Life Improvement #2 – Workout Wednesdays

I felt like a video today. In order to change my life in positive ways and to find happiness in small things, I made this video.

Still haven’t mastered the art of editing, so another All In One Go video. Felt like rambling today.

Feel free to ask me about my weekly routine (this is just an addition. I’m lazy, but not as lazy as I try to pretend lol) or this workout.

Here my playlist in words, in case you missed it. (Seriously?)

1. Pink – Raise Your Glass
2. Christina Aguilera – Ain’t No Other Man
3. Billy Joel – The River Of Dreams (Balance dancing)
4. Blake Shelton – Footloose
5. Bonnie Tyler – Holding Out For A Hero
6. Christina Aguilera – Tough Lover (Balance dancing)
7. Christina Aguilera – Candyman
8. Christina Aguilera – Something’s Got A Hold On Me
9. Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster Stronger
10. Footloose Soundtrack – Fake I.D. (Balance dancing)
11.Journey – Don’t Stop Believing
12. Lady GaGa – Bad Romance
13. Lady GaGa – Just Dance (Balance dancing)
14. LMFAO – Sexy And I Know It
15. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
16. Rolling Stones & Christina Aguilera – Nasty Habits (Balance dancing)
17. Pink – Get This Party Started
18. Psy – Gangnam Style
19. Rick Springfield – Jessie’s Girl
20. Adele – Rumor Has It (Balance dancing)
21. The All-American Rejects – Dirty Little Secret
22. The Overtones – Hit The Road Jack
23.The Overtones – The Bare Necessities
24. The Overtones – Do You Love Me
25. Whitney Houston – I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Turmeric and Coconut Tea

This! I’m not the only baby-faced grown-up in her late twenties on planet earth and I kept nodding with almost every single word. New favorite blog!

Bad Luck With Media Stores

I could write a whole blog about my experiences at our local media store. It’s one of these chain stores that sell all kind of electric knick-knack, DVDs, games and CDs. We recently bought a used Xbox One and we need to get it fixed. It was bought in one of these stores so I tried to call ahead and find out if we need to bring the whole thing including cables and controller or just the console itself, as the problem was that it doesn’t recognise any discs. But as always at this time of the year it is hard to reach anyone, because there are so many people returning their gifts like there is no tomorrow. I wrote about a funny situation on my other blog.

This time however it didn’t actually make me go lol. I was in town to buy a few things and thought I’d stick my head in this store and get my answers personally. The service department was crowded, just as I imagined. I didn’t want to waste any time there which is why I headed upstairs into the video game department. I was under the impression that the guys working there would know. It turns out they don’t really know anything. I’m not even sure WHY I thought they would, as they proved time and again that they are just a bunch of testosterone driven idiots. There were two of them and I told them about my problem and asked my question. They just shrugged their shoulders and said I should go and ask at the service department. I was ready to leave them standing there when they started to actually do their work and try to sell their stuff. Too bad I didn’t plan on buying anything, but they wouldn’t get it.

‘Why would you buy a Xbox One anyway? It’s a piece of shit!’, Tech-Guy #1 said. ‘Buy a PS4! It’s so much better and the games are so much better!’

What followed was a lot of eye-rolling on my part, and a lot of partly stupid and partly wrong assumptions about how cool a PlayStation 4 is in comparison with the Xbox One. It was all kind of funny until Tech-Guy #2 pulled the ‘You’re a girl. Girl like this shit.’-card. Here is what happened:

Tech-Guy #2: ‘You see? PS4 is da bomb! Buy one! Go for it! And also, you’re a girl and girls LOVE PS4, because there are colored symbols on the buttons and stuff.’

Tech-Guy #1 was a little hesitant but nodded his head after looking at me and then at his work buddy. Suddenly everyone got reaaaaally quiet around us, as we had already a small audience. There were a few people that I knew and that have watched a similar scene including a tech-guy that lost his job, because of his crappy treatment of costumers. They probably knew what was coming. To be fair, these guys probably thought that I was a teenager, too shy and too thick to run them over with my opinion. Oh, boy, they were wrong.

Whenever I get angry, I start lashing out. Quietly at first, but I’m always making sure that the audience gets what it came for. And so I lashed out and started correcting every little mistake that they made when they told me about what games are announced for PS4, about how much better said console is compared to the Microsoft one and about how much of a damn a woman interested in video games actually is in colored symbols. I then told them that I could report them, which would lead to reprimand and, if they kept this kind of ‘selling tactics’ up, to losing their jobs and that I decided against it, because they are obviously new to this department and still had to learn. And that, in the future, when someone asks them something about the Xbox One they stick to informations about Xbox One and try to keep it in their pants. I told them that I probably knew more about video games than they did together, which means that they have just been out-smarted by ‘a girl’ and that they shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

After my little rant Tech Guy #1 looked ready to pee his pants and Tech Guy #2 got a huge hit to his ego. Mission accomplished! Another tech guy, who burst out laughing through my rant, entered the scene and told his colleagues to go and scare some kids. He gave me two thumbs up and told me he would find out if I needed to return the whole thing or just the console until my next visit.

