Yummo!

Know what I love most about my year-long blog adventure?  It's forcing me to at least once a week try something new.  Even if it is something that I don't like, at least I'm making efforts to spice up my life and make it just a little more interesting!  There is nothing better than living life in an exciting, enriched way.  The things I have done so far this year may not seem like much, but even the smallest changes have made me so excited about my life!  Its even better when I have a blog and people to share this excitement with.

Well, my challenge for last week was to "order food I had never tried before."  This didn't seem too difficult, as I am always pretty adventurous with my dining (minus really spicy food and odd body parts of animals.)  Also, I knew that I was going on a date to a new restaurant I had never been to before.  Remember the date-ditcher from blog post #1?  Yes, the one that cancelled on me an hour before.  He asked me out again, and because I believe in second chances, I gave him another shot.  Best decision I could have made, not only because he is a great guy, but the food we ate that night was beyond blog-worthy!

He took me to a place called Blue Koi.  He asked me what my favorite food was, and since it's Chinese he suggested this restaurant.  It was great!  To begin with, I'm a sucker for a man who knows how to order food, but he blew me away!  He offered friendly suggestions of appetizers, fun bubble tea drinks, and even offered to split two different entrees so I could try them both. 

Here is what we ordered (all of which were new experiences for me):

Bubble Teas

Crispy Tofu with Awesome Sauce (which is truly AWESOME)

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings

Firebird Chicken--it was sooo spicy, but so good!

Blue Koi didn't have the duck entree that we ordered on their website, so to follow suit, here is a picture of a duck.  Hey, I'm sure the duck we ate looked like this at some point in his life...

All of these new foods were sooo yummy!  They even made great leftovers...twice.  I would really like to continue my adventurous spirit throughout the year and order new things, even at places I eat at regularly. 

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I'm giving myself four stars for my week of ordering new food!  I would give myself five, but my report out is way late so that resulted in a one-star deduction.  Thank you date-ditcher-turned-out-great-guy for an awesome new dining experience! 

This week, the theme of my life comes from Kathleen's "Pointers for Purposeful Change," and I am going to spend time with the people who make me laugh.  I am very excited for what I will be doing in my next post. 

Thanks for reading this week, and here is my song of the week:

"Snails" by The Format 

Making Lists

Well, I'm two days late this week.  It usually wouldn't be a big deal, except my New Year's resolution is to be on time so I'm a little disappointed in myself.  Oh well, here is my blog about making a list.

At the end of my last post, I noted that I didn't know what kind of list I wanted to make; that I would just let it happen and see what the week brought me.  Now let me tell you, this has been a week FULL of lists!  This week I made a grocery list, a list of things I wanted to work on in my apartment, made a list of personal goals for my job, started a list of goals for the accounts I manage, I even made a list of friends/family that I have been neglecting and I need to call/call back!  However, when it came to making a blog-worthy list that I thought would interest all of you, it was very difficult.  I started to make a real "wish-list" of things that I hope to accomplish/do, such as ride in a hot air balloon and go visit Portland and Boston and all the other cities I have yet to see.  It quickly became a bucket list, and that's not something I want to put on my blog--too unoriginal. 

Thankfully, my dad came to the rescue today.  My dad is VERY smart man.  Although I don't give him as much credit as he usually deserves, he has always known exactly what to say to help get me out of the heartbreaks and sticky situations I've faced in my life. 

He sent me an email this morning, and at first I wrote it off.  I mean, in the title it said "Please Read--DO NOT Delete!"  You can be sure that I'm not a fan of chain emails.  However, this afternoon I gave it a read and it was EXACTLY what I needed.  An amazing list!  It had some great advice, some of which I really needed to hear this week.  Thanks, Dad!  Here it is:

Feng Sui

1)      Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.  

2)      Marry a man you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other. 

3)      Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want. 

4)      When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.  

5)      When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye. 

6)      Be engaged at least six months before you get married. 

7)      Believe in love at first sight.  

8)      Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.  

9)      Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.  

10)  In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.  

11)  Don't judge people by their relatives.  

12)  Talk slowly, but think quickly.

13)  When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?'   

14)  Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

15)  Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.  

16)  When you lose, don't lose the lesson.  

17)  Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.  

18)  Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.  

19)  When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.  

20)  Smile when picking up the phone.  The caller will hear it in your voice.  

