Tricks of the Trade

1. Know yourself.
It's important to know when your natural energy highs and lows are, what will drain your energy, and what will boost it. I know that I am the most alert in the mornings, followed by mid-evening. My lows are in the afternoon and early evening. Being around people drains my energy, slowly. I can tell I'm getting weary of people when I feel myself mentally checking out when I would otherwise be engaged, or starting to be annoyed with people I love, or starting to look down on people that I have every reason to respect. Classes I have in the mornings are absorbed much better than my afternoon classes, and homework is much more likely to get done if I don't do it until 7:30 or 8ish. Every few weeks or so I have to take a week off from people. I make it a point not to hang out with the girls on my hall, or the guys that hang out with the girls on my hall. I may not even go to band today, because I would just be annoyed with people in general and not really feeling the music thing. I'm using this week to get closer to God and to catch up and rest up. I take my natural tendencies and work with them, rather than against them. I harness them and take advantage of them.

2. Stay organized.
My organizational tools of the year are:
1. Gmail. I have it set up to retrieve my school mail too, so all my mail is in one place. I delete what I don't need and never will need, label what I will need to pull up again, and archive the rest so I don't have to look at it. Gmail also has a search feature that comes to the rescue every other day or so.
2. Evernote.com. It's kind of like OneNote for Microsoft Office. If you have it on your computer, it will automatically sync with your online account. For some reason it's not compatible with my version of OSX but that's ok, because I usually use it online anyways. I can store links as I find them, start drafts of essays from anywhere when I have a free minute, organize research projects, keep track of goals, and I actually use it, which is probably the most amazing part. Like Gmail, it also has a search feature, that will also search for words within pictures. There's this amazing little SD card you can buy (which I haven't) that uses any open wi-fi network in the area to send pictures directly from your camera to your evernote account. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's pretty freaking sweet.
3. Google Calendar. My friend Joel actually got me hooked on this. I think my favorite feature is that when I open an e-mail with Gmail that has a date and/or time in it, I have an option on the sidebar to put the date/time in my calendar. *heavenly angel "ah" sound* Google calendar has basically all the same features as Apple's iCal, except you can access it online, (hmm... there seems to be a recurring theme here)You can have multiple, color-coded calendars, so you can see what's going on for what, when. I have calendars for school, to-do's, goals, work, and what I call "anomalies", the things in my week that are like, "Oh, that's new and exciting. Or not exciting" you know, whichever. I wish there was a way to sync it to Evernote, because that would make things way easier, but it's still pretty easy to move from one tab to the other between evernote and google calendar, filling in tasks when I have time.
These first three are all accessible online, which makes my life easier. Anytime I have a few extra minutes I can a) check my mail b) check my calendar and make sure I'm not forgetting anything and c) check evernote to see what needs to be done, and what I can do in the time I have.
The next one is very old-fashioned, though.
4. Columned paper. A habit that I have been attempting to form for years is that of keeping on top of my finances. I have realized over the years that anything on the computer will not stay updated and confuses me anyways. I have to have something to hold and manipulate in order to really grasp and understand and use it. I use columned paper to keep on top of my multiple bank accounts and spending. All my money is sorted into categories for which it can be spent, and at the beginning of the week, those numbers are put up on my wall above my desk, so I know how much I have available to spend that is budgeted for food, clothes, necessities, entertainment, etc. as well as what I have in tithing so I can write a check for that. At the end of the week, I print off my account summary that lists all my transactions for the month, and I enter any transactions I made during the week on one of my columned pages, and then balance all the sheets and post new balances for the week. It's worked well so far, and it's something I think I'll be able to keep on top of, partially because I have planned a regular time each week to do it (Thanks Dad, for the inspiration) WHICH gets put on my google calendar.

So, there have only been 2 tricks of the trade so far, but they were kind of long. I'll post more later this week. I have class in about 15 minutes.

Love you all, love you always,
Anna

Voice, apples, and stars

I had my first voice lesson of the semester this week. It went well, I didn't really sing at all though, just picked out music. I've got two classical italian arias to work on that I'm really excited about. I'm also babysitting overnight for my voice teacher this weekend, from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon.

I got to eat an apple today! It tasted really sweet, and my friend Lois took a bite and said, "That is a crappy apple" but it still tasted sweet to me. I'm excited for apples and peanut butter.

I am going star-gazing with a couple of my band-mates on Friday, and we may end up having a late-night writing session too. I'm actually really excited about that. Can't wait. Yes, it will be freezing cold. It's ok.

I sold one of my textbooks from last semester, and when I go to the post office tomorrow to ship it, I'll pick up a box so I can put the other one up for sale. I need to go grocery shopping. Yes, I know how much is in my bank account, dad. I'm sorry for being so scatter-brained and random in this post. It happens.

Love you all, love you always,
Anna

snow and cold

Well, it's spring semester. Which should really be called winter-snow-freezing-your-tail-off semester. Most of this week the highs were below zero, and it's been snowing since last night, piling up on top of the foot plus that was already there. Oh, winter. I try not to complain about it, because I tend to complain a lot about summer. I still don't know what God wants me to do about next summer. Money is still a thought that sticks in the front of my mind, both for right now and for this summer. I'm not going to worry too much about the summer for a week or two, though, because I am still trying to get into the swing of the semester and into a routine. Anyways, I need to get some homework done. (my roommate is always surprised when I say that) So I'm going to leave it here. I'll write more later.

