Eggs in one basket

After a brief and insulting exchange last night I have come to the opinion that perhaps my parents (specifically my father) focused too much on raising me to be an independent, strong woman and neglected in raising my middle brother to become a decent, compassionate human being. He's also quite sexist but I don't think I can entirely blame my parents for that.

-Natalia

Over and over and over again....

I've realized I keep doing the same thing over and over. It's not healthy and not productive.

I'm stopping. Now.

I firmly believe that getting my psychology degree is the best thing I ever did. :)

I Found It!

I finally figured out what was missing from my life. A specific extra curricular activity, martial arts. :)

I recently started MMA (Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) and couldn't be happier. It's been about 6 weeks and I've already lost weight and feel amazing! So much fun! As a kid (from 9-16) I did Tae Kwon Do and very briefly,  some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at around age 11 for about 6 months so martial arts isn't completely new to me. However, I've had an almost 10 year hiatus but things are starting to come back.

I finally found what was missing. :)

-Natalia

'Sup 2012! 'Sup?!

Ah, yes. It's the beginning of the last year of civilization (again) and with every new year comes those bullshit resolutions.Like pretty much everyone else in the modernized world I've come up with a list of resolutions that I hope to resolve or at least attempt. I don't even remember all of my resolutions (other than the stereotypical "Work-out, eat healthy, blah blah blah...") so hopefully by having this year's publicly written down I'll do a better job at maintaining them.

Now, for my 2012 list I'm not going to add working out or eating healthy to my list because I feel they're redundant and I'm always trying to improve my life in that regard. The list that I am going to create will have resolutions that I haven't attempted before. Here goes...

1. Drink absolutely no soda for the entire year. (*exception is Guarana, a Brazilian soda b/c I only drink it when I'm in Brazil and I'll only be there once this year)

2. Purchase no accessories (I have way too many hand bags and costume jewelry so I'm not buying anything new for at least an entire year. If I do, I'll write a post about it).

3. Purchase a home (With the money I'll be saving from not purchasing handbags and jewelry and my bad ass credit score, this shouldn't be a problem)

4. Get a promotion (I'm not sure how long it usually takes for my position but I've been there for 5 months and would love to have the "assistant" from "Logistics Assistant" removed from my title.

And for the goals I would like to not classify as "resolutions" I would like to list the following:

1. Work-out
2. Eat healthy
3. Watch at least 1 TED talk a week
4. Read at least 2 books a month (1 in Portuguese)

Anyway, we'll see how this all goes....

2012, here I come!

-Natalia

#BEDS Fail!

My daily September blogging goal was not achieved. Last week started off as being pretty busy for me at work and I was unable to recuperate until the weekend. On the bright side, the job is getting easier and I feel less bad for selling out. Oh, well.

You may be right, but I'm not letting you know.

One of the greatest things I ever improved about myself is the ability to recognized when I'm wrong or feeling jealous. I'll never admit it to anyone else though!

One thing I am willing to openly admit on my internet page so infrequently visited is that I feel unsure, confused, in the middle of a slight identity crisis, and lonely. I'm also extremely appreciative of every single thing going on in my life at the moment and also unbelievably happy. I just really hate not having my life figured out or at least outlined in some way. I work best with structure and this whole "learn as you go" process is frustrating until I eventually get the hold of things. Unfortunately, it takes time to get the hang of things.

Btw, I absolutely love someecards.com and saw this little gem today:

Fucking awesome! Ha!

"No, This Child Will Be Gifted..."

"... with love, with patience, and with faith. She'll make her way." This song popped into my head today and for the life of me I could not remember the artist name, the song title, or even the lyrics (I search for the lyrics when I don't know the song or the artist). It was on the tip of my tongue (all 3) so after a couple of searches of "90s Female Musicians" I finally saw Natalie Merchant's name and searched for her on Youtube. I always liked this song from the moment I first heard it but I really fell in love after hearing an interview with Natalie Merchant on NPR about a year ago where she talked about the true story that inspired her to write it. I'll update this post tomorrow with a link to that article tomorrow but for now here's her song "Wonder."

-Natália