What You Don't Know

What you don't know

There is a post circulating Facebook right now that is something along the line of "7 things you may not know about me" where people make a list of little or unknown facts about themselves. This gave me a thought… It is my serious opinion that one doesn't realize the strange and obsessive habits they have until they live with someone. Every boyfriend or roommate I have had has been open about pointing these little behaviors out to me. I decided to follow suit with the old FB and list the strange and possibly mysterious things I do and feel. Here it is:

Turning left at unprotected green lights gives me anxiety and I avoid them at all costs, that's right I'm a three right turn girl

While we're talking cars and driving I have to turn my music down to parallel park and am awful at it even though it was an area in which I excelled in Driver's Education

Until recently I didn't own a trash can, I think they're gross and they stink. As a result it is still an obsessive habit for me to save my plastic grocery bags to the point of overflow

When I was little I asked the tooth fairy for a friend who cared about me in place of money (my poor parents)

I'm fluent in Spanish and pretend not to be so people speak it more slowly to me

I used to count syllables in my head when I was a kid shifting each from my right hand to left needing always to end up on the left and starting on the right when speaking

I took dance for eight years and walk with my feet slightly turned out as a result

I often bounce from interest to interest and envy those who carry things all the way through with such conviction

I stopped drinking coke when I was 21, before that I had at least one a day

I stole a pack of cigarettes from my older sister in 5th grade and tried to hide them in the snow. I smoked from ages 14 to roughly one year ago

I look up DIY cute hair updos on the internet and try them. They are all epic fails.

Sometimes I lay in bed and think about how big the universe is and it makes me so afraid I become short of breath

I moved to California to escape heartbreak

My dad and I talk on the phone nearly every day

My friend Robb and I talk on the phone at least once a day

Nine times out of ten if I call my sister Kelsey she won't answer

Kelsey and I had a really rough time with each other when we were younger and we weren't really close until the winter I moved in with her to save money to move to Cali.

My best friend Liz and I didn't talk for 7 months and I kept a journal with letters to her in it that she has never read

I want to be a writer but I don't know how to get there

I have a lot of fear, I'm serious and anxious often despite my positive demeanor 

I think that might be enough...

Why do we do the things we do?

Wow!

I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and it really got my wheels turning. Give it a read if you have a spare moment. There was one concept that really intrigued me in the book I wanted to explore today. Basically Gladwell points out how likely we are to do something based on what other people are doing. In the book he gives several examples but I want to tell you about the subways in New York City in the early 1990's. At the time crime was rampant with graffiti everywhere and hundreds of people a day jumping the turnstiles to ride the subway. The police had long given up on the people refusing to pay the fare because there were so many and they figured it was a trivial crime. They appointed a man to help clean up the subway system. The first thing he did was paint all of the cars and make a vow to not allow any graffiti on the train. If a car was tagged with graffiti they took it off the track and painted it the same night so it never saw more than a few hours on the cars. He also told the local police to crack down on the fare jumpers. They set up a remote station and pulled people out of the line by groups of 5. They were able to ticket and process these individuals within an hour and were finding all kinds of other crimes and warrants within these groups. What I thought was interesting was that some people not paying for the fares were criminals, drug addicts and thieves. The rest of the people were just commuters, people who would have otherwise paid had they not seen droves of other people not paying for their fares. In short, these small changes were enough to change the entire subway system into something safer and profitable. The subways began seeing more inflow of money and fewer crime to almost no graffiti. 

We did a social experiment at the gym one boring day after someone left one door propped open when coming in. We noticed that even though there are two doors people are more likely to walk through the open door. We thought this might be a coincidence so we tested it out and observed for an hour. In that hour even though the gym was increasing in walk-in traffic people were literally waiting for a line of people to walk through the open door rather than to open the closed door. Are we lazy? My assumption is no. We tend to see others doing something and inadvertently follow suit. This entire book explores this concept. Why do some trends catch on fire when others drown in their wakes? I so badly want to find that next awesome workout routine that catches fire! For now I think I'll stick to the small stuff, you know, the graffiti on the subway cars so to speak.

