On Hiatus

Oh, 10 x 100, I love you, but I’ve been too busy to update.  I’m pausing this project of writing about what I’ve done to actually do things.  I AM updating my website, though: www.NatalieWendt.com!

Connection

28. A Dharma friend/writer friend/friend friend and I had a long online chat, and it was inspiring, and beautiful, and good.
29. I talked to another Dharma friend who just got out of retreat, and it was great to hear from him.
30. I had dinner and went to a play with a new friend.  Yay making friends!
31. I’ve been wanting more writer community, so I decided to start one up with a friend.  We’re the Vicious Brilliant Writers’ Group and I started setting it up.
32. I participated in the Premium Green forums and on Skirt regularly all month long.
33. I reconnected with my childhood BFF over the magic of the internet.

This week in Dharma

11. I finally wrote my teacher an email update.  I mean to do this more often.  But doing it now is a start.
12. I FINALLY set up my altar completely.  It changes the whole energy of my apartment.  I love looking at the beautiful, inspiring images.
13. I wrote my friends at Sravasti Abbey a letter.
14. I went to the Alphabet Sangha meditation group at the East Bay Meditation Center.  It was very chill and the folks seemed nice.  There were tons of people there best of all.  They’re all run on donation and never turn people away for lack of funds, so I’m really happy to see them in action.
15. East Bay Meditation Center again.  I even talked to strangers this time.  They were very nice and very welcoming.  Woah, Dharma community?  It’s possible.

Happy May Day!

6. That whole prom cancelled because a student wanted to bring her girlfriend?   That completely sucks.  I’ve written about it, told people about it, and now have signed a petition about it.  It’s ridiculous.  And the school board needs to know it’s ridiculous.
7. I went to a protest for immigrant rights and immigration reform.  Those ridiculous “tea parties” don’t represent America or American values.  A thousand plus folks marching on May Day for the rights of everyone is what our country is really all about.  I’m proud to participate and I’m glad to see people who care about their neighbors’ rights.
8. While at that protest, I was interviewed about my position.  Since I’d informed myself beforehand I had intelligent things to say, which will hopefully increase understanding about immigrant rights.
9. All that work registering to vote?  I told somebody else how to register because I’d already been through the process.

Out with the old, and fixing the broken

57. I bought a hammer and nails to hang pictures in my apartment.
58. Thus equipped, I hung things in my apartment.
59. With all the new stuff coming in, some of the old has to go.  I organized some clothes and a few other items to trade at a recycled clothing store, and to take to Goodwill.
60. I called my landlady to follow up on my leaking shower and to get the number of the handyman who fixed my windows, so I can hire him to put up my shelves.
61. They fixed my shower, and then I cleaned up after them.  Seriously, why can’t plumbers wipe their feet before entering an apartment?  Anyway, I worked on it.  And while I was getting that ordered, my blinds broke, and I arranged for them to be fixed.
62. I bought the rest of the shelving materials I need.
63. And I put up all the decorations in my kitchen that I’d been meaning to put up.  My apartment is looking great.
64. They fixed my blinds and I arranged for my shelves to be put up.
65. They put up my shelves!  My bathroom and main room now both have shelves!
66. I put these shelves to use.  I put my books on my new bookshelves and deconstructed the cardboard boxes that had been my bookshelves.  Then I set up my bathroom shelves with the things I need there.  I did some rearranging to accommodate my newfound space.  I love it!

Resolving

12. I did some serious journal stuff.
13. And I did some more.
14. I hung out with that crush, got over it, and realized something interesting: that I don’t like how I’ve left things with my last sweetie.
15. So I wrote my ex and said, “I’m ready to be friends if you are,” which felt very healing.
16. Perhaps most importantly, when I was all weepy and unhappy about this, I blogged about it, and doing so, writing it down and throwing it out into the universe, I did feel much better.  Unlike some past weepiness, I didn’t stew about it for ages and have lingering worrying.  I just put it out there, and it was okay.
17. I talked to my ex and we’re becoming friends again.  This is community (or our friendship will be part of that anyway), but clearing out our past is also making room for my future romance.  It’s hard to let somebody else in if I’m still unresolved and upset about somebody from my past.

