balancing time.

this might just be the hardest thing to balance. time. we live in a world where most of us are constantly on the go, and have more things to do than time to do it. i want to reverse this. i've been trying to s.l.o.w.d.o.w.n. over the past few weeks. and so far, it's working.

the funny thing is... when i don't feel rushed, i think i accomplish more. i've been waking up the same time i always have, and i've felt less rushed in the morning, but i've been ready faster. which is weird. and i've been trying to balance my time between my hobbies... making journals, reading, going out with friends, etc. and i think, at least for now, that i have achieved that balance.

and sometimes, you need to say no.

balancing the diet. oy.

given my last two posts, i guess today's was inevitable. balancing the diet. this is something i have tried so often to do, and i always fail. and i think my problem with both dieting and exercise, is that i focus too much on the big picture. if i eat something unhealthy on tuesday, or i skip exercising on tuesday, i used to have the mentality that i ruined the week, and i should just wait until the next week and start over fresh.

but recently i was reminded to take things one day at a time. today, i choose to be healthy. tomorrow, i'll try to choose that too. if i don't, i won't let it ruin wednesday. just one day at a time.

what are some of your favorite healthy recipes? maybe i'll post some of mine in the future.

budget, budget, budget.

as i mentioned yesterday, i recently came to realize that i need to adjust my spending habits and create a balanced budget. i have tried this several times in the past, but have given up within a week. why did i fail? i think there were a few reasons:

-i never wrote down the budget i had planned
-i created it in my head without giving too much thought to what was practical
-i felt guilty for not following it, and i thought the best way to avoid the guilt was to take away the rules.

but don miller helped to shed some light on this for me. he recently blogged about a book he read by don riso and russ hudson. don paraphrases it as such:

According to Riso and Hudson, people don’t change by beating themselves up or condemning themselves. The key, rather, is to simply acknowledge what we are doing and and why, then move on without self judgement. In addition, the psychologist said to not even attempt to change. And it turns out their method works.

In my own life, this comes in moments when I find myself angry or selfish and I simply say to myself “Hey, you’re doing that thing where you get jealous.” In other times, I will feel like people don’t like me, I won’t want to go to a party or something and I’ll say to myself “Hey, you’re doing that thing where you identify as a marginalized person because it makes you feel special.”

The trick is to make these simple, objective statements without condemnation or judgment. Awareness is everything. And slowly, these character faults within us begin to change.

now, here don is writing specifically about negative character traits. i find this has been helpful for me when thinking about the budget. in the beginning of the month, i started to write down everything i spent money on. i mean, every penny spent. and friends let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. but i took the advice don laid out and simply acknowledged what i spent it on. "hey, you just spent $5 on dinner." three weeks later "hey, you've spent $200 on going out to eat this month." (and let's be real here. i don't make that kind of money to be spending $200 a month on dinner.) but what i noticed is, rather than beating myself up over it, simply taking note of how much i spent, i slowly started to go out to eat less without putting too much thought into it.

so, how to move on from here?

i took that list and used that to form my budget. there are small changes, here and there, but nothing too drastic. the more drastic the change, the harder it will be to follow through. and what did i do with this new budget? i wrote it down. in fact, i made pretty fancy shmancy spreadsheet. (because as accounting clerk by day, i have a small love affair with excel and formulas. it's true.) my plan is that, starting with tomorrow's paycheck, i will follow the budget as closely as i can. i will continue to write down everything i spend money on. if i go over the budget in one area, i won't beat myself up over it. at the end of july, i'll look over the budget and my spending, and figure out where i need to make further adjustments (whether within the budget or within my lifestyle).

i'm excited. i'm a nerd.

balance.

this month i have been focusing on bringing balance into my life. this means that there are several changes taking place. balancing my budget, my diet, my time, and my friendships. this is something that for me, has been long, long overdue. and it feels good to be making these changes. some are small, some more drastic. the next few blog posts will dive into each of these areas a bit deeper.

change is good. john 15:1-2 comes to mind.

so many thoughts, so little time.

well. it's the beginning of a new month, and with that, it's the beginning of a new chapter of my life as well.

i spent my memorial day weekend moving. i'm still in nashville, and i'm still in the same general neighborhood, but it was a sort of last-minute move. 14 months ago when i moved into that house, i had no idea i'd be leaving so soon, and i was so excited to be there. the details of why i'm moving are a bit on the lengthy side, so i'll spare you. but know this: it's a good move.

i couldn't be more excited to be in my new home. as of tonight, i am finally done with all the unpacking and making it a home. i moved in with two of my good friends (and there's a 3rd roommate, but she's new too), one of which (stacy) i have known for five years. we have lived together twice before, so i know we'll be good roommates for each other.

the funny thing about this move? this is where i lived when i first came to nashville four years ago; stacy let me sleep on my air mattress in her bedroom for my first month here. and my very first night? (well, my very first night minus the two nights my mom and i stayed in a hotel.) my very first night was in the room i now occupy. it's just one of those cool full circle moments.

i'm really excited for what this next chapter holds. i will still be me, but it's amazing how much of an effect one's home environment has. this will be a good one, i'm sure.

