Saturday, January 25, 2014

Fantasia 2000, being busy, making it happen.

Not spending money is a constant theme of this month. It changes almost every dynamic and really refocuses you on what is important. This weekend is full of birthday parties. Four in total and it is a challenge to not spend anything. It really pushes your creativity and innovation. You have to actually think about the person and plan if you want to actually show that you care. This year, I'm not just picking up a bottle of whiskey on the way over or a tricket at the local gift shop but slaving over the oven baking cookies, making a full realized brunch and stuffing chicken breasts for a dinner. I feel busy and happy. I am putting in hard work that has tangible rewards. 

When I set out on this month, I really just wanted to get back to a financially stable place and I'm getting there but who knew it would shift my perspective. 

I've also been using my resources like crazy. I've been checking out tons of DVDs and books from the library for free. I've watched a lot of the little know Disney movies I haven't seen since I was really little and am working on a mega post that talks about each one and my thoughts and feelings.

This morning I watched Fantasia 2000 while curling up under Jake's electric blanket (actually I am still sitting here). I made cinnamon rolls and drank coffee and reflected on what has been a reflective week. Watching these short cartoons over famous pieces of music, I thought about inspiration and follow through on a dream. You listen to a piece of music and you have an idea and that is the easy part. The hardest part is moving from an idea to a reality. So on my weekly lazy Saturday, I am thinking about the hard work that I need to put in to where I need to go. I'm doing pushup three times a week to work towards being able to do diamond push ups. I'm planning camping trips and Canada trips and desert trips. I finding where to buy a rabbit.

So here is to having a dream and making it a reality.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Disney Movie Reflection: The Emperor's New Groove, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, Mulan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves


The Aristocats
I don't really like cats and this movie is really just the glamorization of an aristocratic old cat lady. I mean (spoiler alert) she gives her entire fortune to a bunch of cats and the sad butler gets pissed and tries to drown some kittens. Way to take this to a dark place. This movie is kind of just Lady and the Tramp with cats and, as a dog person, Lady and the Tramp is always going to be the better movie. Redeeming features include a confusing jazz number in a movie that seems to be set in the turn of the century and the fact that the animation is weirdly scratchy and kind of looks like an impressionist painting.


The Emperor's New Groove
This may be the only Disney movie that Jake likes and possibly the only one he has ever seen. This movie came out in my angsty teen phase so I just missed it all together. I saw it a few years later at the suggest of a boy who I don't remember anymore. Now, I just associate it with sitting on a coach with Jake on a cold winter Saturday and working a project while he snores.It reminds me of him. Silly and heartfelt. A little brash and a little humble. The movie is easy and fun. Not one of my favorite but passes the time in a way that you will say that was silly and fun.

Robin Hood
So Robin Hood is in my top ten favorite Disney characters and was one of my childhood heroes so there was a lot of going into this. Also, I was a little drunk and it was my birthday and was the first movie I watched in my quest to watch at 53 Disney movies.

Robin Hood is all kinds of weird. It strives to explain England at the time of the Crusades using woodland creatures and cutesy songs. It is as dark as The Aristocats with more threatened children's lives and their is a hen who really likes to show off her undergarments. Additionally, there is a bizarre puppet show.

Mulan
I put on Mulan to watch while I wrote thank you cards on New Years eve. I put it on because I thought I wasn't going to like it. I remember seeing it on Veterans day with my brother and grandpa and being a little old for it and the going to McDonalds when it was released. I didn't remember the plot but I remembered that Eddie Murphy played a dragon named Mushu and I don't like Eddie Murphy.

It turned out to be a pretty awesome girl power movie. The whole song number about the match maker and disappointing your family by not matching feminine ideals and then saving your country because you are smart and resilient is pretty much a great message to send little girls. Or just people in general. My two major take aways from Mulan were that you should probably do whatever you want and that fireworks are bad ass.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
And the I watched Snow White shortly after Mulan and man is this story pathetic. I mean I appreciate the movie as a piece of art that changed everything but can we put baby in a corner any harder than this movie. I mean she is made to look so weak. SHE NEEDS WOODLAND ANIMALS TO HELP HER CLEAN A TINY HOUSE. Maybe she is just really undernourished.

Also, she meets the Prince for basically five minutes and he just searches for her forever. This is nonsensical. Double also, if she had been dead for like 6 months that glass box wouldn't really help and the dwarves should have realized something was a foot when her body wasn't getting nasty.

I do like the dwarves in general and that the queen kills herself because she is an idiot.




Sunday, January 19, 2014

Manufacturing.