My Trip to Outer Space

Hello again my friends! I'm back from Seattle, Montana, Utah, Idaho and Arizona. Technically some of those stops were momentary but I feel like I've been all over the western United States nonetheless. I am feeling like I accomplished a lot of what I set out to do when I decided to go stay with my dad in Billings Montana for a month. The first thing I did? You guessed it! I went down to the local health club and paid way too much for a month membership. I've never been one for negotiating price on goods and services as some of you may already know. Anyway my membership was for a club called Granite Health and Fitness. Nice facility, clean and up to date on equipment. My only complaint... ghost town! I understand the appeal of a nice quiet gym for a lot of people. Waiting for a machine can really cramp your style and heart rate/momentum, but I really like the busyness of a gym full of people. There's an energy and buzz that gets me going when a gym is busy. Every day I went in expecting there to be more that 4 grandmas on treadmills and two guys lazily curling dumbbells. Does no one care about fitness in Montana? The answer is yes, they just get their kicks outdoors. Speaking of outdoors, I think my appreciation for the beauty of Montana took me ten years to realize. This place is really a heaven in it's own right. They don't call it Big Sky Country for nothin' but what they really should call it is Beautiful Sky. Here are the things you don't realize you miss about Montana that you don't get in LA until you have been away for a while: thunderstorms with lightening, cloud formations that shift and change all day, a sun that doesn't set until 10:00 at night in the summer, and silence when you sleep. I came at the rainiest time of year and by the time all the storms passed it left our little city in the valley as green as the umbrellas at Starbucks.
Working with my dad is like admiring someone while simultaneously wanting to rip your hair out. One day in particular I jotted this down in my note pad, "I wish I had all the strength in the world to give to my dad. He works harder than anyone I know half his age. When I think about my childhood with my dad the first thing I remember is standing and listening. With my dad it's always, 'one more stop, we just have to talk to so and so'. To explain about my dad, first I have to explain about him as a man. I know that most little girls have an idealistic notion of who their parents are. We grow up with super heroes and I'm here to tell you that, to me, my dad is amongst the ultimate. Growing up in Salt Lake CIty as a non mormon in the 1960's is no small feat in and of itself. I think in his own way my dad was always an odd ball. Odd ball, he loves that word to describe someone with eccentricity. As if a man with 100 motorcycles isn't eccentric in his own right. At the age of 16 he auditioned for the Utah symphony for their most successful conductor; Maurice Abrovonel. When he tells the story we prop ourselves up on our elbows and listen with the utmost attention. 'were you nervous?!' we would ask. To which he would reply 'Oh no, I was too stupid to be nervous' 2917 Ramada Drive" right at the end dad says "quick write this down!" My dad has worked out his whole life in whatever garage space he had that wasn't dedicated to motorcycles and covered in grease spots. I think I get my energetic go getter attitude from him.
Now that I'm home Montana feels like lifetimes ago. I'm back to my busy gym grind and hunting down a job that suits me. My life is changing and evolving in front of my eyes and I have big plans for it! I want to do something that my dad would be proud of, something worth writing about. Stay tuned guys...Imma do BIG things!

Country Girl, City Girl

Hello Again!
I'll skip the whole, "Sorry it's been so long I've been really busy bla bla bla" Although I guess I still had to put it in there ;)
Where were we? Where it all started! Fitness baby! First let me tell you about how I got hoaxed into attending an Herbalife meeting in Inglewood then I'll tell you about my upcoming journey home to Montana.
Up until this moment in time I have been slaving away at a gym. Great right? Inspiring people to get healthy and teaching those who know not what I know...not exactly. More like hounding money, hiring, firing, training teens to be responsible and listening to complaints like, "Your Jacuzzi is at 103 and it should be at least 104!" So I guess things are never as they initially appear. 5am to 7pm also not for me. So what did I do? I quit! I didn't find a better opportunity with fewer hours and more money I just told them I was done. No plan. No savings. Oh go roll your eyes somewhere else, I was miserable!
My supportive friends and family all agree with a resounding "Good for you!" I'm shaking in my Nikes. On the job hunt I go. What do I want to do when I grow up? Where do I see myself in 5 years? These are the questions swirling my brain these days. Forget I'm months from my 29th birthday and according to society pretty much a grown up. Forget every nay sayer who thinks I made a huge mistake. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders albeit I do still have the pesky money weight pressing down.
For the past week I've fruitlessly searched Craigslist, Careerbuilder and Monster.com for anything and everything I think I could do/would like to do. It's hard to search for something when you don't know what you're looking for. Nevertheless I did come across an ad that sparked my interest for a "health coach". No experience necessary. Sound too good to be true? It is. The interview was a workout in a park nearly an hour from my house. Well I can't just sit around and do nothing all day! The workout was rudimentary but the pitch was great. Sell a great product to people you know and make a profit. Get them to sell also and you will make money not even doing anything! I was ready to sell Herbalife faster than I was dialing to order my tornado mop (if you don't know what the tornado mop is I feel sorry for you). This, by the way, is the second meeting I have had in two weeks regarding multi-level marketing. There's something so appealing about not having to slave so hard for every dollar, working for myself and making real money. *Sigh* too good to be true.
The next day I'm on the phone with my dad and he's telling me about a big job he has coming up, the biggest ever in fact. "Oh can't I just come work for you for a month daddy?" He said "I'd love that!" and there it is. The flight is booked and a week from tomorrow I'll be back in my home town. I'll keep you apprised of my fitness endeavors in Montana and any other happs I find noteworthy.
Tata for now!