On my way out I snatched a copy of Orphan Black Season 2 and after paying I left with a very satisfied smile.

Snowpiercer

Drachenzähmen 2

Schicksal ist ein mieser Verräter

Transcendence

Guardians of the Galaxy

The Wind Rises

Tammy – Voll abgefahren

XMen Days of Future Past

Die Schöne und das Biest

A Million Ways To Die In The West

—

Austenland

Stolz und Vorurteil – BBC/Knightley

Hugo

Apocalypse Now

Annie

Der kleine Lord

The Grinch

Full Metal Jacket

Der große Crash

Django Unchained

The Winters Bone

Tribute von Panem #1, #2

Les Miserables

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Disney Schöne und das Biest

Disney Arielle

Saving Mr. Banks

My Fair Lady

Burlesque

Mamma Mia!

Chroniken der Unterwelt

Emma

Twilight 1-4

Abgelehnt

August Rush

Die Tochter meines besten Freundes

Love Crime

Footloose

Shawn of the Dead

Die durch die Hölle gehen

Das hält kein Jahr

Frozen

Star Trek  & Into Darkness

—

Orphan Black

DS9

Doctor Who

Enterprise

Grey’s Anatomy

Project Runway

Torchwood

The Mentalist

Hannibal

Supernatural

Sherlock

New Girl

Awkward

Life Improvement #1 – Saving Money

To start this year in blogging, I am going to introduce you to a little series called “Life Improvement”. I’m not sure how many episodes you’ll get, but I’m open for any and every idea you might have.

Why am I doing this? Well for starters, I want to be happy. I am not UNhappy at the moment, but I feel like I could do more for myself as well as Mr. Crazy Sheep Lady-to-be and so I’m investing some time, effort and research into life hacks that are actually helping me become a better person, a happier woman or just a more organized girl in general.

And without further ado, here is part 1.

Every year I want to travel and every year I can’t. It’s because there are so many great things I can buy with my money instead of saving it. I never learned how to save money, so I’ll have to learn it now. There already are a few things I’ve learned ever since I’m living on my own. Here’s a short list of how I am already saving money:

• Eating a piece of chocolate before going shopping – I’m not craving any sweets when I pass the shelves on my way to the cash-out. Yay!
• Buying clothes when they are on sale – If it’s not on sale, yet, I wait. And most of the time I forget about the item. *lol*
• Paying with my Starbucks card – If there is no credit on it anymore, no Starbucks for me! (I put money on it every three or four months. It has helped me a lot!)
• Having breakfast before going to work – That way I won’t buy anything from the bakery that I pass on my way to work.
• Recycling – tinfoil, zipper bags… but also decorations. There is no reason to buy new christmas decorations when you already have 4 huge boxes full of stuff like we do.
• 

This is all very well and it helped me a great deal but it doesn’t get me anywhere closer to a week in San Francisco or Cork. So, here is what I’m going to do: I’ll prepare a jar, just like the picture shows. But instead of starting with 1€ (it’s hard to come by Dollar in Germany ;)) I’ll start with 52€. That way, saving money will get easier every week. And really, I don’t earn that much that I could afford to save this amount of money in december. You know, with food and presents and such…

I’ll keep you posted as to how easy this actually is for me.

And then there is this cute little idea. We have a 5 Euro bill, so I can adapt this into my little scheme to save even more money! Yaay! I’m handing them out easily, as I tend to forget about them. Putting them aside and saving them seems like a perfect idea to me. This will probably work even better than the 52 week challenge, as there are no set dates on when I have to add more money to this jar. I’ll also continue my little tradition to put all the copper coins aside and to see how much I gained at the end of the year. This year it was about 15€. Not bad at all!!

All in all I’m sure I’ll save a lot of money in 2015. And who knows? Maybe even enough to go to San Francisco AND Cork!

Do you have a different way as how to save up money for a special occasion? I’m all ears! 🙂 I hope you guys had a great day and that you started – or will start – 2015 in a happy, smooth and relaxed way.

Cheers!

What A Year!

As many, many others I, too, am in the middle of reflection. I reflect on the past 12 months; on happy days, sad days, surprising days and boring days.