Websites and magazines

52. I got the internship!  Yeah!  I wrote them back and let them know my availability schedule.  I’m so psyched to get started!
53. I wrote my writing (and other) goals for the next five weeks until I get ready to head off on retreat.
54. OMG!  My sister showed me how to use Weebly.com and I started building a website.  Woah!  It’s so easy!  I’ll get it up by next week I think.  More info to follow.
55. I wrote an outline for a fiction project I’m incredibly excited about.  Can’t even express how much I love this idea.  There will be a website and more info to follow as well, so you too can be a part of it.
56. I published the website, theoretically at least.  www.NatalieWendt.com should be live in 48 hours.
57. I kicked off my “Tikkun” internship by reading their editing guidelines.
58. Once versed in these, I went in and helped edit the May/June issue.  Check it out!
59. I got my website up and let people know it’s there.
60. I asked the editor of the East Bay Arts and Culture Review if I could review the upcoming amazing production of “Peter Pan” in a 360 degree theater (with aerial awesomeness!).  And he said yes!  I’ma get a PRESS PASS!  And I get to write something.  How perfect is that?
61. I went to a writer’s group…sort of.  I went, couldn’t find them, so I sat and wrote.  When I was getting ready to leave I noticed they’d set up a tiny sign (it had not been there when I sat down).  Oh well.  I wrote stuff.
62. I published the start of another website that I’ll be working on more this summer with some friends.  You can visit it and check for updates: www.BreakUpCake.com

Stretching and being upside down

19, I’m feeling that yoga class, but I did a little mini-session of yoga at home to keep working on it.
20. Aerials again after a long period of not going to aerials.  And, man, am I feeling it.  Yet I also noticed that I could do some things I couldn’t do two months ago.  I can hang from one arm (for a second).  I can balance on my stomach.  I can climb the fabric.  And I can do one mean iron cross on the fabric (which means holding my weight in my wrists with the fabric wrapped around my arms, as my legs look like they’re flying).
21. I have a new aerials teacher and she does not mess around.  I have rope burn on my feet, but I also felt braver with the apparatuses than before.  And again, I can feel muscles working.
22. I keep going to aerials, even when I’m tired, even when I debate skipping.  The thing is, I’m starting to crave it even as I whine to myself about going.  Because for an hour, I stretch and reach and flip myself upside down.
23. I went to yoga.  It felt WONDERFUL!

Apply, apply

50. So I got paid from my blogging job and I had do all this stuff to make in go from PayPal to actual me.  Now I have.  Well, I’ve done phase one, anyway.
51. I visited my local credit union to get my statement and cash a check.  It was my first visit since setting up my account and I kept forgetting I had a local account.
52. Remember that tutoring job that told me to get a TB test, then never responded to me?  I emailed them again, very politely, after they accidently sent me something, then apologized with an emoticon.  Really?  You’re professionals?  I was polite though.
53. Remember that interview I did with the fabulous Ms. Lisa Yee?  Well, I finally submitted it somewhere else.  It’s a great interview and deserves to be out in the world for all to read it.
54. I turned in my invoice yet again.
55. I also applied for a transcribing gig.
56. And a gig writing timelines for a history publisher.
57. I applied for a gig researching and writing short articles.

Romance! Or, writing about it, anyway…

5. More journal adventures.  I wrote down some most-Valentine’s Day reflections.
6. Further journal explorations: I wrote about types of folks I’d be interested in dating.
7. I did more journaling, focused on fears and preconceptions I have about relationships.
8. I was thinking that I’d like to write agreements with people I’m involved with.  When I taught Kindergarten we used to write a “class pledge,” an aspiration for the environment and for our behavior within it.  If five year olds can do that, surely adults can manage something about what they want their relationship to look like?  So I wrote out my own part of the agreement, what I would and would not like.
9. I wrote in said journal about “blocks” to dating and removing them.
10. I called somebody I find attractive.  Shut up.
11. I also made plans with this person.