Walking Around Naked Not the Best Part of Living Alone... Who Knew?

I have spent my entire life living with other people. I was born the youngest of 5, so always had my older siblings in addition to parents. When I went away for college, my first "roommate" was my grandma while I hunted for a job and alternative living situation.

The first house I moved into was with 3 other girls. I lived in that house with 4 occupants for a year and a half, then was in an apartment with 1 roommate (who had a boyfriend over regularly, so was more like 2 roommates), then in a house with 2 roommates, and two more places with a single roommate each. This made up the first 24 years of my life.

I have always had at least one roommate - most of the time I had more than one. I never wanted to buy anything too nice, because it would just be used and abused by my roommates, no matter how careful they were. Not to mention that, when we would separate ways, some of the items I had purchased or owned would inextricably be lost to the roommate for one reason or other (sometimes by accident, sometimes they would steal things, and other times they believed so fervently they owned the items that I just gave in rather than fight it out). In addition to the woes of losing property, I've even had roommates wreak havoc with my finances and, if you'll believe it, credit report. Those stories, however, are best kept close to home.

Personal Goals to Accompl.sh

Just over a year ago, I wrote a post about a list of 101 things I wanted to accomplish in the following 365 days (this original list can be found here). The website for this was originally called 101in365.com, but has since been renamed Accompl.sh. I actually quite like the new name! In any case, I did not complete all 101 items, but did knock out exactly 51 of them. A number were also in progress and partially completed, but others were not at all.

Before continuing, I'd like to give you a little bit of insight into this project. Before the name change, the tagline for the site was, "Avoiding mediocrity one to-do list at a time", which I found brilliant. Jenn, the creator, has brought it into a slightly different realm. Instead of limiting users to lists of 101 exclusively, she allows you to set the length of your list and lock it at whatever size you desire. In Jenn's words, "Accompl.sh harnesses the power of the social web to support personal growth. Its mission is to create a place where you can develop, track and share your goals over the course of the next 365 days and beyond by providing the tools, network and support you need to accomplish great things!" I loved the concept of 101 to-do items, so when I built my new list, I made sure to come up with that number once more.

In creating a new list, I had to take a hard look at my original list and think about why the items that were not completed were left in that state. Some of them were very simple and I should have been able to accomplish them in no time, for example, "98. Post reviews of books I've read on Goodreads". This maybe would have taken me an hour. I could have taken more time and posted even more than a few or reviews of the books already in my Goodreads account. But it would have taken little time. Unfortunately for me, I was lazy. And that sucks. Because I know I could have done this easily.

In Which Dinah Talks About Her Cat While Mildly Inebriated

It has been quite some time since I imbibed a bit more than I should and made a public address during such an hour. I'm sure I've sent random texts, perhaps one to Twitter (on which I have fewer than 50 followers), so it hasn't been much of a ride. The last notable event I can recall was a particular YouTube video I made, what? 3 years ago? (Oh god, how time flies by!)

In any case, I think it shall be fun to once again indulge in the experience!

Moving Life into Hi-Def

In the not too distant past, there was no point in using the words "Standard Definition" to describe the quality of pretty much all televisions and the shows and movies we had available to watch on them. It was just the norm for us. We didn't realize what kinds of details were missed until the (now typical) HD options came out.

Most people can remember the first time they watched an old favorite in HD and realized what a difference it made. Suddenly, the trees and bushes had defined leaves, the outlines of the characters' faces were clear cut.

Today, I experienced, for the second time in my life, a transition from Standard Def to HD - I got my first ever pair of glasses!

Love (?) in the Life of Dinah

I alluded to my recent break up in my last blog post, and I think it will be cathartic for me to write a little more on the subject now. Feel free to pass on this post if you just aren't interested (understandable!), but this is my personal blog, so.... there.... Ha.

In any case, I had been dating Paul for just over a year when I ended things and, to be frank, things had started getting bad after just 3 months. Whenever things got particularly bad, we'd talk and things would be better for about a week, then revert back to what it was before. I had spent my year or so of being single prior to dating Paul to build my personal confidence levels. Unfortunately, a lot of my time with him undid most of the work I had done on myself. It was through no active efforts on his part, but just the general way the relationship went, our closeness, etc. I can't really get more specific here, but suffice it to say that my ego took more than a few hits in the time we were together, and most of them were directly related to my relationship with him. The worst part about it is that I didn't even realize how low my own self-worth had gotten until a few days ago. But I'll get to that in a moment.

Back in the Saddle Again!

This month, I've gotten myself re-involved with the theatre. It's been a while since I've participated much, so it's really nice to be back! I'm re-acquainting with old friends and making new ones in the process. Plus, it's our 6th Annual Holiday Burlesque Show, which is just a blast to begin with.

The best part about this is that it happens to coincide with me going through a pretty messy breakup with my now ex-boyfriend. One of the unpleasant results has been a slight estrangement from a lot of his and my mutual friends. In most cases, our mutual friends are closer to him, so I get left by the wayside a lot. Fortunately, I am spending more time with my theatre friends again, so I at least have some backup.

The Burly Q itself is going really well. The show runs a bit long, but it's still a very fun show and the audience loves it every night. We sold out for the entire rest of the run 2 weeks in advance, which is pretty bitchin', to say the least!

One of my favorite acts is to the song 'Moves Like Jagger'. It features a couple of my very attractive male friends stripping and doing some pole dancing in unison. Let's just say I'm glad all I have to do is hit play and just enjoy the show each night.

Another favorite is brought back from the previous year, in which three gorgeous girls in black halter dresses dance to the song 'Kiss You Off'. This is one of the sexiest dance numbers and it's also one of the only (non-chorus girl) dances that does not include the dancers taking their clothes off. It was choreographed by my friend Jenney for last year's show and was so fantastic it had to be brought back (something I'm happy about).

The final number I'd like to bring up is to the song 'Never Gonna Leave This Bed'. This is another strip number, but it's a little different than most. Instead of being a single person (or pair of people) stripping their own clothing off, this act has one girl and one guy (buffed out wearing nothing but blue jeans). As the girl begins to take her clothing off, she enlists the help of our jeans-wearing friend. They re-enact the clothes removing portion of what we can only imagine is about to be a very steamy night!

I know I'm not including any photos in this post, but it's just to protect the assets of these friends of mine.

In any case, hooray for theatre! I'm glad I'm back in, even if it is just for one show at this time.

Trivia Night

For the past few weeks, some friends and I have been attending one of the local trivia nights at a downtown bar, the Banshee. With topics as varied as Caddy Shack, Prisons, Native Americans, and Charlie Sheen, it's no wonder we haven't snagged a win just yet. The group of individuals has changed from week to week and sometimes it's been beneficial to the team, other times not so much. But we're having a good time, we've at least placed (3rd place, that is) almost every time. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.

Plus, we've had some pretty bitchin' team names. We've been Team Snatch, The 12" Rough-Ins, and Chubby Horse. The last two are work-related jokes. You don't believe me with the Chubby Horse one, do you? Well, just follow this link and you shall find one of the most ridiculous items my company sells. GLORIOUS.

In any case, what I have enjoyed more than anything else is the opportunity to go out, have a few beers, and spend some time with friends just having a great time and guessing at all kinds of random-ass questions. It doesn't get much better than that!