I remember that I wanted to start this year with great news and maybe some happy tears but I was thoroughly disappointed. My fiancé and I broke the news of our engagement to our parents on New Year’s Day. We had a table booked in our favorite restaurant, everybody was happy with their food and the conversations were light but funny. The news of our engagement broke this atmosphere. My future father-in-law was happy, as was my mother’s boyfriend. My future mother-in-law was disappointed that we had waited to tell them and that she didn’t know of my fiancé’s intention to propose. But she, too, regained her composure well and we talked a little about what the perfect wedding would look like. It was my mother that, to this day, still isn’t happy about the “old-fashioned and overdone way” in which we want to spend our future. I know that my father would have been very happy and would have told the whole village that a wedding was closer than ever. I’m sad that I can’t seem to find a way to start a conversation about my wedding with my mother.

I’m also very sad about the fact that I can’t talk about it with my future mother-in-law as she passed away suddenly without a sign of warning. Yet again someone was ripped away from our family picture and we’ll have to meet all our milestones with yet another parent. I was in hospital myself, when I received the news. Due to stress and my already high blood-pressure I almost suffered a heart attack and had to be submitted in the middle of my final stage of training.

On a brighter note, I finally and officially finished my training and I’m now working as a school assistant for a 14 year old autistic boy. This job is not as fulfilling as I hoped it would be, but it is much better on my medical condition, I don’t work as many hours and I am finally working with people that respect me and my training. It is very difficult for this boy to get comfortable around me, as he hoped that his parents wouldn’t find someone suitable for this job. And it is very difficult for me to work with him in a class that he doesn’t want to know about his special need for assistance and about him being autistic. Thankfully puberty didn’t hit those boys and girls hard, yet, and there is still hope for all of us. *lol* I’m just forever thankful to be away from my narrow-minded teachers and all that stress that they put on me and my classmates. I am also very lucky to have found a job in that small field of school assistance with a specialty on autism.

This year I have tried to get reconnected to dancing and I attended some Chairs&Burlesque workshops. They have been fun but I’m still not hooked. As writing was a huge difficulty for me, because of my hand injury last year, I tried to express myself through a video blog on Youtube. I’ll have it removed shortly after I upload this post and I’ll connect these two medias in the future, as I’m still having problems typing. My internet journey brought me to Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. Twitter I found to be insufferable. Tumblr is a lot of fun, but it’s spoiling almost all my favorite TV shows and movies, so I’ll have to stop using it. I wasn’t sure about Instagram, because it’s such a “Hipster” thing and I felt too old to use it. But after I downloaded this App I discovered that I was just led by prejudice and it is an easy and fun way to celebrate and share those big and little things in life with complete strangers AND friends. And I like everything that is easy in technology.

Then, last month, I revisited my last post on this blog. I’ll have my New Year’s Resolution post for 2015 uploaded for New Year’s Day. Let me just say: I have been a good girl this year and I’m very motivated to continue to be one next year.

I hope you guys had an amazing year and I’d like to say THANK YOU all for letting me and others be part of your life through blogging.

I will remember the year 2014 as a journey. A journey to very different destinations with high waters, thunderstorms but also rainbows and new discoveries. And even though I couldn’t write a book about it, a sketch won’t do either.

It’s time for: New Year’s Resolutions!

Last year I had only three premises for 2013: Eat, sleep, survive!

This year I’m up for a little upgrade on those pretty basic resolutions. For 2014 I’m going to make three lists. There are things I’m sure I can pull them through, some that I’m pretty sure about and some that are so crazy, I’m likely to break by Jan 3rd. And here they come:

New Year’s Resolutions (very positive)

1. Drink a glass of water each day! – Now, you may wonder where this comes from and I’m going to tell you: I. HATE. WATER. It’s disgusting, but healthy. So here I am, trying to do this evil deed for myself.
2. Read 5 books!
   – I have so many books and so little time. And it’s time I take some time for reading! 5 books aren’t so hard. I won’t count Manga, alright.
3. Finish your job!
   – Really, it’s only five more months. I CAN DO THIS!!! …I hope. So far I had four accidents involving one child and some of my bones. She’s at the wrong school and everyone has to suffer from her behaviour (inculding herself). Only 5 more months…
4. Finish Star Trek: Deep Space Nine!
   – I know, I just started watching Doctor Who (again) but there are only 14 more episodes of this aweful Star Trek-show. My fiance is going to be SO happy I watched all of them with him. I can do this! I can do this!

