Motivate Me

This year has been hard

I've been drawn to change and growth

and I think a way to ensure I keep positive and keep learning in this process and not feel too burried under all the work, is to stay motivated

and to stay motivated, I'm going to share it with others

I wanted a name of something that was bare and honest, and this was it years ago, and it's still it today

I went to write a new blog and start fresh, and right now that's not what I think is right. I want this to go here

I've never used this regularly, and I'm not going to delete old posts. I'm just going to start again

so here we go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGmAekTPD5c&feature=g-user-u

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi04oCcCICQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=IPsVQHu5lA4&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=_56nx3eHK4c&NR=1

I went to a counselor for the first time today with the intent to keep going, not just to see if I'm crazy real quick, but to actually look into what they think I can do for myself and how to make myself better

and she told me to quit my job and to find something that makes me happy for my day to day, and to keep nurturing myself and finding what triggers my problems and to find what helps me run on optimum modes.

She gave me two books to read, and some homework to do, and I'm scared she's a quack and a salesperson in one moment and I'm excited that she's describing things that I have found on my own and wants to help me to do it better. To be happy and find the full well-rounded me.

And I came home and my favorite bloggers wrote these TODAY

talk about motivating


so I'm sharing and I'm ready to keep sharing what motivates me, and excites me, and what I've been learning that is awesome.

WOOHOO

I'M SCARED AND THAT'S OK

Wonderful Day

Today I woke up, after pleasantly sleeping in

enjoyed an out-of-the-ordinary breakfast with two of my friends who are normally out-of-town, and my wonderful boyfriend

had several more friends arrive at my house to carpool to see the Monarch butterflies in Pismo beach, and we enjoyed a brisk but sunny afternoon in the shade and sun, and walked our way out to the beach

I touched the ocean, TWICE, which I see on my commute most days of the week, so it's nice to remind myself of why I enjoy seeing it so often, and to really experience its bigness

then we walked along the beach, and back up to the cars, where we decided to go to lunch at a nearby restaurant which I haven't been to in quite some time

Some of the friends got margaritas, some dinner-sized portions of mexican cuisine, and I GOT A NACHO SUNDAE, who says you can't have dessert for lunch?

then it was back home, to get a surprise phone call, asking if I wanted to join for some hot-tubbing, which conveniently allowed me to drive a friend's bike to his house after he had adventured with us at Pismo.

Confirmed that Liza could come work on an art project with me later that night, right on schedule!

a nice hour of soaking, back home to see what my video-gaming friends wanted me to make them for dinner.

Liza and David, James, Lindsay and I organize dinner, the boys take care of the shopping while Liza and I work, and Lindsay cleaned the dishes! (hooooorayyyyyy because I hate hate hate hate dishes)

play a board game while we wait for the nachos to cook, back to working on the art project afterwards

DINNER om nom amazing, with good company and just the right ammount of girl-scout cookies afterwards

final touches on our art project, I swear we are 95-99% complete with EVERYTHING need before printing!!! so excited to see how it all turns out

then goodnight hugs, goodbyes with out-of-townees, and a quick shower before bed. A recap of the day with Aaron made me think I want to write all this down, make sure I don't lose this afterglow of such a fun and peaceful day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this was an amazing way to wrap up the weekend, and it feels like the whole week was leading up to today. Planning the Pismo trip, working on this art project, getting the house cleaned up and some personal goals met (ie: taxes nearly done and filed). Surprise visits with friends and excellent food and silliness, and a wonderful place I call home.

Home is where my loved ones are, and I'm so glad to have so many in my life.

Excellent weekend

... but very very busy

laundry, doctor's visit, helped a friend move the largest of his furniture to a new home, he buys us all lunch. More moving, the back home in time to get doll-ed up for a photo-shoot!

Here's a preview picture, the rest will be in MAKE magazine!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianjmatis/6699678145/

Water to Wine will be described in full detail, with a breakdown on how to make it :D I can attest to the goodness of wine out an easy dispenser with a fun twist for your expectations!

Then we all celebrated the occasion with sushi! The next day I joined in wedding planning for Jacinda and Andrew's wedding, as I'm one of the bridesmaids. Then off to Baby Castello's baby shower, MOAR sushi, and now home to rest and recuperate from the full weekend.

My fave pic from yesterday's shoot?

Let's just say it was quite delicious...

I also noticed I haven't posted much from December, and there was a fair amount of fun and antics to share. Thus the lack of posting.