I went shopping today at two different malls. It was 5 hours of no holds barred shopping extravaganza. In fact, I originally planned to see a movie with my friend Jenny in the middle of this but instead we just moved from mall one to mall two.

I am proud to say I didn't spend a dollar and there were quite a few sales even when 30% off this additional clearance price or 40% off everything or the $50 Macy's gift card in my pocket all calling my name. At first, it was overwhelming and Jenny was lovely by constantly checking in to make sure I was having fun. For the first hour, I felt like I was missing out. The clearance shirts at the Gap need to be tried on and bought.

Side note: I just watched HBO's new show "Looking" for the past half hour. I wrote the last two paragraphs and then I watched the show. Thank the Lord for HBO East and HBO West so I can watch shows earlier. Now "Girls" is on I am less invested in the TV. Back to "Looking" (I think this how you write about TV show titles grammatically) which left me feeling a bad about myself and invested in the characters and mad because of the fact that it perpetuates stereotypes and happy that it shattered others and glad that their was a Hercules and Love Affair song and like I need to go to the gym tomorrow and everyday so one describes me as portly. I wonder if this how women feel after watching "Girls".

Back to lack of shopping, it didn't happen but I did eat a whole box of Good and Fruity and decided I might be the sole reason why that manufacturer is in business. I bought them at the grocery store so they fit into the rules. I planned to be really introspective while I wrote this and I feel like I accomplished that in the first two paragraphs. Mainly, I feel like I don't have to just buy the shit because the shit is in front of me this includes hand sanitizer from the Body Shop, Auntie Anne's pretzels, clearance shirts at all stores that sell shirts, and chocolate from See's. Having to write list of things you wanted to buy but didn't buy is kind of humiliating.

As the sun sets on this weekend, I feel like I've accomplished more this weekend than last weekend. I didn't start knitting the Kindle cover. I walked to the library with Jake and the dog. We played a game called if we bought this house how would you edit it to make it livable. The dog was bad at walking.

This post was weird and long. I probably won't post it to Facebook but I like it because it is messy. I feel messy and happy. Spellcheck doesn't know Facebook or HBO.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Being Still.

My goal this weekend was to feel like I'd made significant progress on the things in life that didn't cost money. I wanted to start a knitting progress or working on teaching Girlfriend a new trick or finish my book. I had grand visions of a posting an update this weekend about making progress on goals and being successful and grabbing life by the balls. Instead, I watched a Disney movie and bought the tea to make kombucha. I worked out, grocery shopped, made meals for the week, and saw some friends.

As I wait for Girls to premier, I can't help but feel a little lazy. I know I should tell you how it is about baby steps and how maybe I just needed a weekend to relax and recharge. I'd be lying. I want accomplishment things and feel heroic and adventurous.

When work Amanda and I were talking about the no spending months, I remember saying that I wanted to learn to be still. I know after this weekend I can do that but also that that isn't who I am. So I move into the next week with the goal of making some progress. Not letting creative hang ups cause me to be paralyzed on the coach and figuring out what I am going to knit.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

A Progress Report

The other night I had a bit of a panic attack. I hadn't blogged in a few days and I hadn't eaten a rabbit and I hadn't been to Canada and it had been a week since my birthday so I made a peppermint Oreo milkshake and I got the proportions wrong and it was kind of gross. Then I wrote a post about not writing and then I decided to not spend a lot of money. Now, I feel a little more on track.

I've watched 6 of the 53 Disney movies. I'm not really sure what to do with those experiences yet. I thought about reviewing them all or ranking them or giving them a score. I feel like I need to quantify those experiences. Out of the 6, I think Dumbo was my favorite which was suprising. Also, I really like the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh but Robin Hood was a disappointment. Who knew?

I've Jazzercised.

I've been reading which isn't going as fast as I had hoped. I checked out a bunch of books on my Kindle which was a bad idea because now I feel overwhelmed. I like time spend reading and am watching a lot less TV which wasn't much in the first place. I'm half way though a Dave Eggers book. It seems that a few years ago everyone was on the Eggers band wagon and now apparently we don't like him. I like this book and I liked the last one I read. I confuse their names so I'm not going to try.

I filled out my passport application. That is kind of a feat for me. It was easy and isn't noteworthy. I'll write more when I get the picture taken.

I've got some yarn and I got some needles and I've going to start knitting. When I set that goal, I initially thought I was going to knit a huge grey infinity scarf but now I might challenge myself. We shall see. I intend to get started this weekend.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

30 Days of No Spending

It is no secret that January is always a little tight financially. This is kind of universal. December is the month you spend just a little more and indulge just a little more because hey it is the holidays and festive cheer and I never see these people.

