My new calendar journal for the year - I somehow ended up buying a calendar in July years ago and have been "stuck," in the weird half year ever since. I was having trouble finding a daily planner that started in July this year so found this one online.  I wasn't sure what I was going to get, it was only $6 but it is really nice!  The pages aren't too thin so ghosting isn't a problem and there is a pocket in the back with a handful of blank pages for notes or what not.

I had to laugh though, this one, which is grey, was $6. If I wanted a pretty turquoise blue that one was $8 and the bright pink was $10.  Yeah, I'll just take the grey. 

I saw this at the grocery store - I can't figure out what it is. I guess I should have actually looked at it after taking the photo.  It's "safe" for kids though LOL  Earphones if you want hot ears? Or if you want to look like Ralphie?

Dreamtime!
So, I was at a new job and being trained by a person I worked with a long long time ago. I didn't much care for her in real life either. She never listened to anything that didn't already agree with her predetermined opinion - So, in the dream she handed me a phone number and told me to call and leave a message with this woman to call her back. Apparently this woman's husband died? And my boss had to tell her.

No matter what I did or how I did it, I could not dial the number correctly. I kept hitting all the wrong numbers. I have had this happen before in dreams - it's a communication issue - about feeling like I couldn't communicate properly or wasn't being listened to.  In the dream I think I finally got it right and left the message but woke up to a loud noise, of course. It's always noisy here.

I find it interesting that a communication dream would feature that person who I couldn't communicate with LOL Not sure what this reflects at the moment but I guess I will see.


It is getting hot now - I think summer caught up - I just need the June Gloom bit to take a hike. I bought a mail scale yesterday so now I can weigh my own packages which makes it a lot easier to figure out postage when setting up ebay/etsy.  Then I won't need to wait in line at the post office, I can just dump the packages off all ready to go. 

Hmm I have no graceful way of ending this post LOL So, Okbye!

So hey, look at that. Now we are at 65!

A few people asked me about how the RHR changed during the monthly cycle.  I had no idea it actually did anything different until my friend mentioned it to me.  But it's true.  Around ovulation, my RHR moves up a point or 2. Then, when lovely PMS arrives my RHR will continue to go up a point daily, or move up and then stay up at the same number a day or two, until the day I start. 

That is why this thing is so awesome to be tracking (I never track my period, I absolutely HATE being on it and just knew it was about to show up and I got crankier by the day)  But anyway, the day I start, my RHR drops 2 or 3 points.  Then it continues to drop for a few days until it hits my normal RHR. 

Which is why I was at 66 yesterday and am at 65 today.  It may go down another point or so but I am 3 days in so it's probably about where it will stay. Of course, that changes too, depending on sleep or lack thereof. Or stress, anxiety, working out, not working out. LOL You get the picture.

I bought my Fitbit 3 years ago and first of all, surprisingly it is still working perfectly - I had heard stories that they fell apart after a year, right around the time of the 1 year warranty deal. I got one because I was curious as to how many steps I did a day and how many I should be doing and it seemed like an overall good thing so I bought one and let it judge me daily and I was totally happy with it and let it keep me company on my daily walks and only cursed it mildly when it beeped at me to tell me I was being lazy and to get up and move for awhile. 

My friend at work has one too and we would pop into each others desk to ask, "where you at?" during the day, to see the step count -  then we'd race around the meeting table to try and outstep each other.

Note about steps - so there is a thing that says you should be taking at least 10,000 steps a day to stay healthy. Yeahhhhh - ok, that is GOOD but only if the 10,000 steps are um, quick? They can't just be the slow meandering around the house steps in other words.  It is better to have 6000 quick, working for it, steps. I aim for 6000 a day but they are working out and getting my cardio up steps. I digress.

A few months ago, I thought that maybe the Fitbit wasn't working correctly anymore because there was no way my heart rate was 78 while I was just sitting down and reading. NO WAY! I was in total denial that this was correct.

It was totally correct.

I realized that I hadn't really done any sort of exercise in.... *hangs head* months... like 5 of them.  I had stopped doing the 250 steps an hour to keep myself moving during the day when I was stuck at the computer and I also stopped daily lunch walks.  I also couldn't remember the last time I did any Yoga, which my Fitbit thinks of as non-exercise but I know better LOL

Anyway, around March I hit the peak of freak out with my RHR (resting heart rate) and decided I couldn't do this anymore. So. I assessed the situation. I didn't need to lose any weight, I was at the time 98 pounds and I am still between 95 and 100 - I am 5.1 tall, and have always weighed around 99 pounds. So I really only needed to do 2 things. Firm up what I had and OMG get into cardio shape because that RHR was not something I was happy with.  

Health adult RHR is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. 

So, I started joggling again - that is jog walking in Christy speak. I did that for a month with no real Fitbit progress and it ticked me off. So, I got a Cardio Fusion Strength training dvd as well as a Belly dancing dvd and started a program and kept that up for 2 more months. At first it was discouraging because you don't see an immediate change in RHR, it is cumulative and that sucks LOL  But I knew even if I didn't see any progress, I was getting my cardio health into a better place and I kept going.

I do strength training 2 x a week.
I balance that off with cardio fusion and belly dancing every other day and stick in a rest day after the strength training. I also make sure to get up and walk during the day if I am sitting at the computer a lot.

After waiting for my monthly cycle to start - RHR goes up during PMS - I woke up to this today:

*happy dance*

I have also noticed that when I am sitting and reading my heart rate will sit about 56 or so. I feel much better and in fact, if I can't work out for whatever reason, I feel sluggish and don't sleep as well. 