Love you all, love you always,

Anna

"Cowboy take me away..." :-p

Last night, I was told twice by a cowboy in a truck with the worst hick accent ever, "I luuve yew" and then the second time, "I steel luuve yew"

It was hilarious. The first time, I just looked over my glasses at him with the "excuse me?" look. The second time, I kept a straight face until he had passed and then laughed out loud.

People-watching

I am a people-watcher. It's what I do, and five hours in an airport provide plenty of opportunities to observe. I have watched families, couples, people I know, people I don't know, businessmen, random teenagers who are, I'm assuming, heading home for break, etc. I like watching kids and families best. Although, a close second is listening to the couple in front of me, who both have british accents. Outside, it looks typically michigan-ish. The sky is a monotonous shade of grey, and the snow on the ground betrays the difficulties involved in clearing an area so big of 12 inches of fluffy frozen water. I also like watching all the indie teens. The punks who think they're different and yet seem to all look the same. Or at least they appear to be going for the same look. The long hair, the winter hat, the jeans, the zip-up hoodie in black or brown, and that walk. You know the walk I'm talking about. The I'm-so-cool-but-I'm-emo-so-don't-even-bother-trying-to-understand-me walk. They make me laugh. I'm having temperature difficulties today. When I sit here at the gate for too long, aka an hour, I get cold. Cold enough to shiver. So I get up to go for a walk, because that's more interesting than just sitting here, and by the time I get back, I've worked up a sweat.

I'm excited to be going home. I really want to play with the boys. Apparently both they and I have been on music kicks lately. I think for me, it's the changing of the seasons that does it to me, at least partially. Oh, hey, Aaron Falk never texted me back. Anyways, yes. I've been writing a lot lately, and I want people to bounce ideas off of, and to play the stuff I can't play. I'm pretty talented, but my talents are pretty limited. Rick, on the other hand is very is diversely and incredibly talented. The kid taught himself the guitar, the bass, and the drums.

I think it's kind of sad that I am still on the lookout for cute guys. It's not like I'm actually going to meet any of the very few cute guys I see. And say I do meet one. What then? Huh? Nothing, that's right.

My flight starts boarding in 15 minutes. I think I'm going to go check and see whether or not I'm likely to get on.

“I'm sleeping with shadows, I'm feeling so lost inside. Thinking that nothing could be so perfect anyways. Just let the day go by. I hear myself I'm playing that same song, through the shallow depths of my heart, it's grown so old. Because our dying love's seen better days, it's been declining since the early stage when we were young. No this was not what I intended.”

I always feel really awkward watching people run through airports. and also at school. I just feel so bad for them. 1) they always look so distressed. 2) they're running. That sucks. 3) I hate being late, and I can't even imagine being so late for something so important that I would have to run to get there on time. Sad. I'm eating this basil-cream bowtie chicken thing and it is so good. Because I'm eating, I'm typing with one hand, which is interesting. I'm actually pretty good at it. I can get going pretty fast if I try. If I just take it easy, it actually gets harder, but when I speed up, instinct kicks in and I can actually go quite a bit faster.

Mornings

Normally on Tuesday mornings, I work at the preschool from 8:45 - 11:45, but when I got there this morning, there was no one there and there was a note on the door saying "Mary Randall Preschool is cancelled due to inclement weather" I looked up at the blue sky and smiled. I had the whole morning for myself! AKA, do homework. So I made myself some organic white cheddar mac and cheese and coffee, and curled up on my bed with my warm yummy food and my (econ) book. It was a really good morning. It was a good book too. It was about factors and non-factors of economic growth in third-world countries.

Work and class were both good, and because I was completely prepared for class, I felt like I learned a lot, or rather that class kind of summed up all the thoughts bouncing around from the book. And I got my charger back, so now my phone works! All in all, it's been a pretty good day. Love you all, love you always,
Anna

Settling into a (new) routine

Based on today, I think I will be contentedly settling into a routine of comfortable mutual avoidance, with both parties happy to simply not bother with insincere pleasantries. For my part, I am completely indifferent to the other party, neither liking him or caring for him at all, and yet unable to find the motivation to hate him or call him any of the many names he deserves. It/He is simply not worth it. I'm keeping it simple. When necessary, I will do and/or say as little as possible and polite.

It's actually been a good day so far. If the last week hadn't happened, I really doubt that today would have been satisfactory, but it did and today is. I worked with Joel this morning, and played with the kids in the snow. Although I accidentally pushed Harry off the swings twice. The first time, he just wasn't ready and so went too far backwards and let go, did a backwards flip off the swings and landed on his knee. The second time, he wasn't holding on, and so just fell flat on his back when the swing went forward. It would've been kind of funny if it weren't for the crying. (It was a rough day for him to begin with) I don't know why he wasn't expecting me to push him... Oh well. I am so tired. And I hate the EXTREME temp differences here. I wear normal winter clothes (sweater and pants) in my room, and a tank top and shorts in everyone else's room. Last year I was in a warm room and I would start to sweat just from the time I put on my coat until I got out the door. Anyways. I should go take a nap so I can concentrate on studying for German. And reading for Econ. I have a C in German, but I don't have to end with a C. GRRR. I hate C's. In other news. Love you all, love you always.
Anna