Whooohooo

So today I gave a talk in my ward. I was worried about finding the time to actually prepare it. But I did. 

CHECK!

I've also been working on re-organizing all my music. I am ALMOST done. I have about 30 songs that I still need to find the names off. (These last few are all Zumba, so the track names aren't readily available.) 

But for all other purposes...

CHECK! 

(And serious it looks so good to have all the track, artist, and album names all in order and looking good! Nerdy high alert!) 

Next up...and perhaps the "project" I should be working on ahead of others ... packing and moving. 

Next weekend, I'll add another CHECK! 

... and will then have to add "unpack" to my to-do list. Yay! 

Summer, oh Summer!

I'm not really a big "summer" fan. Give me cool air, rain, and the opportunity to wear tights and cardigans any day.

But I've been making it a point to really enjoy my summer this year. I too often get caught up in my work and responsibilities and don't prioritize taking time off and having fun!

In fact, yesterday my coworker and I were discussing some work things and realized I have AT LEAST 2 full weeks of vacation time I need to take before the end of the year. And that's not including another full week that I'm allowed to roll over.

How does this happen? Am I the only one who feels like I'm overflowing with time off?

So the next few weeks will hold lots of brainstorming for what to do. Any ideas? Send them my way. :) (Side note: another challenge is that I'm not one to prioritize expensive travel when it comes to my finances. Occasionally, yes, but there are lots of others things I'd also (perhaps rather) spend my money on.)

My 2012 Summer Accomplishments (So far)
Baseball games
Visit St. George
Tuacahn Theatre (Aladdin)
Pool time (Seriously...I don't remember the last time this happened)
Lagoon
Camping
Drive in movie (definitely need to do again)
Visit Seattle and Vancouver
Hiking
Dance dares! (Yes we did this in Seattle.)
Biking (and I plan to buy a bike maybe this weekend)

Annd...coming up
Farmers Market (possibly this Sat. Eh, Christianne?)
Olympic parties!
Education week (or day/s)
Maybe another quick trip somewhere :)
SAFETYSUIT CONCERT!

Big Projects

It's kinda funny how I'm finding myself in the middle of several big projects right now.

At work, I am currently working on to-do lists for four bigs events in August and two in September—and, oh yes, that's on top of my normal workload and assignments. (Remember how I said my life would hopefully calm down after the first couple weeks in Septemeber?)

Then at home there's the normal decluttering, cleaning, and organizing that I find myself doing at least yearly and so happen to have started a few weeks ago as I prepare to move.

The biggest project of all seems to be a digital one. Ah, isn't that always the case? (See Spring Cleaning—Digital Style from wow, 2009.)

This time around, it's a music organization project. It started when the audio output on my phone went out and Verizon sent me a replacement phone. Being the planner I am, I wanted to organize everything and do it right before I synced my phone to that music again.

My problem is that I have three computers that I regularly use and find myself purchasing and downloading music on. So while I always synced my iPod to my home desktop, I was missing things from my laptop and work computers. (And come to find out, I always had a lot of music on my desktop that never made it into iTunes and thus never made it on my iPod.)

On top of that, because I absolutely despise the iTunes program, I'm completely redo-ing my organization and set up. But I have to start somewhere.

So far I have gone through each of my computers and made sure any music on the computer was in iTunes. I've deleted any extra files and copies of music that I don't need. (Am I the only one who has a million duplicates of songs, even on one computer?) And I've copied the music files from each computer to my trusty external hard drive.

I'm probably not doing this in the easiest way, but it's the way I most understand and am most sure that I am copying everything that I need.

I'm currently in the process of importing all this music onto my personal laptop. (Yes it takes a while because my desktop was my main source for music and, well, I have a LOT of music.)

Next I'm going to clean out my combined and complete music library. This will involve some major organization of songs and playlists, cleaning out more duplicates that have come through the combination of multiple music libraries, and just making it so I KNOW what music I have and can easily listen to whatever I want to, whenever I want to.