21)  Spend some time alone. 

Yep, a list of ways to live your life through Feng Sui.  Great list, right???  So this week I'm giving my successes to my dad, and I'm giving him FIVE STARS!

Check back in on Monday to see what I have to say about my experiences ordering food I've never tried before, from Kathleen's "Pointers for Purposeful Change" list. 

Song of the Week:  "Send Me on My Way" by Rusted Root

Holding Myself Accountable: A Week of No Complaining

Well, this week was a learning week.  The task I set before myself was to go a week without complaining, and that was not as easy as I was expecting.

It's funny how setting goals for yourself and monitoring the actions you take can really make you aware of your faults  more interesting traits.  I've always deemed myself as an optimist, one who truly believes that complaining doesn't accomplish anything so why do it?  Turns out I'm more of a whiner than I ever imagined.  Not to mention the things I choose to whine about are just plain silly!  This will definitely be a work in progress, as it is something I would like to improve.  I would like to challenge you to pick a personality trait that you have that maybe you aren't the most proud of--spend a week monitoring yourself and try to make a difference!  It's very rewarding.

Okay, so before I reveal my goal for next week I would like to implement a new idea into Just My Type.  At the end of each week, as I blog about my successes and challenges, I am going to rate myself on how well I did.  One, this will help track my progress, and two, will help me hold myself accountable for my actions.

This week I am giving myself:

Two stars.  Why only two you ask?  Well, I do believe I made a genuine effort to decrease my complaining, but I can do much better.  "And a wish," you ask? Well thank you Google Image Search for giving me this picture, because it has to do with my post for next week!

My challenge for next week is from Kathleen's "Adding Joy to Life."  I am going to make a wish list!  I haven't decided yet if it is going to be a wishlist for 2012, for my life, or maybe it will be what I want my future husband to be like.  We'll see what this week holds for me.  Until then, thanks for reading and I will leave you with a song of the week that I have personally been playing on repeat this week.

"Beautiful Mess" by Jason Mraz

Week One: Taking Control

Well, I'm officially a week into my blog-venture and things seem to be moving pretty steadily.  In an effort to take control over my life, my first mission for the year was one of Kathleen's tips: "Get rid of stuff you don't want or need."  I thought this was going to be easy for me--but I was very wrong. 

I live in a two-bedroom apartment and since moving into the place in October, I've settled in really well and have most of my things unpacked.  However, the second bedroom is still full of a bunch of random stuff.  My plan was to completely clean up the room...get rid of the useless crap that is taking up space, organize my thousands of pictures I just have sitting around in boxes, sell/donate things that I am not making use of...ugh, talk about overwhelming.  While I spent probably a total of 10 hours working on this project throughout the week and I was able to throw away five boxes/trashbags of stuff I didn't need, I have yet to make up more than one box of things to donate.  It was a good jumpstart to my year, however, and will definitely be an ongoing project.  Before and after pictures coming soon.

Regardless of whether or not I was successful in cleaning up my old crap, I did learn a few lessons in taking control of my life--and THAT is what this year is all about!  This week I have reminded myself of a lesson I learned back in high school.  No one can make me feel anything.  I choose my own emotions, regardless of the action that inspired them.  There were a few times this week that I was reminded of this but here's one specific example: I had plans to go out on a date for drinks with a friend of my co-worker.  An hour before the date, I got the dreaded, "I really hate to do this, but..." text.  Got the message as I was mid-curl doing my hair.  Ugh.  The emotions that you feel right after being ditched for a date are terrible!  Not to mention the hit to your pride when you have to tell your friends, who knew how excited you were for said date.

However, the next day (yesterday) I reminded myself of the great lesson, which also comes in the form of the famous quote "no one can make you feel inferior without your consent," and I knew it would be great blog-material.  Just because one random guy decides I'm not worth a date, doesn't warrant me to think less of myself or feel defeated.  I am taking control and it feels good!

Keeping my blog in mind every day is a bit of a blessing in disguise.  I love how already it turned from cleaning up my apartment to loving myself more and more! 

This week, my blog-venture takes a great turn as I jump to one of Passanisi's Pointers for Purposeful Change: "Go One Day Without Complaining." However, I will make this a weekly challenge and see what blog-worthy life stories it brings me for next week! 

Song of the Week: "Domino" by Jessie J