Hello everyone! Today, I wanted to have our monthly coffee chat!
Today, I’m going to have a pumpkin spice latte because it’s that time of year! In real life, I haven’t actually had one yet LOL but on the blog let’s pretend that’s what I’m having! (In reality I just have water on my desk as I write this.)
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, Camp Cuddles has been extended again! I think I might have mentioned it at some point but my puppy niece is staying longer but in case I haven’t, I thought I’d share now. My sister was going to pick her up back in July, but left her a bit longer. And now my sister was busy moving so she left the dog with me during that time so she and her roommates would have one less pup to worry about. I’m so happy that I get to keep the tiny dog a little longer!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about how strange last month was in terms of cancelled events and other plans I had. Now, I know things get cancelled all the time, especially given the ongoing pandemic and rising Covid cases and stuff. But it was just a lot of stuff all at once that was super weird for me. First, I had to skip a ballet class as my puppy niece wasn’t feeling well. Not super weird, but that was the start of it. After that, my first day at my new job was supposed to be the 16th of August but ended up being pushed back to the 23rd. It wasn’t so bad, just a week, but it was still unexpected. Then, one of my DIY classes was cancelled at the library because of a storm in the area. Which is normal of course, and we know it’s weather dependent, but combined with the other stuff was weird! Then, a belly dancing class was cancelled and rescheduled for this month, the same week as the DIY class! And then this past weekend I had plans to go to a local pow wow event that was scheduled but I ended up not going because of a few things, so that was on me. I ended up not going because it was super hot that weekend! Like, heat advisory hot. And then I also skipped it because they did have an admission fee but no information on what was going to happen and when on their website or FB event page. I couldn’t find any information on what events were scheduled or when performances were happening. There were photos of booths set up, but no information on those either. From the photos from previous years it seemed like they didn’t even have any crafts or anything for sale, but mostly meant for people to share their family history or something. It just didn’t seem like it was going to be that interesting of an event so instead I skipped it and hopefully after Covid I can find a more structured and established pow wow event to attend.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, all about my first week of my new job! I did a ton of training and luckily a lot of stuff is similar to programs and processes I had before at my previous job in the events industry. It’s been pretty easy so far and enough is different that it’s still interesting. I also find the new people I’m working with pretty interesting and it’s been cool to see familiar names pop up from my old employer. I am missing the strong cultural efforts of my most recent employer, the online university I worked for. They had a lot of really well thought out and established cultural initiatives and I don’t see that here yet. Of course, the team is much, much smaller, so it doesn’t seem like there is a need for a structured and formal cultural initiative, but I do miss that aspect of my old job. I might bring that up with my new boss later on once I’m more used to my new workplace and can better understand if it is something that might be helpful or not.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that I’m working on creating a balance in my life in terms of my activities, hobbies, and entertainment. As I review my budget monthly, I realized I had a lot of subscriptions and they were mostly for streaming content. I have been trying to be more mindful about watching stuff on all those platforms I’m paying for as I do want to keep the subscriptions but want to be sure I’m watching stuff and making the costs worth it. I use Netflix the most, and I recently got a wifi extender so I can finally watch Hulu and Disney+ in my room before bed now too so that’s been super helpful in allowing me more access to these subscriptions. Besides trying to balance the streaming services, I also have other “categories” of sorts to consider. I want to better balance what I think of as “active” hobbies and “passive” hobbies. Passive hobbies, for me, are things like watching movies, that don’t require a lot from me. Active hobbies can be mental or physical, and require more effort from my part. That would be hobbies like going on a hike, playing video games, reading, ballet, and stuff like that. I also want to focus on creative hobbies like writing, bullet journaling, and things like that too. I have come to accept that I am a woman of many talents and interests, so I want to better balance them out and share my time more mindfully with the activities that bring me joy.