Day 4: A Habit You Wish You Didn't Have

Hmm... how about procrastination?

I opened this page yesterday, fully intending to write this post. Then the work day ended and I still hadn't gotten to it, not because I didn't have time, but rather because I let myself get distracted by other things. It really wouldn't have taken me that long to write it, but for some reason I just kept avoiding it...

I do that often. Then I end up doing things at the last minute, rushed, and beating myself up about it. I get stressed about all the things that still need to get done, because I've avoided doing them and wasted my time on other stuff that was not urgent or important.

The worst part is, when I avoid doing something I thought would be a pain, or take too long, or [insert excuse here], I usually find out, once I do it, that it wasn't that bad at all. But I spent all that time, wasted all that energy, stressing about it (instead of getting it out of the way), feeling bad about procrastinating, and beating myself up about it.

You'd figure one of these days I'd learn, and JUST DO IT, huh?

Day 3: A Picture of You and Your Friends

I know you all are not supposed to post a photo, but I took this one from our Facebook page. Upward Bound was selected as MVC's Department of the Month in October! So here we are, posing with Dr. Garrett and Mr. Zamora, the President of the College.

Day 2: The Meaning Behind Your Blogger Name

Hmm... My Blogger name is pretty straightforward... just my name. My husband uses "4shay" as his last name in his email address, so I copied that for my Twitter account (the one I used to have for MVC UB stuff, but I deleted it when we started using Facebook instead).

I should have a more clever name, huh?

Day 1: 15 Interesting Facts About Yourself

I'm three days late posting this (I really meant to post over the weekend, but SOMEBODY kept me busy!) I'll catch up today, though!

1. I grew up in Santiago, Chile. My mom's a USian, my dad's Chilean; my mom went to Chile on a study abroad program, met my dad, and she decided to stay. They got married and had four kids...
2. I have four cats. Yes, FOUR. And I did not name a single one of them -- someone else named them. (But it's okay, I like the names.)
3. I have four cats, AND NO LITTER BOX. (I don't know if this qualifies as interesting, but it's something that makes me happy. I hated cleaning that litter box! The cats now have a kitty door, and they do their business outside...
4. I write books. None of them are published; I'm good at writing books but I'm very lazy about editing them and getting them ready to submit to agents... I've participated in NaNoWriMo seven years in a row; won every year, except for this one. I was BUSY with something...
5. I had a baby, a healthy, wonderful little boy, in October. I waited a long time to have him, but he was definitely worth the wait! (But he's also A LOT of work. Like all babies are. Which is why I only wrote 1,765 words this November, instead of my usual 50,000.)
6. I have a Hello Kitty tattoo on my shoulder, and a rose tattoo on my calf.
7. I'm having a really hard time thinking of interesting things about myself.
8. I am fluent in English and Spanish, and pretty good in French. And I like to pretend I understand and can sort-of speak Italian.
9. I am addicted to blogging and Twitter. (Or, at least, I was... until I had a baby and lost all of my free time!)
10. I have two sisters, one brother, two step-sisters, one step-brother, and two "new" sisters (my mom and step-dad adopted them when I was in college). My family tree is more of an orchard than a tree...
11. I really, really want to try oil painting. I want to take a class on it, but it's an expensive hobby so I always end up talking myself out of it.
12. My husband and I met while working on a theater show. (He's a real actor, I just like to pretend I am.)
13. I love to do karaoke.
14. I read GONE WITH THE WIND in 8th grade. I loved the book (and movie) so much, when I got to college I took a history class on the Civil War just because of GWTW.
15. I wish I'd stuck with piano lessons when I was a kid, because it would be really cool to play the piano. I can read music (at a basic level), and can play "Mary had a little lamb" and "Do a Deer" with one hand. But that's it.

Whew! I made it! :P