I can actually SEE visible muscles and firmer bits of skin too.  I don't really watch what I eat, I mean I don't eat crap, and I rarely eat sugary things but I do love my french fries. So this all makes me feel very good about things. 

Also - I think my Fitbit has stopped being so damn judgy LOLOL No, actually, it still beeps at me but I like to think it's in a kinder tone ;)

I was in the middle of a nice dream when I was woken up by really rude people outside. This isn't surprising as most everyone around here is rude and unaware that other people might not want to listen to them. But even so, screaming obscenities like that for all to hear is just plain trashy.

The bits of the dream I caught were good though. It started out with me in a mountain-y area, forests and trees and earth - but I am in a parking lot in my car, trying to back it out of the space but I am having trouble seeing the direction indicator so I can't see the D for drive or the R for reverse and the entire time the car is slowly drifting backward in the lot. I am not worried about hitting another car - in these types of dreams I never am - I just go LOL
Finally I get it in Drive and move upward out of the lot, up a small hill type thing, only now I am no longer driving a car, I am riding a bike (this also happens a lot in my dreams) and the hill is sort of a combination of blacktop, dirt and old lump lava that has a pretty rainbow sheen to it.

There is a guy walking next to me, dressed like a hiker, and he is also wearing a rainbow of colors - he starts asking me things like How am I doing and What will I do now and I think I say something like I am going to get settled and find a job somewhere.... 

By this time the path has landed me/us in this sort of fairy tale looking place, like trees that are buildings holding shops and things - touristy looking area and I think I can get a job in one of the tree shops and in one of them is someone I know from Instagram LOL  She says she hasn't had a customer or seen a person in awhile and the guy nods and I think that is ok, I can still work there, it will be something for the moment.

Then I wake up to the screamers - thanks trashy idiots.

The entire dream I feel good, strong, confident in my ability to do whatever it is I need to do. Nothing worries or bothers me at all. 

I like this part - I went to my IG friends page and her post is an oracle card called Heavenly Witch - which has a description : at night when senses withdraw, you may perceive truths in your dreams. The facts revealed will help you make your dreams come true.

I like that kind of synchronicity. 

You can see the dream cards I pulled for this dream in the photo above. I can give a brief overview of them if anyone wants to keep reading.

Rainbow: (I kept seeing rainbow colors on things)
Connection, hope, luck, bridges between heaven and earth - a transition that is about to unfold

Earth: (a lot of brown earth, nature area)
Feminine, regeneration, unconscious - Think Empress in tarot. This is about creative pursuits, regeneration in myself, time to come back to earth and manifest these things.

Green: (lots of green plants and such)
Nature, renewal, hope - growth.

Journey: (it felt like I was in the middle/end of one)
Calling. truth, quest, self discovery - exploring the unfamiliar - passages from stages of life. Evolution

Animus: (I felt the hiker guy was this archetype)
Action, intellect, consciousness - think Emperor Tarot card

Mountain: ( I was in a mountain-y area)
Transcendence, challenge, pilgrimage for self knowledge or spiritual enlightenment. 

Trees: (Lots of them)
Life, regeneration, evolution

Forest: (see lots of trees LOL)
Mystery, sanctuary - sacred space - contemplation - Jung thought the fear of a forest was a fear of the unknown in ourselves. I was not afraid. I was safe and knew all was well. Which says I feel at peace with myself.

The other bits that stuck out was the car and bike -
Car - transportation - they take you places. Movement of the car shows you where you are in life. At first I am stuck, in reverse, symbolizing being stuck and going the wrong way in life. Eventually I got the car in the direction I wanted to go!
Only it turned into a BIKE

Bike - This is a lot about balance - you need to stay balanced to ride one. Also, its about your own self power - you need to pedal it, you put in the work. This is also about movement and action - how you feel riding it, reflects your waking world feelings.


So this very much reflects where I am in life right now - but its nice to see the synchronicity.

Usually when I dream about needing to use a phone/messages or really anything involving a password or pin number, I can't remember the password.  Or I use old ones that no longer work. So I never get the messages or make the phone call I need to and then I wake up all anxious and annoyed.

In general, this is about communication or a lack thereof. Depending on who I need to reach is what I may have the problem with in the waking world. 

But this time, when I needed to contact someone over where I needed to meet them, the phone gave me 2 freebies?  All I know is I needed to get my messages and I had 4 waiting. But I couldn't remember the password - then the phone voice said it would give me 2 of them. Enough to figure out where I needed to go and how to get there.  

I am not sure what that means yet, but it does seem like some sort of progress :)

Also, I found this article about George Humphrey - a British psychologist who talks about how we don't really memorize things so much as use that muscle memory - we become accustomed to doing something over and over in a certain way, without really thinking about it.  Then when you are actually forced to THINK about doing something in a dream, your brain sort of fumbles the ball. He calls it, Hyper Reflection.   

Interesting!

I woke up yesterday with clear intentions and followed through on them! I know, I know, surprised me too ;)

So, first, I updated my Artistic Side tab - Added all my latest embroidery projects, like the direwolf shirt. I like sewing the pattern but not on shirts, that just took way too long LOL But I love the way it came out.

Then I created an ebay and etsy shop too. Nothing is listed as yet, I need to finish getting my business cards and shipping stuff ready. That's this weekend. Then I will be listing all sorts of handmade goodies.  The ebay store is for non handmade stuffs that I need to move out for lack of room and I am trying to pare down my "stuff."

I am hoping to get all of that ready so I can start listing things next week. Very excited!!