Rae Roy's Blog, page 22

Inching Forward

Things didn't go as planned on Saturday at all, but I decided I was going to have fun regardless. And I did. I got a bit of writing done then I danced with a bunch of strangers at goth night. I'm even flattered that a couple seemed as if they wanted to unicorn hunt me. I left shortly after that to meet a friend at another bar. I'm happy to be at a place with myself where I can change gears like that and move on rather than languish in a funk. It wasn't always the case.

I started Tuesday with a scooter session. It felt great. The only annoying part was seeing my nosy, gossipy neighbour while I was out. Of all the people to run into, but it could've been much worse. As annoyed as I am, I'm not letting that person stop me from working on my fitness goals. It did spike my allergies because the morning is just about the heaviest time for pollen. Perhaps a little later would be better for preventing that. I'd also be less likely to run into people I rather wouldn't see.

I have an assignment due for keys tonight as my lesson is tomorrow. It's just a scale, but a new one with both hands together, which is HARD. My left hand and right hand playing together well in different configurations while being in two different clefs (which are like two different languages at once), requires so much mental effort. But I'm excited about it despite the difficulty.

I'm working hard on my office. It has been a disaster for quite some time now. Another piece is due today. Once the base is in place, I'll be able to plan the last piece, which requires some measuring. Readers, you may expect a before and after photo by the end of the month. That will be the case unless something goes terribly awry.

Please check out my digital to-do list: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general

Unstuck

I have been stuck for several months. This declutter project is at the point where I need some furniture in my office area. It has been this way for a long time for a couple of reasons beyond life stuff.

1. It was a challenge to figure out what I needed and how to configure it. Part of this is because I want my electronic keyboard to be in the back of my little office while still having the storage needed for other things like writing resource books and pantry items. My first ideas wouldn't fit in the space.

2. The biggest problem has been availability of shelving. I got halfway through executing my plan and then nothing was available. Or one item would become available and it would be the only one in stock and there was no way for me to get to IKEA in time. 

Well, the last piece just became available for delivery! Delivery often isn't an option with IKEA in Ottawa because I live in Ottawa. For whatever reason, it is this time. It's a tad more expensive, but I live on the other side of the city, so it's actually a bit far for me to go to IKEA anyway.

This means that I will soon have my office set up in a better way. A way that allows me to easily practice music, stream, work, write, and game. Yay for a functional multi-purpose space!

The last piece of shelving is due on Monday. I'll need some sort of supports to connect it all, but that I can do once I'm sure the foundation works for all my plans. 

One con to this new setup is that it will mean I'll have to actually move my apartment-size dishwasher frequently to use it. Once I've paid a lot more off, I plan to get a smaller one that can sit on the KALLAX shelving basically where my current one lives. I'm just one person in a small condo anyway. Unless I learn to find enjoyment in doing dishes by hand. It would save me money on hydro... That's electricity in Canadian ;)

No matter the kind, goals are often like this. Plateaus happen and sometimes it feels like they'll never end. Then something changes and it can be a relatively small thing like one piece of furniture that propels one forward. Frustration is absolutely a common part of goal achievement and it's important not to give up unless the goal itself really isn't what one actually wants. I did that last round because I realized several goals I had didn't fit the me I am now.

Anyway, yay for progress being a thing!

Please check out my digital to-do list at: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general

2022 ROW80 Round 2 - Goals

Starting this Monday I will be getting back to crushing my goals. My focus for this round includes finishing up the remnants of two projects, which will actually help with my declutter efforts as there will be items I'll no longer need. Those are the bathroom and the couch projects.

Bathroom: Finish the door area/trim and get the locking mechanism to fit and allow the door to close.

Couch: Finish the upholstery.

Declutter: Complete the last third of my decluttering efforts. I'll add more specific tasks as needed as decluttering is really like a project portfolio with smaller projects making it up. Projects like:

1. Tool declutter

2. Office shelving

3. Desk declutter

And more.

Drawing: Complete Drawing for Beginners Level-1. I think doing 30 minutes a day will get me done in no time and get myself in the habit of drawing something.

Keys (Rock Piano): TBD as lessons start on Thursday. This is a mix of in-person and online. There is a whole virtual segment now that I will be able to work on for practicing at home and I'll be able to get help learning specific songs for the parody band I'm in. I'm both excited and anxious to be getting back to music in a big way. I'm quite a beginner at keys, which can be frustrating.