THEN, I will be exporting this new, awesome library of music to be stored on my external harddrive and set it up to work from that on whatever computer I'm working on. In summary, my intent is to have everything on that external harddrive and no music stored on my individual computers.

The only problem is that this is the type of project that I need to do while watching movies or t.v. shows. But when I have so many projects to work on, I'm always TORN as to what I should work on. Last night the non-digital option won.

P.S. Can I just say that I have LOVED Google Music! I love not worrying about manually syncing my device and how everything gets added to my library automatically no matter where I have it. While my music organization project is focused on having the actual files all in one place, that worry is a non-issue once I am all set up and using Google.

eBooks & Beyond

So I've tried reading digital books before, but I usually still prefer real, hand-held books. You just can' beat that.

Buuuuutttttt......... I've kinda liked reading books on my phone lately. Maybe it's because the last book I read was very relatable to me. Like I seriously had to repeatedly remind myself that *I* was not the main character, even though many aspects of her life were identical to my own. It was a bit strange...I felt like the author had been secretly following me around and basing the books on my experiences. Weird.

Anyways, part of what I've enjoyed is that there are so many free books available. I'm always looking for new books to read, so it's nice when I see a selection of free books and can just pick the ones that seem interesting. (Check out Pixel of Ink on Facebook if you are interested. Several times a day they send out a list of free eBooks.)

The main problem with digital books is that I always have them with me and am thus always tempted to read it...even when I'm not supposed to!

What about you? Do you read digital books? Where do you find the ones you get?

...this is gonna be one of those posts

You know those times in life when you just feel overwhelmed by every single thing going on in your life? Yea, I'm kinda there right now. The past two weeks have not been pretty in the little life of Karianne.

I'm getting by...although it's probably only a matter of time before I either explode or things calm down—alot. I'm routing for option No. 2 there. :P And I do believe that will happen soon...probably the second or third week in September if the items on my calendar dictate anything. 

By no means do I think my situation is unique or something I can't ultimately handle. That's life, right? We all have our ups and downs and the moments when things pile onto your to-do list...even when you think there is no possible room left on that list. 

The things on my plate right now are all normal; they simply are all fighting for a place on the plate at the same time. In fact, my current situation makes me think of two similar situations in my life a few years ago. Those experiences mark a very notable point in my life and—guess what—I survived and actually came out strong. Luckily I have that to help my mindset right now. 

I don't really deal well with stress, but somehow I find myself right smack in the middle of stressful situations all the time. I've had to cut a few things out because I simply can not deal with the stress or frustration that they cause me. So I just tell myself to relax, breathe, and move on. 

Relax, breathe, and move on. 

Easier said then done, right? 

I'm itching for some change. That's kinda how I roll; sometimes life just NEEDS change. Both of the past two similar situations in my life concluded with major changes in my life. I'm still unsure how this one will end, although I have to say that typing this out is helping me see more and more similarities. 

There are so many possibilities!! I think part of my proneness to stress comes because I want to explore EVERY possibility. The truth is that I can't. I'm working on trying to just focus on one option, deciding if that is a good option (or the right one if the situation provides), and moving towards that regardless. 

So we'll see how that goes! Wish me luck. 

rudeness

Sometimes I'm baffled by how rude people can be. I'm going to be vague here, but this has been driving me crazy for the past day and the more I think about it, the more frustrated I become. As I've gone over the situation again and again in my head...I just can't understand why people act a certain way and how they can apparently have no idea that what they are doing isn't really acceptable in certain situations.

I play the scenario in my mind and try to understand what people were thinking, why they did what they did, even how I could be looking at the situation through tainted eyes. I'm sure maybe some don't see these actions as rude as I do, but even if people don't think something is SUPER rude...how can they not even grasp the concept that it's a LITTLE rude or have no understanding of how their actions affect other people. And my frustration deepens when I see no future where discussion, understanding, apologies, etc. will ever take place.

I can't really say much more, but I'm hoping to let a little bit of my frustration go by simply expressing it here.

Thanks.