5000 tweets, 450+ days, and what it all means.

well. i just reached my 5000th tweet. and some things cannot be summarized in 140 characters.

that's right, 5000 tweets in 456 days. that averages to 10.78 tweets a day, and that doesn't include those i have deleted. or my journal twitter account. yes, i realize i maaaaay be a little obsessed with twitter. but what i have i learned over the past 16 months?

-music. i have discovered many of my new favorite musicians thanks to twitter. just by following people and looking at who they follow or who they tweet about. to name a few: andrew ripp, jake ousley, rob blackledge, seth philpott. (p.s., jake's ep, times like these was just released on itunes last week. go.get.it.now. $6. seriously.) not only did i discover artists, i also have attended a lot of concerts over the past year+, and many of those were thanks to twitter - i wouldn't have known about them otherwise. and for free! i've won tickets to a mocha club event, tin pan south, dave barnes, and will hoge.

-friends. twitter has helped me to stay in touch with, and even make, friends. crazy, but true. though i guess that's the original idea behind "social networking" anyway.

-news. twitter has been my main source of news, especially since i've been cable-less. it's how i learned there was a car bomb while i was in times square, my friends and i paid close attention to nashvillest's tweets for news on the nashville flood as we traveled back into town, etc.

i think i'll end this post with some of my "favorited" tweets. first, the funny:

@donmilleris: Table next to me: Like, I don't know, cause like, he's like, you know. So like, I don't know. -Yeah, like, that makes sense. It's like, um..

@davebarnesmusic: i "love" the confusion that quotation "marks" do to a "sentence". I should "use" them more to "throw" "people" off my "scent" more often "."
@davebarnesmusic: For example - watch and learn. Will "you" meet me "today" at "Red Lobster" so i can "borrow" your "His"tory book? "Thanks!" (Confused yet?
@davebarnesmusic: Now, imagine the person who typed that is a large badly tanned barely mustached man named Toe-Nee. Gets more interesting, doesn't it?


the thought-provoking:

@LucasBoto: Leaving a vision undone often feels safer than following thru & risking failure. I think the best life decisions are tough sometimes.

@bobgoff: I want a noteworthy life. A life so engaged that I would find myself leaning forward and taking notes, while looking for evidence of Jesus.

@erwinmcmanus: ...You can protect your dreams by never attempting to make them a reality. To achieve your dreams you must be willing to lose them- to risk.

buses, music, bombs, and floodwaters (part 4)

i guess this is better late than never.

if you are reading this, chances are you have already heard of the flood that hit nashville on may 1st & 2nd, 2010.

my friends and i were still in nyc when the rain first started falling saturday. we went to dinner that night, and then we saw nashville on cnn. and we saw this school room floating down the interstate. i was speechless. up until just over a year ago, i lived less than half a mile off that exit.

sunday we drove back from new york to nashville. we didn't know what to expect upon returning. in fact, we weren't even sure if we would be able to make it all the way home or not. as we took turns driving, we also took turns frantically checking nashvillest and other local twitter accounts for road closers and weather reports.

i can't imagine that i will ever forget that feeling of driving into the city. it was midnight, and as we approached the skyline, we noticed fewer and fewer cars on the road. and no water, which surprised us. it was such an eerie feeling though, having seen countless pictures of what was happening on the internet. and the smell. the smell was overwhelming. river mixed with rain mixed with sewage.

and all three of us made it safely home.

i suffered some damage due to the rain. there was about a foot and a half of water in my basement. i still haven't pulled my belongings out of there. most of it should be okay, though i know the luggage set i had just received for christmas, and possibly my christmas tree, are ruined. we didn't have hot water for a week. and we still don't have a/c.

but i'm one of the lucky ones.

and watching the way nashville has come together shows me we are all the lucky ones.

this blog, which has given our community a new slogan, can describe this better than i would ever be able to: we are nashville.

i have called nashville my home for almost four years now. but now i know for certain i will call it my home for the rest of my life, even if it ceases to be my place of residency.

if you want to help in any way, please volunteer or donate to hands on nashville.