January is when you pay for it. Every January since I was a fully functional adult, I barely scraped by. It always came down to rolling change for laundry and eating the last of the pantry so I shouldn't have been surprised when things got tighter and tighter this last paycheck.

On the other hand, January is a time of goals and resolutions and new beginnings. New beginnings generally cost money. Most of my 29 cost money. It is more exciting to buy kombucha supplies or get my passport pictures than do nothing. Which is why, for the next thirty days, I'm taking a vacation from the debit card and entering a no spend month.

When I first added this to the list, I envisioned a calendar month with a perfect start and stop. I wanted to say "I spend nothing in July" but now I realize that isn't what I need. What I need is to spend nothing additional on coffee runs or lunches out or movies or brunches or new pants or pretzels or Target trips or craft supplies.

So from January 7th until February 7th, I am enacting a 30 day no spend cycle. What does that mean you might ask? I present my 30 day no spend rules:

  1. If it is a necessity then buy it. If it is a luxury then don't buy it. This means I can buy toilet paper but not scented candles. Getting my oil changed isn't a luxury but something I dread so that counts.
  2. I am not a monk so my grocery budget (which is $50 until 1/21) is my discretion. This means I can buy Hot Tamales.
  3. Gift cards can be redeemed at this time. This includes whatever I have on my Starbucks card, my $25 Regal card, $50 to Macy's and my $5 to the Dollar store. This is probably controversial. I make my own rules.
  4. Reoccurring but entertainment focused bills like Comcast and Jazzercise are fine but I should not sign up for additional bills. Medical expenses such as paying for my new glasses are allowed. 
  5. I have a pretty strict budget set up for the next two weeks that I will follow which includes allotted money for gas. On 1/21, I will assess my budget and create another budget for the next two weeks.
  6. I am actually going to look at my bank account daily. Even more, I am going to track what goes in and what comes out in a Google doc just like a checkbook ledger. I hate this.
  7. At some point in the next 30 days, I need to buy a plane ticket to Florida for vacation. Most likely this will happen after the 21st or when I get my tax return. This is an allowable expense.
This probably sounds easy but it won't be at all. It will require that I have to pass on some things I want to do. It also will mean that I have to go to some happy hours and just hang out. Brunches will probably be spend at my house with friends than at a restaurant. Dinners will be made not bought. I don't know what coffee runs will look like. This is kind of scary but I am putting it in writing. 30 days of no spending begins today

Update: I realize that this kind of conflicts with the them of "More adventure, less worry". It has a lot less to do with the more and more to do with the less. Money is a constant worry for me. It is what keeps me up at night and keeps me from doing things and it stems from spending money on frivelous things instead of the big things. Additionally, I know how to have a credit card fueled weekend in Seattle but I am not sure I know how to have fun without spending money. There is challenge in that and I like a challenge.

Monday, January 6, 2014

It Is So Hard.

One of my goals was to blog and at first that came really easy. While on vacation, there were so many things to write about. So many inspirations and revelations that would change the face of 28. Now, it is cold and the Christmas lights are down and my bank account is drained. So as I lay in bed, here are my reasons not to write:

  1. I need to write at my computer which means I can only do it on the couch because the laptop battery is fried and it has to be plugged in and writing on a tablet takes forever and forget writing on my phone and Jake is sitting where I need to sit.
  2. They might think what you are writing about is stupid.
  3. Writing about yourself is selfish and arrogant.
  4. I don't have anything to write about because I haven't crossed anything thing off and I really don't find value in writing about filling out my passport form while texting my mom about where my dad was born (Cincinnati).
  5. I need to be strategic about how often I post because I want people to read this because it feels good when people read this and when they bring it up and if I learned anything in my very expensive PR education it was that frequency and quality are the most important factors in developing a readership.
  6. Worry about who will read this is dumb.
  7. I am too tired.
And now here we are with all of that in the open. Tomorrow, I will post an update on my goals and share some additional hopes, dreams, and fears. Goodnight.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Breaking It Down.