Scooter: Learn the tailwhip trick. I've researched the exercises needed to support this endeavour. I have to be able to hold my scooter out in front of me without bending my arms too much while moving the handle bars so the base spins. There is definitely some off scooter strengthening ahead of me for core and upper body. But lower body is important for eventual jumps and grinds too.

Sparker: Edit every morning before work. I'm targeting the completion of this round of edits by round end. This is my most major editing pass, so that is part of what is taking me awhile. I had a lot of trouble deciding which POV to write in, where to set it, what time to set it in, and some other specific elements like how dark to go and what role technology plays in my world. As such, there has been quite a bit to fix.

Taxes: This one has a specific deadline of April 30th, so I need to get moving on it.

Please check out my digital to-do list at: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general

End of ROW80 2022 Round 1

It's the end of the round again. Despite it being year end at work, I found time each morning to get some editing in and made a lot of progress in a short amount of time compared to previous rounds. I averaged half a chapter each morning that I was able to edit. I plan to continue this method in the new round as year end will be done and I will be fully recovered from the time change. I really hope North America moves toward scrapping time changes soon.
Lately, I've been lining things up for the next round. I have keys lessons (rock piano) set to start in early April. I've started trick scooter lessons. Decluttering will continue though I'd really like to be done by the end of the round, which would be in time for summer. I will also be continuing the drawing course I'm in.

I have size 4 Vans as my scooter instructor recommended proper skate shoes. They were under $60, which may partly be because of their size. Sometimes being small is a good thing! I'm wearing them around the house to help break them in and get used to them. They're very grippy and that's new for me. You can't tell in the picture, but they're hi-tops reinforced with leather, which makes them a bit better for my hypermobile ankles than other sneakers.
Round Results
Bathroom: I just have to fix the door area some and it will be complete. The locking mechanism shouldn't be too bad, but I think I need bondo for the rest as the metal door frame is a bit rough.
Couch: Still to finish, but soon I'll actually have time to. I *might* need a second arm after all though as pillows keep falling off and that's annoying. Maybe I'll try putting them under the couch cover...
Declutter: I think I'm about 2/3 through. There is still stuff to deal with, but some of my current office mess is because I'm waiting on shelving to come in at IKEA. I will be doing a lot in my bedroom next round. I also started some digital decluttering that was long overdue. I would have done this a long time ago, but I didn't have the mental or emotional bandwidth to deal with old relationship photos. I reached out to the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum in Alberta and they sent me a picture of my favourite dinosaur free from the past. My favourite dinosaur is Triceratops. What's yours?


Sparker: I nearly made it halfway through this round of edits. I'm planning a brief round later where I deal with adverbs as I think there is opportunity for improvement with my descriptiveness there. I swear I'll need to document all the things once the book is done, so I have the correct details for future books that may come out of it.
A number of other pursuits were parked and may or may not come back later. French definitely will at some point as I need it, but many other things like Guitar and Ukulele might not as Keys are my music focus for the next while. Skating has been replaced by Scooter. I've archived all the items that pertain to those activities on my Trello board, so only the current goals are there and it feels nice to have just the most important projects and goals listed.

I really do want to start streaming something on Twitch once my office is in the right condition. Though, I suppose I could start with just a picture and leave my camera off for the time being as I know others who don't put their camera on. Maybe I just need to pick a day like Wednesday and start doing it.
Please check out my digital to-do list at: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general

Nails and Things

OK, this post may seem a bit uncharacteristic of me, but only because I haven't shared this thing about me. Not that it's a big deal really.

I almost never leave enough time before an event to do my nails before it. I want to, but life always seems to get in the way,

Anyway, I figured out that I should do my nails the day before rather than the day of because I can  just tweak it on the day of rather than trying to fit it all in. 

Why am I even posting about this?

For me, it's a milestone in a way. It's a sign that I'm *finally* getting my life together in some small way.

I may not be super girly, but I feel like having my nails done is as crucial as not leaving a tiny opening with my saya. My martial arts buds will get that.

Basically, it means that if I can get this miniscule part handled, the bigger things are nothing to tackle.

This is one of those #lifeisbudo moments.

For the first time ever, I don't care about colouring inside the lines with my nails because I have time to fix the parts that went outside. So it can be a complete mess, but it won't matter if I leave time to fix it before going out. Rather like a first draft, but for nails. 

This is one way to seem that one has their life together when they really don't lol

Yeah. So... Sometimes I'm kind of girly.

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The above was a drunken St. Paddy's dayish post. And I've decided to take a bit of a break from drinking while I'm still mourning my mother and with all the ridiculousness in the world right now. It's been too easy to overdo it lately and I don't like that. It doesn't help with any of my goals, especially the health and wellness ones.

