April's Mission

I have just returned from a truly delightful weekend in Lexington. I spent early Friday afternoon at Keeneland with my very dearest friend Jessie and her charming manfriend. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny and luke warm. The only downside was that for the first time in recorded history, I did not win a single penny on a race. Thank goodness I had limited funds to begin with. On my last bet, I wagered two dollars worth in quarters on a horse with 66-1 final odds to win. Obviously, I was desperate, which is never a good mindset to have when you are gambling. 

The best part of the weekend was the multitude of opportunities to reconnect with all of the people that I have sorely missed during my going on four months of exile in Dayton. It's just the teensiest bit sad to see all of my former peers with jobs, or plans for jobs, or just plans in general, but I know that my time is coming. 

In the meantime, I've decided that I need to live with a bit more purpose for the duration of this month. February and March were a complete waste, and I refuse to go on like that. Here is my plan...

1. On the subject of job searching: Focus more on quality and less on quantity. I've wasted a lot of time doing job submissions that I knew would amount to nothing just because I needed to feel like I was doing something, but I've realized just how correct my professors and advisors were when they tried to impress upon us the importance of networking, networking, networking. I've always known this, but now I need to start practicing it.

2. More culinary adventures: Cooking makes me so happy. More importantly, cooking extravagant things makes me so happy. I don't do it as often these days because I'm sharing a kitchen, and it is a bit time consuming, but it's something that I absolutely love doing, so I'm going to dedicate more time to it for the rest of this month. I've already told you about my croque monsieurs and lavender ice cream plans, but I have some more things in mind. For example, I'm thinking about making myself a birthday cake. How does Persian Love Cake sound?

3. Apprendre le français plus: The French language is divine, and I ashamed to say that my mastery of it has lessened of late. I used to be quite dedicated to my study of it, but after I returned from my time in France, I starting slacking, and now I've stopped thinking and dreaming in French, things I quite enjoyed doing. So, I have decided to start doing daily exercises in my grammar books again, as well as reading my French version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone again, and listening to Carla Bruni's Comme si de rien n'etait. (Did you know she was a folk singer in addition to being first lady of France?) This was inspired from my dear friend Aimee, by the way, who has just recently returned from her stay in Dijon, where I lived over there. I am jealous of her fluency.

4. The gym: Oh, the gym. I actually enjoy going. My problem here is in the lack of schedule. I never know what day or what time of day I'm going to go, and it stresses me out because I'm constantly thinking If I don't go today, then I have to go tomorrow, but what if I'm busy tomorrow, blah blah blah. So, I'm going to go 4-5 times a week at 10:00am (my favorite time because the old people are there, and they make me feel like I'm very fast and strong!). The days are to be determined on a weekly basis.

5. Organize my Itunes: I realize that this sound silly, but my Itunes is an absolute mess and it really stresses me out. Here's the problem. I have half of my music on my new computer, about a quarter on the Toshiba dinosaur, and the other quarter I got from friends. I cannot sync anything, and its driving me crazy. Also, I prefer using albums to playlists, and my albums are a mess. It is like an Easter Egg Hunt trying to find my favorite workout jams at the gym. So, I'm going to begin the long process of consolidating my music onto my new computer. The stuff I got from friends is just going to have to go. A small price to pay for organization.

I think I'm off to a great start. I'm going to ring in the big 2-2 on the proper note, as a polished young lady who has her stuff together. I feel better already.