As a coach, I know that the best way to accomplish goals is to break them down into smaller pieces in order to manage them. This hard when you have 29 goals to accomplish and most of them have tiny pieces that need to be managed. Today, I am breaking down the steps I can take now to ensure success and walking away with a to do list:

Things I did:
  • Save $300 in a Christmas fund and Put money in a savings account aside from my Christmas fund, possibly using the week in the year method
    • I sent a Facebook message to one of my former tellers who works as the assistant manager at the local credit union. I am going to set up two savings accounts with them and have a certain amount transferred from each pay check to those accounts in order to save.
  • Email my grandma 4 times
    • I've added into my work outlook 6 lunches that I need to sit at my desk and write my Grandma an email. I didn't do it today because I just got home from seeing her and just mailed her a thank you card.
Things to do:
  • Get a passport
    • I need to print off the paperwork and fill out the application.
    • I need to see if my friend Katie can take a picture of me that would satisfy the passport requirement.
  • Get my oil changed 4 times
    • I need to find a coupon for Oil Can Henry's.
    • When I get paid on Tuesday, I need to make it a priority to get my oil changed.
    • I need to find someone who will go with me to get my oil changed because it makes me nervous everytime.
  • Mail cards to my mom, dad, brother, grandma and grandpa for their birthdays and Mother's/Father's day
    • I have a $5 gift card for the Dollar Tree. I need to take this and get 5 birthday cards for my five family members. I will then address the cards and leave them in my desk but will fill them out closer to the birthday.
    • I need to buy a pack of 10 stamps. The post office is just a block away from work.
  • Make some sort of fermented beverage
    • I have decided on making kombucha. I can get the SCOBY from Amanda. I need to research what kind of tea I need and any other instructions that I need to follow.
    • I need to get distilled water.
  • Hit my goal weight
    • I need to charge my Up band.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Disney Movie Reflection: Pinocchio

My favorite thing about weekends is waking up around eight and laying in bed while my little family sleeps. My bed just humming with the mechanisms that create life from both my man and my dog. Just laying there and knowing they are at peace. I get up and make myself a cup of coffee and bundle up on the couch and sometimes I make cinnamon rolls from a can. Eventually, the dog follows me in and then  Jake will follow suit and the day begins. Somewhere between coffee and Jake I will watch a movie and of lately I've been checking movies off my list.

A few weeks ago I got up early and decided on the Pinocchio. Pinocchio was the other VHS that my brother watched on repeat as a kid. (The first was The Rescuers Down Under which I was underwhelmed by and you can read about.) I've also rode the ride at Disneyland more than I can count but the movie as a whole kind of escaped me.

The movie basically happens in three acts: Stromboli, Pleasure Island, and Monstro with an introduction and conclusion. The Stromboli act is a creepy tale of child labor (which tends to be a theme of Disney animated features) complete with several European stereotypes being played by marionettes. Act two is Pleasure Island which is again about child labor where bad boys go to a playground and somehow turn into donkeys because they are acting like jackasses. My favorite part has always been Pleasure Island because in classic Disney fashion the magic is in the details my favorite being the Italian villa that is set up for the boys to destroy. Once they become full donkeys they are sold to salt mines. Finally, act three involves Pinocchio trying to find Gepetto who has been swallowed by a whale and ends with (SPOILER ALERT) Pinocchio drowning in a puddle.

The movie is sad and beautiful and tries to manipulate you emotions a little too much and Jiminy sucks at his job. Jake hasn't seen most Disney movies and walked in at the end of Pleasure Island. Having grown up on these movies, it is always interesting to see how Jake reacts to the second half when he comes in the room. I know most of his comments are in jest but he does a great job of pointing out how dark these movies can be.

Disney Movie Reflection: The Lady and The Tramp

I didn't think I liked this movie. Here is what I remembered out it:
  1. There is a racist song about Siamese cats.
  2. There is a precious moment where dogs kiss accidentally while sharing spaghetti.
  3. There is a slutty dog whose fur covers one eye sexily and she sings some song about the Tramp being skank.
I was kind of putting off watching this one but work Amanda and I went to library and they had it on the shelf and I figured I should get it out of the way and I didn't have anything to watch the next Saturday morning.

So I woke up and followed my Saturday ritual (which I detail in my post about Pinocchio) and started the movie. This version had an opener with Diane Disney explaining her father's love of dogs and how elements were based on her father and mother's life so I was a little hooked.

Turns out this is a really good movie which should make sense since it is stacked between my two favorites (Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty). The story isn't as precious as I thought and there are some pretty funny lines snuck in that are aimed as adults including one dog trying to explain to another dog "the birds and the bees" and a lot of innuendo about the Tramp, who is named Butch, being a cad that is more tongue in cheek that prudish.

I liked this movie so much that I cheesily went in and grabbed Girlfriend from the bed and made her lay with me. Being a dog person, I was significantly more invested in this movie than I was in the Aristocats which I watched first and would be released five films later. My major take away was that I want a Scotty dog who I will name kilt.

