Tei. Noice. Smort.

[tei_]

Last challenge, I stopped counting calories and started eating meals, regular-fucking-human-stylez. Yay!

 

This challenge, I am finalllllyyy moving out of my cray-cray house and looking forward to doing lots of cooking now that I can venture into the kitchen without being subjected to cray conversations with cray people. Over the course of this challenge I am also going to be doing some rad things like GOING ON TOUR WITH BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE OMG.

 

HERE"S SOME GOALZ:

Make friends!

Ever since I finished school, I have been moving at least once a year, sometimes more. Much of that time has been spent long-distance relationship, and after a few years of shipping out as soon as I started to get settled... putting effort into social relationships started to seem futile. Like, why invest in your friendships if you're just going to leave? Now, I have a full-time job in an orchestra, I love my colleagues, and Mr. Tei has decided to quit his job and come join me here. This is a place I could... stay? Maybe for just a little bit, or maybe for the rest of my life? In any case, I am definitely going to be here two years in a row, which hasn't happened recently! So, it's time to start putting some effort into building a social scene. I am... open to suggestions on how to acheive this, lol. My current plan is to aim for at least 2x/week suggesting an activity to someone to inviting someone to something? So this could be texting my climbing friend that I'm going to the gym,  or suggesting to colleagues that we grab lunch or drinks after a service, or... something else. IDK! Friends?? Anybody???

 

 

Get organized with work.

I am doing an audition on May 3rd. I am not at all sure that I actually want the job (see: previous explanation of finally being in a place I could stay long-term!) but doing auditions is part of keeping your skills sharp as an orchestral musician, and I want to make sure that I feel proud of my performance both at the audition and for the rest of the season. Goal for this is to practice 2 hours + at least a 1/2 hour of reedmaking every day that is free or only has one service, and 1/5 hours + reedmaking on a two-service day.

 

 

Foooooooood!

As I said, I have been avoiding the kitchen in the place where I live, due to abnormally high levels of cray. This has actually been decent for my eat-three-meals-a-day goal, because I just go to the store, buy a meal, and eat it. Not great for the bank account, though, or the sense of being a grownup who can feed herself.

The goals for this are so many! Once I get into my new place I want to re-start my sourdough starter (or maybe buy some to start feeding because my attempts at starting one from scratch here have been frustrating...) start making yogurt again, and get a gross vat of kombucha going. Also want to get in the habit of buying whole chickens and using all the various bits for various stuff. Woooooo home cooking!

 

Workin' out!

I have been getting in the habit of morning workouts, which is working out well for me! (heh.) The plan is to keep that up-- lifting 3x/week, and gymnastics/other stuff 2 or 3x. I alsooooooo stopped in in a super weird gym in my neighborhood to be like "so yo what's your deal" and apparently their deal is that they're moving out of my neighborhood and into the warehouse district, which boooo, BUT for the excellent cause of expanding their acrobatic and parkour offerings and THEY'RE GETTING A SPRUNG FLOOR AND A FOAM PIT!!!!!!!! Sooooo that place is hella expensive buuuuut could be worth it if I could quit my normal gym (and also probably the climbing gym, honestly, because I haven't been going there all that often and when I do I mainly just want to do flips on their mats) and tumble like every dayyyyyyy zomg!!!!! (This is the place, if you want to evaluate its suitability...)

 

Let's do this!

 

 

[sylph]

I love all of this.

 

No additional suggestions on the friend-making, though. I have hubs and some WorkFriends. Circus Peeps have just barely transitioned in to CircusFriends and that has taken a wicked long time. But, I am generally an introverted hermit when I'm not on the interwebs, so I imagine if you try, you'll wind up with some success using the strategies you've outlined.

[raptron]

Yessss! Hi.

[tei_]

2 hours ago, sylph said:

No additional suggestions on the friend-making, though. I have hubs and some WorkFriends. Circus Peeps have just barely transitioned in to CircusFriends and that has taken a wicked long time. But, I am generally an introverted hermit when I'm not on the interwebs, so I imagine if you try, you'll wind up with some success using the strategies you've outlined.

 

I might be an introverted hermit too? But I don't even really know! Am I a hermit of nature, or a hermit of circumstance?

 

Update on today: I went to the gym in the late afternoon and front desk guy was like "You're late. Are you going to be on time tomorrow?" so uhhhhh I guess I have to go to the gym at 6:30 in the morning for the rest of my life now *shrug*

 

I GOT A NEW JOB TODAY! Or a... promotion, rather? Basically it's a part-time managerial position that can only be done by a member of the orchestra. I was pretty happy with their initial offer salary-wise buuuut it seemed like she was expecting me to negotiate, and I didn't want to look like a chump, so I listened to this podcast and then requested slightly more than the initial offer. Now I am trying to not have a nervous breakdown while I wait for a reply. I don't care it they say no, and I made it clear that I was accepting the job either way but I just don't want to look dumb ughhhh

 

[@mu]

14 hours ago, tei_ said:

This challenge, I am finalllllyyy moving out of my cray-cray house and looking forward to doing lots of cooking now that I can venture into the kitchen without being subjected to cray conversations with cray people.