I made a chair more awesome

https://plus.google.com/photos/112618236640627300525/albums/5685135542021433873

chair + speakers + new upholstery + fuzzy fun fur = pimp

I was worried it would be too... absurd, but it turned out quite nicely and met my expectations leading into the project, and Gina didn't leave the chair for the rest of the night, so I'm pretty sure she liked it :-)

light reading for work

more silliness with wine!

- wait, you say, wasn't this January? YES, yes it is. it's just too good not to share!

last weekend's random night at our house; BOARD GAMES

New Years at Ben and Jean's, with Pierre maintaining the delicious drink-delivering Party Robotics device

Wine tasting with Aaron's family

cute!

Christmas gifts from Gina! amazing coats! so fuzzy! so ridiculous!

Some of my family having a good laugh down in San Diego. We were celebrating donating to a major charity to bring affordable farm animals to developing nations.

This is how my Great-Grandma rolls.

ummm... WHAT!?!?!?

Ambitions

Got the new job!

And with new job comes new desires and new goals, new motivators, and lately, new friends I've been spending a ton of time with We've been going to yoga twice a week, sometimes more, and having a big group dinner afterwards. Just throwing together stuff from each other's fridges, and seeing what we can make. It's been an active, healthy, cheerful, tipsy time! staying up late on a weeknight, but silly fun and feeling stronger.

~~~~

In other news, looking forward to seeing the pictures from last night's escapades. Iron Bartender! where teams compete to create the most delicious drinks with the most strange secret ingredients! I especially liked the wasabi round, and the cotton candy liquer round. Some drinks were trying to win the room's approval, some aimed at the judges, and some aimed fearfully cruel arrows to the judges stomachs in retribution for previously failed rounds!

I loved the creativity and presentation, and silly names made up for these silly concoctions! I was a member of the team that won the most rounds! mmmhmmmm tasty!

tonight will be more time with friends, with sushi and the second Sherlock Holmes movie, should be silly fun and cheering at the big screen. Saturday is some extra time at work, to catch up on things before I transition to a new job at a new company. Just like I've been enjoying the company of some new friends lately, and learning their individual perspectives on life, I imagine this new job will influence me similarly.

Curious how this will go! More time with family soon too! Can't wait to see so many faces I've been missing lately!

HERE'S TO NEW BEGINNINGS AND A NEW YEAR!
(also, I swear I will edit soon with pics, let's say... lunchtime!)

[edit: lunchtime turned into going home sick. feeling great now, and not finding any pictures from the Iron Bartending night, and so, with a promise of pictures, I am now leading you to this parade of the last month!]

New job means I need a new home for my carniverous plant! Where will he go?

James and Pierre hosted a night of sushi making and battleshots!

hard at work!

B5? We hit! James made this great game by hand!

Thomas and his smiling creation!

Two weeks ago was soap making at Castle!

James and I made a pine and lime scented batch! mmhmmm

Last Saturday morning was the lunar eclipse! We camped in the backyard on Friday to prepare for enjoying the major nature event of doom. Then we hiked for a good view, and came back down for tasty breakfast food! We ran into Brian and Casey at the restaurant and Brian took a quick pic!

DON'T LOOK INTO HIS EYES

also

I CUT MY HAIR

again...

like ya do.

hopefully some bartending pics will turn up soon, until then!

Excellent times

I just have been enjoying this past month immensely

Was able to enjoy last weekend with my family

Just finished up a relaxing and silly weekend full of antics with friends and frolicking in the rain with my wonderful man

Full of ideas and optimism for the holiday season and this upcoming year

and now a rediculous hat on a rediculous hat

Did I say daily?

I'm moving! yayayayayayayay! new house has new roommate, and new stuff! Plus tons of new experiences!

Did I say new? I meant built in the 70's

CLEARLY built in the 70's

We're doing our best to contain our excitement

Fresh beginnings!

Starting a new set of daily blogging, and I'm really excited and motivated to try an approach that's new to me. Hopefully this will help to following my thoughts and experiences in an online formatting!

Thinking about header images, I'm trying to find pictures that capture what "strapless" really means to me

Excited to show up for a silly good time

Simple and content

Just being yourself and putting yourself out there

So today had one of the bigger Thursday evenings for our group of friends, tonight Scott brought out the liquid nitrogen and we all made ice creams and sorbets! 

I brought orange juice and we made a tasty orange sorbet!

sooo many flavors!

I'm still forgetting to take pictures of everything, so here's hoping I can edit this post with some of the Brians' photos later!