Disney Movie Reflection: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

So people who work for Disney almost always have a favorite character. Personally, I really like Mickey but specifically Sorcerer Mickey. Another friend loved Cinderella and another Snow White. I also had a roommate who love Grumpy and another who was really into Goofy. While working at the Tower of Terror, I met a lady who was a Disney lifer who loved Eeyore. Her love went beyond just simply being inclined to purchase Eeyore merchandise but was a full on love. She knew everything about Eeyore and the entire Winnie the Pooh enterprise. She wore an Eeyore t-shirt under her uniform everyday.

She wasn't an isolated Winnie the Pooh fanatic. Hundreds of people visit the park every year who are obsessed with a Winnie the Pooh character. You have your Pooh ladies and your Tiger ladies and Eeyore ladies. I am sure there are subsets who like Rabbit and Piglet and Owl too. Generally, they are over 40 and could be models for mom jeans and their hair is always frizzy. They are kind and a little melancholy and they usually have backpacks.

Anyways, that is a long frame for watching this movie.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is set of cartoons about the same set of characters. There isn't a common plot throughout the movie. The animation is exactly what you can picture. What was most surprising about this movie is how developed these characters really are especially for a children's story. I guess it makes perfect sense as to why someone would choose Eeyore to be their personal reference point.

You've got neurotic Rabbit who is meticulous and detail oriented but selfish and Piglet who is more concerned with others and filled with worry and Tigger who is overconfident and cocky and adventurous and Owl who is a know it all but will help you in a jam and Pooh who is gluttonous and moronic but has a heart of gold. When you really look at it, what seems like very flat children's characters are actually complex renderings of real people and maybe somehow we can accept our melancholy by ascribing it to a pretty drawn character that is beloved. If we can love melancholy Eeyore, that maybe we can love my melancholy Eeyore.

Who knew The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh would be so deep?

Disney Movie Review: Fun and Fancy Free and Melody Time

There exists the period in time where Disney made 6 animated features that were really just collections of shorts that they strung together. They are not well known and possibly the hardest to find.

Fun and Fancy Free is made up of a cartoon about a circus bear that escapes called Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk. I really like bears and I don't remember having ever seen Bongo so I was pretty excited. The cartoon was a pretty predictable story reminiscent of a lot of Disney stories were an animal find himself in unfamiliar circumstances and things his cleverness and determination will get him through but then almost doesn't make it until he finds others like himself only to prove that he should be part of the group. The best part of the cartoon is a weird song about how bears supposedly slap each other when they are in love. 

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Mickey and the Beanstalk was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. I had a Disney picture book that also told the story. Disney does a great job of insert Donald, Goofy and Mickey into this story. One of my favorite Disney animation sequences is when are our three heroes are asleep and the magic bean sprouts and destroys the house and slowly raises them up to the clouds while they sleep. Finally, Willie the Giant is one of the best obscure Disney characters.

Melody Time is kind of like Fantasia but with popular music instead of classical pieces. It includes two of Disney's animated tall tale pieces, Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed, which I remember watching on film in fifth grade. Having a biased toward Fantasia, I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. The pieces were long enough to be full stories but short enough to hold my attention. They are well ordered and stay constant to a theme. "Johnny Appleseed" is by far the best piece in the whole film. It is beautifully animated and funny and a true telling of classic story. Pecos Bill is a close second because it is a perfect story to be animated because it is so over the top.

Disney Movie Review: Dumbo

My best memory of Dumbo has nothing do to with the movie at all but is about the ride at Disneyland. Not even so much about the ride but about a bad blurry picture my dad took using a neon green  Ninja Turtles camera that printed a picture of a turtle giving a thumbs up in the left hand corner and took this weird film that came in a U shape.

I don't remember what the occasion was to be at Disneyland but what I remember was that were were there and my dad and brother were in the elephant in front of us and my mom and I were one elephant back and my dad took my camera to take a picture. I was scared because I was scared of everything but my mom was really cool about it. She let me work the joystick at my pace. The picture has my mom in a traditional beaming Disney smile. I am not and I can best describe the way my mouth looks with this letter: S.

So my associate with Dumbo has always been my mom which is perfect because that is what Dumbo is really all about. A mom has a son who she loves and he turns out to be a freak and she protects him. The story is pretty simple. The animation is beautiful for being only the fourth full length Disney animated feature.

What gets me everytime is when Mrs. Jumbo, Dumbo's mom, is locked up for protecting him and she comforts him while "Baby Mine" is sung. I think I cry everytime. I think about a simple memory at Disneyland and I picture I've had since I was 6. This causes me to think back to think through my favorite memories of my mom and I.