Today seems to be ending on a better note than what it started out on.

I started feeling better after my shower.

Drove to work. Traffic wasn’t bad. I didn’t listen to music, preferring the relative silence of my car, and the ambient noise of the drive.

This class doesn’t ask many questions (we’ll see if that’s a good thing or a bad thing when I grade their projects tomorrow), so I actually got done with all of my reading for this week’s assignments and took the quiz before the 11am break.

I have already completed the two exercise assignments, and am mostly done with the final project. I just need to create the logo inside of Illustrator.

<3 Illustrator.

That just leaves a one-hour portion of the Photoshop tutorial to work through, which I’m allotting two hours for, and the discussion post.

After lab I went upstairs to work rather than going to the break room. There’s a handful of empty cubical upstairs and I felt that would be a better environment.

At first there was a group of people talking, which was what I was trying to avoid, but after a little bit they dispersed and I was able to work uninterrupted for several hours.

In fact the only interruption I had was needing to get up to use the restroom. It was nice having that much solitude to work during normal hours. Typically I can’t get that unless it’s around 9pm, sometimes 5pm if it’s a Friday.

That’s the main reason I dislike open floor office setups.

No. I don’t want to see you. I want to be in my own little world of productivity. Go show someone else your new shoes. Preferably someone who won’t have to fake interest.

So yeah. It’s not even day two yet of this week and already almost all of my class assignments are done.

It’s a good feeling, especially since I have to travel over the weekend for my cousin’s wedding. I want to get all of this taken care of by Wednesday evening.

I figure if I can finish the discussion post and the logo tomorrow that will only leave the tutorial for Wednesday.

I worked until about 4:20. I was supposed to stop working at 4… That’s the cut off I gave myself. 20 minutes over is better than what I normally do, though.

At 4:20 I gave myself permission to cross-stitch. I worked through the 11am break, and only stopped working to move all of my stuff upstairs, where I continued to work, having lunch at the computer since I wasn’t in a lab.

So yeah. I took the last bit of my day as my ‘break’ and made a little bit more progress on my latest project. It would be fantastic if I could finish it tonight.

At 5:20 I packed up to get to my taekwondo class at the dojo, which started at 6.

I saw Ari in the break room while I was clocking out. But luckily I had worked my time in such a way that I couldn’t stay around and chat without being late to my class. So I dodged a bullet on that one.

Class tonight was awesome.

I learned the 20 kicks… Which I still don’t fully understand the difference between the round house kick and the side kick. I know it has to do with where the knee is positioned, but we didn’t spend as much time on the kicks as we did the punches last time, so all of the kicks are still pretty fuzzy.

We started learning our first stance, Taegeuk II Jang. We got about halfway through the moves.

When sensei Mike asked me if I was enjoying the classes, I gave a heartfelt, “I love it!”

Taekwondo is so different. I definitely feel my connection to fire and earth through it. Aggressive, yet solid. While aikido is more fluid grace like water and air. Which is interesting since I personally don’t think I am very connected to those elements.

But maybe in a way I am. Water tends to be associated with emotions, which I’m totally in touch with those guys… Bastards.

And air is normally spiritually and enlightenment, which I feel I am on the path towards that.

It’s something to muse and ponder on for sure. Maybe I’m more balanced that I originally thought.

Sensei Beata said that sensei Mike is working on being able to administer the taekwondo tests at the dojo, so who knows. Maybe I’ll work on belts for both aikido and taekwondo at the same time. : 3

Oh god. I can see my ego now…

Jen, the Badass Earth Dragon Who Did.

I thought about sticking around to the actual aikido class, but I opted to come home instead.

It had been raining all day, I had gotten a bunch of school stuff done. And I did 5 more pushups then I did last time. (I super suck at upper body stuff ;-; )

I was happy with my day and decided to come home, enjoy a warm dinner, and relax.

I unloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned all of the dishes that were in the sink. Not my dishes, but I didn’t mind doing them. It gave me a chance to unwind.

I cooked the green beans and heated up the leftover mashed potatoes that I made last night to go with the steak, and warmed up the other half of the stuffed chop. Currently the veggies and potatoes are still staring at me, wondering why my keyboard is getting all of the attention.

Fear not little veggies, you shall soon be devoured. : E

I’m having a hard cider with dinner because I can. I didn’t really think about how much space a six pack would take up on my little shelf in the fridge. So if anything I’m really drinking it to get it out of the way. It most likely would have been better to go to ABC and get only two bottles. I’m really not interested in drinking six. Maybe I’ll ask Joshua and Susan if they want the rest.

I thought about working on the Photoshop tutorial after dinner but I have decided against that. Instead I’m going to stitch and relax for an hour or so before going to sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

I need to wake up relatively early to get laundry done before 9:30, which is when the spin class with Erin starts. After that I have a meeting with Rhonda at 11 to look at her rigs and to figure out a battle plan for getting them ready for her reel.

1pm is when SAL has lab.

Aikido is at 7. So that will give me about 3 hours where I can work.

So I can do the discussion post at the Laundromat. I can try to get through the first half of the tutorial in SAL, then wrap it up afterwards… I need to factor in about two hours for grading at some point.

Maybe it would be better to start that at the Laundromat, finish it in lab, then work on the discussion post, rounding out with part of the tutorial before aikido, and finishing it off at home.

That would leave the logo for Wednesday. I would want a solid chuck of time to work on that assignment, and I’m not going to get that at all tomorrow.

Hmmm… I think I like that game plan. At least I have something for life to set on fire now. Look at me being all thoughtful and stuff.

I signed up for a Time Management seminar on Wednesday. It’s another one of those Wellness incentives that work is offering since ‘proper time management helps reduce stress’. I figured I would sign up and do it while I have the time to.

I doubt I will learn anything new with all of the Time Management-y stuff I’ve already done. But it makes me look diligent and involved, which I guess is a good thing. They haven’t fired me yet, so I must be doing something right.

That, or I’m just really that good at faking it. /flex

I don’t think there was too much else that went on today…

Aaron had an issue with a script he was working on, but he figured out the problem before I got home, so that was cool. And Sabrina and I arranged to meet next Wednesday to talk about creating interfaces. So that is going to be super fun.

Yep… That’s pretty much it…

Really, I can’t resist the green beans any longer and can think of nothing else other than finishing my dinner. So with that I’m off.