothing. Examining clothing for wear and tear. In the end, I went home with the following Skirts ($3.99 each) Ann Taylor black p...