Terminator

It's finally here, my LAST day of work! I've been waiting for this day to come for several years and now that it's finally arrived it seems rather uneventful LOL. Just sitting here, twiddling my thumbs, watching the clock tick ever-so-slowly until a suitable departure time arrives. Like T-4 hours ago J

After three stressful weeks I finally found solid tenants for my house who are coming to sign a lease tonight (knock-on-wood). Maybe once I have a signed lease in my hand I'll be able to sleep through the night for the first time in….fuck I don't even know the last time I got a solid 8 hours! My movers are all set to go now though so once I secure my tenants all I have to do is finish packing (surprisingly not a daunting task as I seem to be an expert packer from having moved so many times in the past) and it's pretty much smooth sailing from there. One thing I love about moving is that you end up eliminating a lot of things you don't need (Goodwill, Salvation Army, the dump) and you clean your house better than you probably did the entire time you lived there LOL!

This morning was my last super-early gym sesh and I crushed chest with a little added cardio. Here was the breakdown:

5 min elliptical warm-up

DB Chest Press on SB 3x10 using 25's

DB Incline Flies 3x10 using 20's

Decline Pushups from a SB with balancing in between sets 3x8

DB Incline Shoulder Press 1x8 using 25's and 2x10 using 20's (Burnout!)

10 min elliptical cool-down

I'll probably stick to my morning routine until I leave but it won't be quite so torturously early J

Can you believe Christmas is less than a week away? This is the first year I did not get a Christmas tree or even put up any decorations for that matter. The hassle of the never-ending pine needle pickup would have just been too much of a nightmare amidst all of the tenant walk-throughs I've had in my place. Surprisingly I haven't really missed it though. I guess I'm just too focused on my move to think about anything else! Luckily present shopping wasn't that stressful this year. I either already had ideas for people or got GCs which you know are usually preferred! I think tonight I'll watch one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Holiday. That'll be the extent of my festiveness for 2014.

So, the countdown is on. I'm so mentally over Portland you'd think I was already gone! You know what's really pissing me off? This just popped into my head so I need to vent it out. Ever since word got out a few weeks ago that I was leaving, guys have been asking to" hang out" left and right. I'm just like, "Dude, you had the past 7 years to ask me out and you think I'm going to say yes now that you've realized you've been too chicken shit this whole time and now you've blown it?!" Okay, so I don't actually say that but that's the truth. Moral of the story, don't be a pussy. If you like someone, ask them out. The worst that’s going to happen is they'll say no but chances are they'll give you at least one chance at a date, if for no other reason than to be nice. If you never ask then you'll never know. But, if you wait until your chance is gone, don't be a shithead for missing out.

Never Give Up

Good morning Miami! Um I mean Portland, okay well soon-to-be Miami! Yup, you read that right. I AM MOVING TO MIAMI! Wow it feels so good to finally be able to put that out there! In an effort to keep this post much shorter than it could be, I'll just give you the highlights for now:

1. That "last-minute trip south" I mentioned a year ago was actually an unsuccessful trip to Miami for a personal training job interview. Long story short, I clearly did not get the job and thus came back to Portland to continue my job search instead of moving there without a job which would have been a very bad financial decision at the time.
2. It's no secret that health and fitness have been my primary interests in life for years and I NEVER SHOULD HAVE MAJORED IN FINANCE! That being said, it took me 7 years to finally make the decision that being a broke student for a few years in my late 20's-early 30's would be a wiser decision than spending the rest of my life in a frigid miserable corporate environment where 99% of the people are just lying to themselves, trying to convince themselves that they are adequately content with their life choices all-the-while counting down the days until retirement.
3. It was a bit of déja-vu last week as I returned to Miami in search of a place to live. Again, not telling anyone at work of my true intentions for fear of not finding a place and then potentially being out of a paycheck (aka fired before the time was right). A bit of advice if you are planning a move; do your homework and use a rental agent. Specifically if you have an often restricted breed of dog like I do which made finding adequate housing extremely difficult!
4. In spring of this year I finally hit rock bottom with my misery level and decided I had had one too many failed job interviews and was done searching for "grass might be greener" corporate jobs in a state where I didn't want to be living anyway. My good friends had largely either remained in Canada or moved out of Maine to better their own lives and I was left feeling alone and tied-down due to my mortgage. There's a quote that goes something like "it's far better to be alone in a place where you know no one than to feel alone in a place where you know everyone". That's exactly how I felt. And that brings me to #5…
5. Done with time-wasting job interviews and done with the state of Maine I decided to take a drastic step and go back to school so that I could have a career that didn't make me want to stab my eyes out every morning. And trust me, that's a nice way of putting how I felt about my situation. Having followed the blog www.katheats.com for quite a while, I was inspired by Kath's similar decision to go back to school herself to become a Registered Dietician. Becoming an RD would mean a lot of additional schooling, basically starting back at square one since my finance degree did not provide me with any of the science prerequisite courses I would need in order to get into a Dietetics program. However, I decided it was a change I was willing to make and thus began my quest to change my life.

So, around June I began to research programs that prepare you for the RD exam. There is a great database at www.eatright.org that helps you to research the various nutrition-related career options and what schools in the US offer each. Since no school near Portland offers a suitable program, that meant I would have to relocate. And, if I had to relocate then I sure as hell was not going to go from one miserable cold locale to another! I knew I wanted to a) be near the ocean and b) be somewhere warm thus I quickly decided on Florida International University in Miami. Only one problem: out-of-state tuition is a bitch. I'm talking like twice as much simply for not being a resident. Outrageous! I had to get a little creative with my planning so I decided to begin taking my prerequisite courses at my local community college since they were quite reasonably-priced as well as transferrable. However, this did not fix my residency issue and thus I decided that I would make the move to Miami to complete my prerequisites at Miami Dade College with the intention of becoming a resident (1 year is required) in time to transfer to FIU.

After many months of keeping my plans largely on the down-low I can happily say the time is almost here! I took three courses this fall and tomorrow is my last exam! I've worked extremely hard, getting up at 4:30 am every day in order to train in the gym before heading to work where I remained full-time in order to save as much dough as possible and then headed to school at nights and on Saturdays. Yes, that meant zero social or romantic life but I had priorities and nothing was (is) going to prevent me from being happy.  I think I might even end up with all A's and since I have the credit requirement that would mean getting on the Dean's List! I'm literally holding back tears as I type this because if you had been a schoolmate of mine during my first university experience where my real major was college boys and booze you would not believe that LOL!

I gave my two-week notice at work earlier this week and I'm now riding out the next few weeks getting things in order for my move. That includes packing my house up, scheduling movers (expensive much?!), spending Christmas with my family, searching for a part-time job in Miami, and finding suitable tenants to rent my home which I decided not to sell quite yet just in case something doesn't work out (knock on wood). It's been hard to find tenants since it's a pricey place to live but it's also a really nice place and should be able to attract professional, financially stable tenants so I'm staying hopeful. Everything works out so long as you don't give up. If there's anything I've learned during the past few years it's that no matter how bad life gets, if you keep chugging through the hard times, you will end up where you need to be. While on my "vacation" last week I finally had time to for some pleasure reading (as opposed to textbook reading) and one of the books I devoured was The Alchemist. My favorite quote goes something like "when you want something, all the world conspires in helping you to achieve it". It's so true. Stay strong, keep your head up, and keep your eyes on your goal.

More to come. Happy Friday gym rats! xo