 

haaaa! Nothing like your own home

 

How many gym do you go to?  climbing + normal gym + gymnastics gym? Hefty membership budget! Why don't they do Assassins gyms period It would be much easier.

And what about  joining the competitive team, when do you start? I read in your previous thread that it was for the next season, when is that?

[sylph]

I love Ask A Manager with the power of a thousand suns. She is so awesome and  practical and sensible and NORMAL.  I just listened to that podcast on Tuesday. Good job on you for doing something hard, a little uncomfortable, but totally reasonable and normal. 

[tei_]

7 hours ago, @mu said:

How many gym do you go to?  climbing + normal gym + gymnastics gym? Hefty membership budget! Why don't they do Assassins gyms period It would be much easier.

*shifty eyes* don't call me out like this!   Haha right now I have the normal gym, which is a special deal through my union, so it's paid for for the year. Then the climbing gym and gymnastics class once a week.

 

7 hours ago, @mu said:

And what about  joining the competitive team, when do you start? I read in your previous thread that it was for the next season, when is that?

Yeeeep if I do it it would be for next September! I'm going to see how this weirdo gym is, though... if I really like it, I could quit the normal gym and the climbing gym and just do lifting and tumbling at the weirdo gym, and then just keep going to gymnastics at the adult class only once a week for bars and vault instead of joining the competitive team. The advantage of that would be that I would hopefully make friends with grownups instead of teenagers.

 

1 hour ago, sylph said:

I love Ask A Manager with the power of a thousand suns. She is so awesome and  practical and sensible and NORMAL.  I just listened to that podcast on Tuesday. Good job on you for doing something hard, a little uncomfortable, but totally reasonable and normal. 

 

Thank you!

[tei_]

Update: exec director said she can't offer any more now but is committed to increasing the fee each year. So that is fine and I'm still glad I asked!

[RogueLibrarian]

Following! Congratulations on the new job!

 

[raptron]

Congrats on the new position/promotion with that side cash cash!  

 

Weirdo gym sounds promising. Do you know when they're opening at the new space? Side note: I want a foam pit so baaaad. 

[@mu]

23 hours ago, tei_ said:

The advantage of that would be that I would hopefully make friends with grownups instead of teenagers.

 

This, indeed!

 

21 hours ago, tei_ said:

Update: exec director said she can't offer any more now but is committed to increasing the fee each year. So that is fine and I'm still glad I asked!

 

Congrats!

[RogueLibrarian]

23 hours ago, tei_ said:

I would hopefully make friends with grownups instead of teenagers.

 

But then you can't use "I can buy beer" as leverage to look cool, so that's the tradeoff.

[Mad Hatter]

Congrats on the promotion!! And awesome job for doing the scary thing, even if it didn't work out.  

 

Also LOVE all your challenge goals. Wish I could help you with the friends thing but it's something I frequently struggled with. I tried meet ups and such but it's hard to make real connections there. At least for me, but that's because I don't really know how to navigate the steps between having a random conversation to making real friends... My close group now I've met through climbing, and they did the work by sort of forcefully absorbing me into their lives. E.g. "I like you, you're coming to hang out with us after climbing, yes? Good, you don't have a choice."  All I needed to do was show up. Which I guess is key now when I think about it. Showing up is good. Or you could try my friends' strategy.  

 

On 4/26/2018 at 9:42 AM, @mu said:

Why don't they do Assassins gyms period It would be much easier.

Yes please!! Now my assassin budget isn't so bad, but in Sweden in particular when I was taking a whole bunch of different classes at different places the bill got preeeetty hefty indeed.

 

 

 

[SymphonicDan]

Ooh, I never knew you were another Assassin musician! Commenting to follow

[WhiteGhost]

Following for the..  wait a minute...

On 4/26/2018 at 12:35 AM, tei_ said:

Goal for this is to practice 2 hours + at least a 1/2 hour of reedmaking every day that is free or only has one service, and 1/5 hours + reedmaking on a two-service day.

[tei_]

On 4/27/2018 at 7:25 AM, raptron said:

Congrats on the new position/promotion with that side cash cash!  

 

Weirdo gym sounds promising. Do you know when they're opening at the new space? Side note: I want a foam pit so baaaad. 

Supposedly they're going to be in there full-time by July! And... do you not have a foam fit at your gym club? Or do you mean, you want access to one outside of gymnastics practice?

 

On 4/27/2018 at 7:45 AM, RogueLibrarian said:

 

But then you can't use "I can buy beer" as leverage to look cool, so that's the tradeoff.

 

Wellllll all the parents of competitive athletes have to do volunteer stuff like vacuuming the gym and running bingo night a certain number of times each season... so I would probably have to do all that, and get tight with the parents of my teammates... so probably buying the kids beer would not be the greatest strategy to find love and acceptance in the gym community

 

 

20 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

  All I needed to do was show up. Which I guess is key now when I think about it. Showing up is good. Or you could try my friends' strategy. 

