Just do it

I've always been a huge procrastinator. A friend of mine in eighth grade once described that she was a procrastinator because she always left assignments for the night before they were due, but I was more because I was still working on things in the class prior to the one in which they were to be handed in. I procrastinate chores, exercise, work, leaving to go places, going to sleep, and even playing video games I wish to finish.

In my mind I have all of these things that I want to learn, do, or be good at, but most of them are a non-specific "sometime in the future". I hardly ever actually do anything to achieve any of these vague goals- at least nothing at all consistent.

Today, however, I started a yoga class at the community centre. This is somewhat in attempt to achieve some sort of personal fitness, although I am also hoping it will help me to combat my sewing machine shoulder pain and tension headaches, and my tendency to stress out easily for no reason. I've also realized that I am not very flexible. For that reason, I think it'll be extra beneficial for me to take this class, as I have a lot of anxiety about doing things I'm not good at, where I'll often quit instead of working to improve. (Gifted child problems. I wasn't challenged enough growing up and now I feel very uncomfortable when something does challenge me.) I need to force myself to be okay with doing things I'm not good at so that I can be more comfortable in my own skin.

In my head, since I went to school for four years for a degree that I arguably don't need for anything, I  think that I don't need to go to any sort of class. With the internet and books and YouTube tutorials, almost all learning can be done independently for free (or at least pretty cheap) and formal education is pointless. It just takes the investment of time and effort. Then I realized: the reason we need to enroll in classes and programs is motivation. If you've already spent the time and the money and it's all for naught if you don't finish your report for this day, or you don't read the book to study for your test next week, or you don't attend the class between x and y, then you're going to feel compelled to do actually do it.

So I called, I signed up, I paid, and now I'll be doing yoga every Wednesday for the next 9 weeks. It may not seem like too much, but that's a lot more yoga than I would do if I didn't decide to take the class. (I would probably do it approximately once on WiiFit, which is a vastly different experience.)

Then after that I will sign up for a different class and learn something else new.

Painting Pottery

In January, we went to a birthday party at "All Fired Up" in Etobicoke. We got to pick a piece of pottery off of the wall and paint it while drinking champagne. They'll fire them in a kiln after you leave and you pick it up a week (or more) later.

Today, I finally went to pick up our dishes. It's been 3 months less a couple days and the receipt suggests they will only keep your work for you for three months so I figured I'd best make the trek to get them before they are destroyed. (I actually went to get them about a month ago but only found out that they are closed on Mondays. I went all the way to Etobicoke for nothing. It was especially disappointing because I could see them through the window. They were less than a foot away from mee!)

They had a lot of different things to choose from. It took me around an hour to actually choose the object I wanted to paint. It cut into my painting time so I did not quite get to finishing the third coat they recommend. I don't know very much about the materials but you have to choose all of your colours exactly because the certain kind of paint you have to use cannot be mixed. We also had to use a different paintbrush for each colour and make sure the brushes were dry so they paint did not get diluted at all. This was also the night I decided I shouldn't drink wine anymore. I just started feeling really gross and dizzy later in the night and it wasn't the first time that has happened with red wine.

I picked a star bowl and painted hearts on it. <3 I figured I should do something I might be able to use at some point.

My boyfriend picked a dog bowl and painted this angry sun on it.