Renewed Invigoration

After my last stressed out post, I found some ways to help cope. First, I decided to buy a subscription to Bead Style magazine. I rationalized this with my resolution to make more jewelry this summer. In buying the magazines, I'll hopefully be more inspired and my inspiration will grow and I'll be able to create my own works of wearable art. 

Second, I'm finally going to commit to changing my position to one that isn't as demanding in the amount of hours that I'm required to work. I know people can work 20+ hours a week and they are just fine. For me, it is mostly brutal. (Warning rant coming!) In working so much, I'm not able to spend as much time doing stuff that is good for me. I miss not being able to go out with Nate or my close friends on a whim. I miss not being able to cook dinner whenever I want (as opposed to 3 nights a week - usually I'm too exhausted anyways). And I miss being able to go to cultural things - even if I can't drag anyone along. 

What cemented my plan to switch positions was an email from Mason Jennings regarding his summer shows. He and Jack Johnson are playing at River's Edge in Somerset, WI on June 22. I think the last (and first) outdoor music festival I was able to dance freely at was the Green Man Festival outside of Duluth in the summer of 2002. I guess there were sporadic trips to Duluth to dance outside of Pizza Luce to WookieFoot and high school dances where people asked if my friends and I were on drugs (because we took up the unoccupied back half of the cafeteria to have room)! Anyways, rambling aside, I need to be in an unrestricted atmosphere and dance my little heart out to music that I like to dance to. If I were to keep my position, I would not be able to live as recklessly as I would like (take a week off here, week off there, etc). 

In addition to the above mentioned stress relievers, I also found a couple websites that I'm really enjoying right now. Baking Bites and Not Martha are my favorites so far.