 

I need people like that! hahah I feel like I have done that in the past when I was already part of a group, and we were like "we like this person, we're taking them." It's hard when you're alllll alooooone. I think Showing Up is a good strategy in general though!

 

17 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

Ooh, I never knew you were another Assassin musician! Commenting to follow

 

yeeeeep I play the bassoon for a living, somehow! Welcome!

 

Soooooo I moved yesterday! I don't have any furniture in my new place yet because my previous place was furnished and Mr. Tei is going to bring all our furniture so I don't want to buy too much stuff... so I am sleeping on an air mattress for the next two months and trying to not buy too many pots and pans before he gets here.

 

Bad news, I went to the gym this morning, rather early because pigeons woke me up. They were hella loud pigeons. I'm going to switch the bedroom to the other room and use the room near the pigeons as a studio, so hopefully that won't be a problem in the future. But anyway, I went to the gym even though I was tired from carrying heavy boxes up many stairs yesterday, and seem to have done something to my back squatting It's like... y'know when you're squatting a heavy weight, and your lower back just feels compressed, like it would feel good to hang or stretch out a little bit? Like that, only... actually painful. I was kinda scared at first and ended up asking a dudebro to take my plates off for me because I wasn't sure if I could even lift anything further It got better over the next few hours, but it's still sore and both flexion and extension in the lower back are a no-go.

 

On the bright side, I figure if I am going to do competitive gymnastics it's unlikely that this will be my last injury ever, so I'm looking at it as an opportunity to find a physotherapist that I like. Gonna start that search on Monday if it's still painful.

 

 

[@mu]

59 minutes ago, tei_ said:

Soooooo I moved yesterday!

 

Niiiiice! Time to throw a house warming party with potential new friends?

 

1 hour ago, tei_ said:

It's like... y'know when you're squatting a heavy weight, and your lower back just feels compressed, like it would feel good to hang or stretch out a little bit? Like that, only... actually painful.

 

Might be the combo of moving out and in + squats, I hope it clears up in a few days!

 

[tei_]

3 hours ago, @mu said:

Niiiiice! Time to throw a house warming party with potential new friends?

 

I’m hoping to in July if my work friends are still in town, but unfortunately the no furniture situation is preventing an immediate housewarming party... for some reason when people come over they like to be able to ait on chairs and use cutlery to eat... divas.

[Mad Hatter]

8 hours ago, tei_ said:

 

I’m hoping to in July if my work friends are still in town, but unfortunately the no furniture situation is preventing an immediate housewarming party... for some reason when people come over they like to be able to ait on chairs and use cutlery to eat... divas.

Lame. Just call it an indoor picnic - get a bunch of blankets, use disposable cutlery and make everyone bring their own favourite picnic food. Or get new friends.  

 

 

Fingers crossed the low back heals up quickly!

 

[SymphonicDan]

On 4/28/2018 at 11:44 PM, tei_ said:

I’m hoping to in July if my work friends are still in town, but unfortunately the no furniture situation is preventing an immediate housewarming party... for some reason when people come over they like to be able to ait on chairs and use cutlery to eat... divas.

 

This is the perfect opportunity to fill your apartment with playpen balls or circus equipment and never look back  Chairs are so old-fashioned...

[Mad Hatter]

9 minutes ago, SymphonicDan said:

 

This is the perfect opportunity to fill your apartment with playpen balls or circus equipment and never look back  Chairs are so old-fashioned...

From personal experience this is absolutely the way to go.  

[tei_]

On 4/29/2018 at 12:49 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Lame. Just call it an indoor picnic - get a bunch of blankets, use disposable cutlery and make everyone bring their own favourite picnic food. Or get new friends.  

This is... actually a brilliant idea.

 

7 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

This is the perfect opportunity to fill your apartment with playpen balls or circus equipment and never look back  Chairs are so old-fashioned...

This one is also good, although somewhat less practical.

 

Week 1 update:

Back seems to be doing OK! As of today extension is totally fine, flexion is much better although not 100%.

 

Friends: I did noooot do great. Okay , I didn't ask anyone to do anything this week, and I also turned down an invite to a climbing fundraiser thing because it was the day I injured my back. HOWEVER I have plans to do better this week!

Work: I came up about half an hour short on each day where the goal was 2 hours of practicing. But I did do a mock audition for a colleague and I am feeling pretty decent about my level of preparation for this audition.

Food: YAY I HAVE A KITCHENNNNNN! I haven't started any of my fermentation projects yet, athough my quest for today is to find someone who'll sell me some starter. but I have been making all my meals at home and it is gr8.

Workin' out: I did do three lifting workouts last week, despite the last one being cut short.

 

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

Yaaaay kitchen!!! Having a proper kitchen makes such a difference to life and everything.

[raptron]

Hope your back pain doesn't linger too long.  

[Asa Pond]

It's definitely not a bad thing that you didn't go climbing if your back was out of whack. When you're in pain, you aren't always at your best and it can be harder to show people the real you! 

 

Hope it doesn't stick around!