I had planned on picking up my new motorcycle today from Petaluma, but given the weather and the worn out front tire and brake, I started this blog instead. Now I'm going to a yoga class. Be right back...
Okay, I'm back.
I was talking to one of my favorite people, Kellsy, last night about how cool our lives are right now. I've been counting my blessings lately, and everybody else's as well. It makes me so happy to think about how well the vast majority of my loved ones are doing. For the most part, my high school and college friends and my "grown up" friends are all in really good places, living lives of their choosing, working on projects they believe in, and earning livelihoods doing things they enjoy. After all the pessimism and angst we endured (or insisted on), it seems like there are an abundance of happy beginnings. Sometimes I get down on myself and the world, but mostly I'm a happy, calm, content person. How sweet is that?! I'm far less stressed than most people I meet on a daily basis, and I enjoy my life a lot more than I used to.
So I guess it seemed like a blog was in order. I really dislike facebook and have been avoiding it for years, but I do want to share certain things with certain people, and given the good mood I've been rocking pretty consistently for a quite while now, I think people might not mind my sharing and might even be interested. So if you want to know what I'm up to, here's an update:
Where I live:
Meet "The Lean".
Built in 1880, this tilty old Victorian house is called home by a bunch of people. I only know half of them--the ones who live in the downstairs apartment with me. Somehow, I've yet to meet our upstairs neighbors. I moved here in October because it's cheap, fun, and in my beloved downtown San Jose. My housemates are called Johnette, Alena, George, Corona, and Doja. The first three are humans. The last two are kitties (who sometimes sneak into my room and sometimes pee on things, but we love them anyway). Johnette is a blonde bombshell engineer whose room is almost literally wallpapered in heels and whose floor is sometimes carpeted with blueprints. She's the Mario Kart queen of the house. Alena is a Disney princess who grew up to become a neon-haired "Nurse" at Psycho Donuts. Her existence is a paradox because she's both Mexican AND dislikes any type of spicy food. George is a wine guy at BevMo and supposedly speaks words out loud sometimes. Mostly, I just hear shooting noises emanating from his bedroom. (He's a gamer.) We all get along really well, except for Corona and Doja, who are frenemies of the highest degree.
Where I work:
I've worked at private secular college prep high school for the last three years. It's called Pinewood and it's tucked away in a beautiful neighborhood/town called Los Altos Hills, home to some of Silicon Valley's ultra-rich. Right now, I teach American Government, Debate, and Yearbook. Until this semester, I was also teaching economics, but apparently all the cool kids already took my econ class, so I was left one class short this semester.
I also tutor for an impressively fast-growing company called AJ Tutoring. I tutor high school students in economics, writing, and SAT prep. So basically, I get paid money to help people understand the world and be a little more confident about their futures, and I think that's awesome. I didn't exactly intend to become an educator, but let's be honest--it makes sense. I'm naturally a very didactic person.
How I live:
I became a full-fledged vegan in 2013, and I think it's one of the best choices I've ever made. It's certainly one of the decisions that makes me the most proud of myself. More posts about being an herbivore will certainly ensue.
I joined a gym called Bally in downtown recently, because when it comes to exercise, I really just want someone to order me around and do all the thinking and counting for me. (I can lift these really heavy pieces of metal OR I can count to ten. Not both.) That's how Tae Kwon Do used to work, and that's how yoga and BodyPump and all the other gym classes work, too. I really enjoy walking 15 minutes to the gym, following instructions for an hour, and then heading home feeling like I've done my due diligence for the day, and my body's been thanking me for it.
In my free time, I've been doing some other fun stuff as well:
- Teaching myself to play ukelele (fewer strings and therefore easier and less intimidating than guitar).
- Spinning poi. (Someday I'll look like this.)
- Modern dance. I took a modern dance class last fall, and now I dance alone in my bedroom where nobody has to watch the process. Actually, I'm not terrible at it and I'm even working a little bit on my own choreography, but my body, having more curves than straight lines, doesn't look "right" when I dance, but, as stated above, I'm working on that!
- Hanging out with friends, both old and new. Sometimes this involves spontaneous living room dance parties, sometimes trivia night at Trials Pub, sometimes long discussions, sometimes Star Wars: The Old Republic (Ronny, am I a gamer yet?!)
- Blending (food, not makeup). (More on this later.)
- Learning about engines and motorcycle maintenance. (This will go a lot better once I actually own a motorcycle again, which should be happening this week!)
- Casually selling small pieces of used furniture (and other stuff) on craigslist with excellent profit margins.
- Meditating. Maybe not what comes to mind what you hear the word "fun," but it's definitely fun to feel more calm, selfless, and happy all the time.
- Reading constantly.
That last one deserves a little more explanation. My mom (oh you sweet angel) introduced me to the OverDrive Media app, and through it we can download free audiobooks from public libraries (library card required). I've been reading voraciously, so much so that I actually feel somewhat addicted to audio books. I refuse to give into the ridiculous stigma that listening to a book somehow counts for less than "actually" reading it. I'm busy, yo! Whereas I used to get through maybe one or two pleasure reading books each month, I now am zipping through one or two a week, sometimes more. I started out with some novels I've been meaning to read for a long time, but quickly realized that I'm far more interested in non-fiction lately. So last month I read two Stephen Hawking books ("A Brief History of Time" and "The Universe in a Nutshell"), which revived and expanded my pre-teen love of astronomy and cosmology, and launched me into an obsession with theoretical physics, which I've continued to explore through other media. The universe blows my mind, and expands it, and includes it. And everything is connected. Woooooah!
I'm now reading a fantastic book called "Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy." The authors' goal is to equip the reader with the scientific knowledge necessary to intelligently navigate the modern world. It's basically a crash course in everything you forgot from your high school science classes, but with really clear and valuable explanations of why each concept is useful and significant to our everyday lives. They teach you about everything from why computer chips work to what stem cell research is all about. Unlike my high school and college textbooks, these books written for a general audience aren't dry and soulless. The authors are witty, opinionated, and personal, which makes the learning experience much more fun and much MUCH more effective.
I've also been brushing up on my Eastern and Western philosophy, although philosophy is less suitable to the audio format because the text requires a lot more chewing before swallowing, so I find myself hitting the pause and back buttons a lot more often. Regardless, I'm in love with audio books. If I'm driving, cleaning, cooking, or walking, I'm reading. Hooray for efficiency and self-improvement!
So that's more or less what my life looks like at the moment. As my t-shirt currently declares: Life is good.
Most of my posts on here won't be nearly this long. Feel free to RSS or email subscribe for regular life updates, vegan recipes, adventure stories, book recommendations, and occasional ponderings on the nature and meaning of life.
Peace!
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