New Year’s Resolutions (kinda positive)

1. Start and finish Star Trek: The Next Generation!
   – I hope we have the time to do this! I really LOVE that show, but I’ve never seen all episodes in the right order. MAKE IT SO!
2. Clean the windows every second month!
   – It shouldn’t be so difficult, should it?
3. Get rid of at least two boxes full of clothes!
   – One is already packed, but the ‘getting rid of’-part is pretty tough. I’m too lazy to put them on eBay.
4. Prepare your protocols in advance!
   – We are speaking of four protocols. That shouldn’t be too hard. Usually I start and finish them the night before the deadline. That has to stop!
5. Drink two glasses of water a day!
   – Ugh!
6. Read 10 books!
   – That is going to be hard, but I’ll try my best!

New Year’s Resolutions (no can do!)

1. Clean the windows once a month!
   – Am I a slave, or what?
2. Stop eating Junk Food!
   – HA! Riiiiight.
3. Drink three glasses of water a day!
   – Alright, but only if one of them is juice or Coca Cola. No? Damn!
4. Start and Finish Star Trek: Voyager!
   – NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
5. Read The Hunger Games Trilogie!
   – *gag* NOOOOOHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! *wail*

I’ll revisit this threat…sorry, thread!…this time next year. Anyone that wants to join in on the fun? Let’s compare our lists! :))

Looking back

There are three days left until 2014 and I do what everybody does: looking back on the past twelve months.

They haven’t been the easiest, that’s for sure. But they haven’t been the worst either. I’ve been moaning and crying through-out the year, but now that I think about it, I made a lot of happy, cheerful memories. This time last year, I’ve been a wreck. Dad had died and the whole world has been turning apart for me. I’ve never have been this sad on Christmas or dreaded New Year’s Eve like I did in 2012. Let’s try and see, if I can come up with at least 12 memories that helped making this year better than the one before:

January

I’ve been mourning the loss of my father, yet I have been funtional enough to actually eat and sleep properly. My crafting and reading has been reduced to null and I gave up on dancing, but I had my partner that helped me through this phase. I’m very lucky to have him by my side.

February

A new phase of my training started and our teachers started to prepare us for our exams. With these exams I’d be allowed to work as a trained nurse in the development and care for people with special needs. I was close to just throw it all away, but I stopped myself and got off my lazy arse. I wrote about 80 applications for the final year of my training.

March

The final preparations for Dad’s funeral took place and we finally agreed on a day. I was invited to a few interviews and even got the OK of one of the schools I applied for. I was so happy, that there were people out there that wanted me to work in this area!

April

The funeral took place right after Eastern. I mistook my Dad’s urn for a flowerpot and I knew that he’d have laughed about that until he couldn’t breath anymore. Somebody should have told me… The funeral too place on the sea and the weather was glorious, even though it was still winter during that time! I was able to laugh and we had a great time. I dreaded the day, but it turned out to be very happy. Funerals are supposed to be happy – you should celebrate the life of the deceased and that’s what we did.

May

The final weeks at school before we were send into the dreadful weeks before the exams. I hardly listened, yet knew all the hints the teachers gave us. One teacher told us exactly what he was going to ask from us and I felt well prepared. End of May: One exam down, three to go!

June

I had many fights with the head of training about my placement. She forbid me to work at the school that gave me the OK, even though she was all ears before I applied. She said I didn’t earn enough money in that year. I didn’t care, because it was the perfect placement and I could have easily get a full-time job after that year. On a brighter note: three exams down, one to go! Oh, and I started watching Doctor Who!

July

I decided not to write any more applications. 100 were enough. I was happy with the decision not to do the final year of training and work under the first title I got without the exams (it’s similiar to the Bacholer/Master-system, just not that highly qualified). On a very short notice I received an invitation for an interview – where I got the placement(!!!) and earned more money, which was unimportant for me but seems to be very important for future generations that want to absolve this training *yawn*.

August

I passed every exam with ok grades. Nothing to boast about. The end is in sight and I’ll never look back to the months I spent at this school. These four weeks will be the last before I start at my placement. All in all I spent the last 10 weeks at home or with friends. I’m very happy I have seen so much of them this year.

September

I start working at a school for special education (speciality: physical disabilities). I know from the start that my team is not working well together and I have a very bad standing, as I’m not a teacher. I get treated like I’ve never worked with children before (I’ve been a nursery nurse AND worked at a school for special education before, I might add) and as if I’m slow in understanding. Some think I’m a student at this school. All in all it sucks, but it’s better than working in a nursing home. I’m very dissappointed, but I know that in the next 10 months, there is nothing I can do about it. And really…it IS better than working in nursing home!

October

Nothing really happens. I break off all contact with my sister who hasn’t ever been there for me and all I can say is: GOOD RIDDANCE!! After my mum told me, that Dad loved to watch me dance, I decided to pick it up where I left it and got to see some familiar faces again.