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about my creative endeavors. Specifically, my writing! You might remember that I wrote two books in the past year. One for NaNoWriMo 2020, and another in January of 2021. I had intended to go back and edit them this past summer but never got around to it after I started my job at the online university. I still love those stories I created and I was initially planning to use NaNo 2021 to edit at least one of them. But now I have a new idea for another novel. I’m so torn now! On one hand I’d love to get out another story from my brain into a document but I also think it’s silly to end up with three first drafts with no progress to show for the older two? I guess I’ll outline my third novel and decide what I’m in the mood for when it comes to NaNo time!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that I’ve been a little down lately due to my lack of progress in my moving plans. I am trying ot just trust the universe, as I do think everything happens when it’s meant to, but I’d initially thought I’d be moving this fall back in the spring when I started to make plans. Now, I’m not anywhere closer to moving and it’s sort of really bumming me out! I was 100% committed to Texas, but then the political climate there was stressing me out. So I decided to consider other places. I haven’t looked much into Nashville, but that is a place I think I’d like to consider. I also looked up places that will pay you to move there and found a pretty cool looking program in West Virginia. Applications for that program don’t open until January, so I wasn’t seriously considering it. But then I randomly was putting some loose change into my change bucket and the quarter was a state quarter for WV. I kind of freaked out, wondering if it was a sign or something. I don’t really feel in my heart that it is a sign, but if I haven’t made a move anywhere by January I guess I might as well apply? I don’t know but we’ll see where I end up eventually I guess!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about just a short, quick, funny little interaction from my ballet class. As I’ve mentioned before, my class has become pretty close and even hung out outside of the dance studio. We were talking about kids before class recently. Two of the dancers in class are moms, the instructor is 100% childfree, I’m like 95% childfree, and another one is still on the fence about kids. One of the moms asked her why she was on the fence and one of the reasons the other dancer gave was the actual carrying of the kid and birth process. The mom immediately said she’d be a surrogate! It was just a really funny interaction in how quickly it escalated, with the mom saying “I’m offering my body to you RIGHT NOW”. She’s a funny lady, and dramatic so it makes it even better. We all busted out laughing at the entire interaction! I also pointed how how ready and willing the dancer is to be a surrogate, even though she only met us back in July I think. She immediately yelled across the studio “I AM A GIVER, PAMELA!” to which I have to agree that does seem to be a giver. It was such a funny conversation to observe and it makes me laugh, almost a week later.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that I am starting to feel restless in life again. I think it’s mostly due to the fact that my moving plans and everything around it isn’t going according to my plans. Basically my plan had been to buy a new car (like brand new, so I could plan to have the car for hopefully 10+ years) and then fill up the new car to move to Texas. But with the car shortage, I haven’t been able to find a car at all. Even if I could find one, they’re in such high demand that I’d end up having to overpay instead of being able to get any sort of discount. It’s been super frustrating to be at a stand still just due to that. I could go back to planning to get a Uhaul, but that seemed too expensive and I’d rather just move with a few things in case I don’t like it and want to move somewhere else. But again, I’m trying to wait it out and see what happens so in the meantime I’m going to focus on living to the fullest where I am!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about my goal to create peace in my life. I am trying to focus on my home office right now, as I realized that I was feeling a lack of creative energy in there recently. Unfortunately, I think I filled it up with too much furniture and therefore need to get rid of more things before I can get rid of the furniture, and then be able to move on to rearranging everything again. I’m going to have to go through another decluttering adventure soon!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about my goal for positivity! I think I’ve done well with this recently. Even though all those events and plans were changed or cancelled, I never let that really bother me. I also think that I’ve done pretty well with my new job and remaining positive even though it is a more volatile industry in terms of the pandemic. I have heard of a big event canceling and there is expected to be more. I guess that Texas was one of the first states that opened up for events and so a lot of event planners moved their events to TX due to that. Now that the state is having a lot of Covid cases again, they’re canceling again. It makes me a bit nervous considering I’m one of the newest hires, but I have to remember that these twists and turns are what draws me to the industry anyway. Working in events, you have to be on your toes and ready to face whatever challenge is thrown your way. It’s always a fun and wild journey so I’m going to remember that as I continue training and get more into my new role.
So that’s what I’d tell you if we were having coffee! What would you tell me?
Thanks for reading!
Pamela
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Starring Pamela 