Speaking of my goals, I've reached chapter 12 on my edits. I've made more progress in the last few weeks than I have in the last couple years just by doing 30-45 minutes on it in the mornings before work. I have friends who can write for hours or until some world goal is met, but it hasn't ever worked well for me. A shorter, focused period, seems to be the thing. At least for this time in my life. This incremental progress has also improved my contentedness in other areas of my life.

As always, you can check out my goals progress here: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general

Finally Unstuck

I'm feeling pretty fantastic lately. what's changed? Two things. I've reduced my sugar intake and I have a daily nasal spray called Avamys from my allergist. I guess I've been allergic to something in my house? 

I have more energy and focus like I haven't had in years. And this is letting me do more of the things I love, which is just making me feel even more fantastic. I've been editing a bit every day and I am already onto chapter eleven. I'm also working on all my other goals. 

I got really lucky on my casual Beleev scooter the other day. I was riding around on it in the parking lot without issues after I dropped off some food at the food bank nearby. It turns out the handles weren't actually connected to it. Later, one popped out completely in the hallway when I was going much slower. But I also got myself a proper one that was on sale for tricks and I'm excited about that. I'm planning to start lessons in April for this.

Along with switching back to scooter, I'm switching back to piano. In April, I'll also be working on it via lessons, but this time I'm going with School of Rock because I'm beyond tired of getting teachers who insist on classical music. I don't hate classical, but there are only a few pieces that I actually enjoy enough to want to learn them. Eventually, I may join the bandcamp program they have to really learn and improve to the point of being able to really go somewhere with it. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I'm a bit scared of it all as I haven't played with other people in a very long time, like since high school, but I'm also excited.

Drawing is going OK, I think? It's an interesting experience as I may think something is silly to do, but then the exercises teach me something and I'll get it only by going through it. It's definitely a case of having to remember that I'm a white or yellow belt in this skill and Sensei knows best. There's a #budoislife moment.

I'm continuing my declutter and made significant progress this weekend. I installed a cheap portable closet. This is for my sports equipment and costumes, so my closet can mainly be for clothes. I'm not done putting things into it, but it's really helping me as it lets me set aside the items I know I almost certainly want to keep. This is putting the rest that I need to go through into a more visible state. Of course, it has been a little bit of a step backwards in that I had to move some things back into my living room in order to get there, but that will be fixed soon enough and I'll even be able to improve it beyond where I last got it to. Eventually anyway.

To check out my detailed progress, please see my Trello board: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general

Early March 2022 Update

I really thought I had started a draft. I guess I did so in my dreams. I've been sleeping a lot lately, which I believe is a combination of a lot of stress leaving my life and the usual, almost monthly, low iron that happens because I'm a woman. Someday, that will stop. 
Yesterday was a dental visit for a cleaning. I have a filling that is "leaking," which isn't a pleasant feeling as it's a little too accessible to food and drink getting in there near the root. So I have a couple of spots needing repair and a crown to get. I'm really hoping a lot of that crown gets covered by my insurance, because it's pricey.
Anyway, enough of that. I'm halfway through editing chapter 9. When I get through chapter 11, I will be at the point where I have not edited the rest of the chapters as much, so I have no idea what I'm looking at. This is because I don't think I completed the edits where I briefly thought everything should be set in the U.S. They might even be in the wrong point of view. This is part of the fun of writing.
I've started a new thing, which may also be contributing to my tiredness. I'm getting up a bit earlier each day, so that I can fit some editing in before work. I often find myself too tired in the evenings for edits, so a change needed to be made. Thankfully, since I work from home, I don't have to get up ridiculously early for this change.
Aside from that... I stopped doing the skating class. I have many reasons for this. One is that I was constantly getting injured. More often than I was in roller derby! The class was more geared towards hockey style skating and wasn't what I was wanting in the slightest. But I also really want to learn tricks on scooter instead. There is something to be said for having the ease to transition from a bus to a sidewalk to a skatepark without having to change footwear. And I can do all kinds of fun tricks on scooter too.
Ah, I found that draft I had started and it was all about skating and my decision to change: 
"I'm halfway through skating class and I hate it. I like that I'm getting exercise, but I hate most of what we've worked on in the class. Maybe it's the masks, but we're always confused about what the instructors want us to do and just wing it. And the class feels like it's about learning to skate for hockey, which is not what I want at all.
I don't even feel like learning aggressive inline anymore. I love watching other people do it, but it's not what I want for myself.
So what do I want? I want to learn to scooter. And there are lessons for that at the skatepark where I'm already a member.
Something that has nagged at me since my first session at the skatepark. A woman there told me she likes skateboarding because she can just kick the board out of the way. With skates attached to your feet, you don't have that option.
But that's not right for me either. It's hard to explain, but I just feel right on a scooter. Maybe it's because I had one when I was a young child and I loved it.
The class wasn't a total waste. I'm definitely a bit better at transitioning from forwards to backwards and vice versa.
So I'm going to set some money aside for joining the lessons at the skatepark whenever they are running the next session."
In terms of music, I'm focusing on keyboard. Stringed instruments just haven't been working for me for a long time and I keep feeling drawn back to the keyboard. I just don't want to spend a lot of time learning classical music.
And I'm taking a beginner drawing class to complement what I learned in the natural history drawing course I previously did. Because goals.
These changes I've made are really returns to original plans and it feels good to be getting back to them. It's like going home in many ways.
Other than that, I'm still working through the clutter. I had different plans tonight, but I need to get as much laundry done as possible because they are upgrading our machines tomorrow and they won't take the current cards. We have to wait for reimbursement for who knows how long. So copious amounts of laundry is in order because I didn't get through everything I got from mom. 
Ah well, what would life be without these "little" surprises?

