Wednesday, February 8, 2012

FINALLY!

I AM FINALLY ONLINE!!!! For the past year-ish, I havent really had a functioing computer. My old Dell Inspiron crapped out, and I gave up the fight. I scrimped and saved, and put my money sucking activities(skydiving and paintball) on hold. I ordered and just today recieved my brand new Dell XPS 17, and I'm super excited about it! I bounced around the idea of spending money on a Mac, but eventually came to the decision that I don't really even want a Mac. I'm a fan of windows operating systems, and am familiar with PC operating systems... And although Apple products offer some amazing features, they really are above and beyond my needs in a computer. If I was doing professional arts, like music, photography, or the like, sure, I'd want a Mac. I do plan to do some video editing, but nothing midblowing. When it really came down to it, I never really had a choice to make, as far as the Mac vs PC debate went.

ANYWAYS, I have a computer again, so I'm FINALLY going to be able to keep up with this blog and hopefully grow it into what I'd like it to be.

What's been going on? Well, a lot of dirty gritty details aside, Things have actually been decent. I've taken a break from Paintball since going to Huntington Beach 2011. I plan to get back into it hard this year, and see where that takes me. I feel like 2012 will be a really defining year for me mentally in this sport. It will define what I want and how much I want it. I'm excited to see what happens.
The 2012 High School track season is going to be starting soon, and I'm excited. It's my third year coaching for the school I attended, and I'm really loving my kids, and watching them grow as athletes and talented young adults. I'm excited to see where our team goes this year.
I'm debt free! In August of this last year, I paid off all debt and credit cards that I had against my name, and I'm truely enjoying the freedom that comes, surprisingly, from living WITHIN my means. No impending bills. Saving money. Living life. What's the use of digging out of a hole when you have a choice of whether or not to go underground in the first place?
I have a new passion on my horizons. I have no idea where I want it to go yet, but I know I want to grow in this sport. Skydiving is the only thing I've ever encountered that brings me nothing but joy, on a daily basis. The community is completely unmatched, even by the paintball community that I love so much. I started my student progression a few days after my birthday, and achieved my A license at the end of September. I'm now up to 53 jumps, and I only see that number growing at an increasing rate. Be warned, there may be more skydive entries than paintball entries on this blog as the year progresses.
I got my first bull Roosevelt elk this year. After 7 years of hunting elk, I felt extremely accomplished. This year I have lots more hunts, and an ungodly number of hikes planned. Apparently, 2012 is the year of the wilderness for me. Can't wait to share my adventures here with anyone at all who is interested.
I still work at Red Robin... *sigh* Today is, in fact, my two year anniversary of being hired. That's all I really have to say about that...

That's honestly a very shorthanded overview of how things have been changing in my life. No need to go into a substantial amount of detail, because in the months to come, I will most certainly go into more detail than any reader of this blog may ever want. The point of this entry was to get myself back into this, and share the excitement of the many things I have to come. I had some incredible shenanigans this weekend, so expect a post in the next few days describing what it feels like to jump out of a helicopter :-) Until then, blue skies!

-Stephanie