November

Celebration time! Nov 17th was our 5-year-anniversary as a couple and my partner proposed!! I’m going to be a married Crazy Sheep Lady in two years time!!! And since that one 10-year-old at work dislocated my thumb, my standing among my colleagues is so much better!

December

I survived Christmas. And now I’m looking back, smiling and thinking: It could have been much, much, much worse!

 

I decided I’m going to look back every month to see and remember why and how life can be good. It’s so easy to forget the little things, but it’s well worth it to reflect and be grateful for every smile you receive.

And All I Can Do Is Keep Breathing

It’s been two months now. Two months, 8 weeks, 64 days or 792 hours – or approximately 20 calls. But these are just numbers. What do these numbers do? They make me old.

I feel as if I’ve aged at least 10 years in these last two months. My dad – the one person I could always count on and could always go back to – died 64 days ago. It was a thursday. He wouldn’t call on a thursday. He knew I always had my dancing classes on thursdays so he’d call me on friday. Sometimes he forgot and we would talk to each other a little over half an hour before I had to start. Of course, I was already in the changing room and he’d moan about the bad reception at the gym. Dad would ask me about the pas few days. Even if we already talked two days ago. Hey, a lot could have happened between then and now. He’d also call every time we had visitors. What’s the rumble in the background? OK, dad, let me tell you again…

He was a soul. As long as he was around, I could be mean and hurt and act like a child, because you know what? I WAS a child. What did it matter that I am 24 years old, trying to be someone on my own? He certainly didn’t care. I was his little princess. He didn’t spoil me like one, but he always wanted to. It made him sad that I couldn’t afford a driving liscence. He couldn’t afford it either, so he thought he failed as a dad. But that didn’t matter to me. He helped my boyfriend and I move into our first flat together. He bought a car – you couldn’t really call it a car as it was falling apart, but it could drive and carry his tools – and he’d be spending all of his remaining free-time helping us. Drilling holes, fitting the kitchen, redecorating walls. Everything. He had to make sure I was alright and safe and happy in this flat, before he finally gave in to his condition. Driving away from me was the last drive he undertook. Walking out of our flat to his car were the last steps I’ve seen him make.

He won’t see the Everglades. His wish to live the last years of his life in a little wooden cabin with a fireplace were never granted. He will never see me dance in my wedding dress or join any birthday parties for his grand-children. He can’t celebrate the completion of my training  with us. Not really. He won’t be there with us any more steps of our way. Not really. He’s a memory now.

My throat is closing around a rock-hard lump that would not go away. I don’t know if it is the flu or another storm of tears, but I’m successful in gulping around it. It’s true, I miss his comforting words, the way his voice would soften around the edges when he talks to me and his stupid jokes that were only funny, because you just didn’t expect him to make one now. But I know this is good. I know him passing away was good. Would I want him suffer? Would I want to watch him decay slowly? Would I want to give him just another pill that would do the work instead of one of his organs? No, I wouldn’t.

I have to say it is easier to bear than I thought it would be. Dad was prepared. I know he was. And he also prepared me. And I prepared myself. I spent a year abroad, I moved out, we didn’t had any loose ends that would never be matched. I’m on my own two feet and I have been for the past 5 years. I can do this and he knew that. What I didn’t expect was the way I grew; the way I aged. I’m not a child anymore. I want to be treated like a grown-up. Of course, I wanted that before. But there is no king’s throne the little princess can hide behind, when the evil witch gives her barking laugh. She has to stand up for herself with a hand on her shoulder, invisible to everyone else. Everyone but her.

A hand that would weigh down on me and remind me, that this is all that’s left. Do I remember him often? Oh, do I! Everytime I look around. There are lamps that should have been hanging weeks ago, doors that need a patient hand and new paint and a couch that really needs to be replaced. Yeah, Dad can handle it when he comes by the next time. Only, he won’t. I have to rely on my own skill with tools and the opinion of greedy workers at the department stores. I can only shake my head at them every time they come up with another bad solution to my problem. I know Dad would enjoy these little episodes.  He’d laugh and say: “Sweetheart, that ain’t stopping you, right? Get the big machines out of their boxes and drill, drill, drill!”

Two months, 8 weeks, 64 days, 792 hours, 20 calls. And all I can do is keep breathing.

2012 in review – My annual report

All in all, I did not too bad, did I? I wish you all a Happy New Year! I won’t be celebrating, due to the loss of my dad with whom I usually shared a whole days worth of tradition that were special and dear to me. I’m still not doing good enough to celebrate, so please have a shot for me tonight. 😉

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.