Bathroom Reno Update

The Neverending Reno

I am excited to report that my bathroom is basically done. Bathfitter was here yesterday and completed the valve conversion and made everything nice in the shower area.

Before

After

All that's left is a bit of work with the door. 

I may eventually touch up the walls with white paint as I feel like the white on the walls still has some of the lime bleeding through, which is more noticeable now with the shower area updated to the modern day. But I'm in no rush. It'll probably be some weekend boredom thing next winter when I don't want to go out anyway.

With that complete, I feel less stressed and like I can get the rest of my decluttering done more easily. They had to reschedule the job a couple of times because the worker originally assigned was in the middle of deciding to retire. Luckily, there were no issues on the day. The water shut off well enough that the plumber didn't have to be here too long and everything was done just after noon.

To check out my progress on other tasks, please go to my Trello board: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general

On Ukraine

There has been a lot of bad happening thus far in 2022. 

With all of the unrest and the atrocious acts in the news, it's easy to get overwhelmed and feel hopeless, paralyzed.

I previously learned this the hard way.

It's why I changed job roles in 2021.

I couldn't do anything about my mom dying.

I couldn't do anything to end the occupation in Ottawa.

I can't do anything about what has happened in the Ukraine.

Yet.

It's at times like this where I turn my focus to what is in my sphere.

In time, there very well may be a way to help, such as donating relief funds.

That is when I will be able to do something about this crisis that is half a world away.

For now, I am focusing on chores and decluttering.

Because it's all I can do.

#istandwithukraine

Ups and Downs

Is anyone else getting a ton of comments filled with links to junk on their blog? I've been marking them all as spam. It's annoying. Please go pay for actual advertising!

Anyway, things have been up and down for me of late. 

My bathroom was supposed to be done last Thursday, but the installer called in injured. I wasn't shocked after all the other hiccups on this project. It's now supposed to be this Friday, but I guess time will tell on that one.

The hell that Ottawa underwent for nearly a month is mostly over though pockets of hateful people are still out on the streets harassing residents. At least the state of emergency has been lifted? Talks are happening whereby the area by parliament may become a pedestrian area only, which I don't think is a bad thing since it is a major tourist area anyway.

A month has passed since we lost mom. Her 79th birthday was on Sunday. It was a hard day. Much of the occupation in Ottawa was handled the day before and I found myself quite ill on mom's birthday. It was the first time I can ever recall vomiting from emotional stress. Thankfully, it didn't last long and though I'm still very sad, I've felt mentally better, so I guess I needed that purge.

Grief is a hell of a thing.

I got to have a long chat with my dad about things including the occupation. That was nice. I've always gotten along pretty well with my Dad, but we've not had long conversations in recent years.

I've been primarily focused on decluttering as it's something I can manage right now. But I've been reading about what famous writers did in terms of a schedule and many did 1-2 writing periods plus exercise and I think that's a good way to get back into the groove. One also cautioned that writing should come before other passions, which I think is helpful for me. With March starting next week and a month of screenwriting happening in a local group, I may switch gears to a project that has been on my mind for a long time because I feel like I've experienced the amount of pain the project needs to be written from an authentic place rather than from the view of a plot device option.

We'll see though. I'm taking one day at a time and slowly adding things back into my routine.

You can view my goals progress here: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general