Sheesh.  Getting my house ready to sell, and phone interviews almost everyday last week are getting a little tiring.  I am tired.

The house market here isn't great, so all the work I have put into fixing the house up won't be coming back to me.  The market being the way it is there is no guarantees prices won't dip, so I am cutting my losses and hoping I get some of my down payment back.

I glance at house prices in Seattle - good god.  I am not going to even think about that for a while.  It looks like I will be able to rent a decent house at less than my current mortgage, so I should be good to go.

I have some interesting interviews coming up, still hoping to hear from a couple of Microsoft positions that really interested me.  Will let you all know if I will be flying up any time soon.

Wish me luck on the house sell - it should be ready to go on the market this Tuesday.

We got between 6-8 inches of snow last night.  I think they must have stored some of the snow plows for the summer because the roads were just a mess.  On my way to work I passed a vehicle that had slide off the road, down a short hill, and had flipped upside down into a large ditch.  Two more accidents had occured before I reached my destination.

The last month has been crazy.  Sick for over 2 weeks (only out of work for one, though it should have been 2), then recovering work, then my dog got super sick - spent evening in dog hospital, then left on my long road trip.  Sheesh.

So here I am in Sedona - Bubbles and Waysofseeing would absolutely love this town if they haven't been here already.  Sadie is with me, and we made a stop in Zion's, Best Friend's rescue society, then spent a restless night on our first camp out together.  She is usually so at home in the mountains I thought it was strange, but this morning found out there are a lot of coyotes around which probably had her on edge.

I am grabbing breakfast, and an internet break, then will be off to a local dog park, then doing some 4-wheeling in my jeep on some cool local trails.

Tuesday-Friday morn I will be at a conference for work down in Yuma.  There is a huge wildlife preserve I am hoping I can take Sadie to while we are there.

OH- and I had my first cello lesson before I left.  WOW.  Better than expectations, and my expectations were high.  This is going to be amazing.

My mom is friends with a woman that is in the Utah Symphony, teaches at the UofU, is involved in chamber music, and conducts a youth orchestra.   Due to this connection I have been attending some great free concerts, tonight was the UofU staff recital.  Got to hear a cymbala from Hungaria played - way cool, and a Dvorak quintent (with bass, not piano) which was incredible.  Dvorak wrote some of my favorite chamber music.

Afterwards I went back stage to see my cello teacher from College - who I hadn't seen in 14 years and he remembered my name (which I thought was way cool).  I asked if he was teaching, and he very animatedly told me he was.  I told him I was really rusty, but he replied I was always welcome as a student.  This was a HUGE compliment as he is definitively the best cello teacher in the valley.

Got his number and will probably start lessons in about a month after I have some time to get practicing regularly.  Betwen this and the concert I feel very inspired.

SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!

So I got on a big cleaning/rearranging spurt with my house over the past couple of weeks.  Great way to get over the ending of a relationship.  Getting the house ready to start inviting some people over for meditations.  

I spent a lot of time looking around the area without finding anything similar to what I used to do in Seattle.  I did find a fellow Osho Sannyasin a while ago that has traveled all over and has a lot of experience with meditating.  She is excited to be involved.  Here is the site: http://premsammasati.com - very simple for now.

Have been spending a lot of time on my piano.  Discovered in last therapy appt. that it helps me feel grounded, which is something I am working on currently.  So happy to have it in my life.

I had a dream last night in which I saw several people in Seattle.  It was wonderful, and a reminder that I miss my dear friends there.  Life without Kris is good, Sadie and I are adjusting well.  I have picked up where I left off before we started dating, and am really enjoying life again.

Poor Sadie will losing her dearest friend Whitney, and me a wonderful sister, as Kimmi and her husband will be moving to Colorado in May.  He was offered an incredible job - lots of mula - and they have been wanting to move a way for a while.  They will be going to the Grand Junction area which will only be about a 4 hour drive away.

After Spoo's post on Rush, Kimmi, her hubby and I bought tickets for their concert at the Red Rocks amphitheatre.  It is nestled in some incredible rock formations, and we got seats in row 30 right in the middle.  VERY excited to see them as they are the best band I have seen live, and I feel so inspired afterwards.

During my first year at MS a mentor I highly respected told me I was incapable of coding and I should never have a job doing it.  This comment has tainted my career for the past 10 years, the back of my brain cataloging incidents as proof of this statement.

Needless to say, this was not a true statement.  It was only recently that I was able to pinpoint when my anxiety around coding began.

Me being me, I have decided it is time to put an end to this falacy.  In my current job I have a new, wonderful mentor with a lot of coding and leading dev projects experience.  Yesterday we sat down to start designing an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Application with an SQL backend.  I took a page of notes on best practices around designing a Database.  I spent almost 2 hours reading a book before going to bed about Design Patterns in object oriented coding - BECAUSE I WANTED TO!

This is a major turning point for me, and I am so excited to have taken a big step forward. 

You may have already seen this - I enjoyed it: http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&fg=rss&vid=27db94c9-4892-4059-8688-f4afd3c4b64a&from=im_default.  Amazed at who he got to appear in it.

Attended the Utah symphony Saturday evening - it was incredible.  I had forgotten what fine musicians they have been able to recruit.  It was fun to see two past teachers of mine, my orchestra director from high school, and my high school rival cellist on stage.  My mom also has a dear friend in the symphony whose husband is also in it whom I have spent time with.

The following music was played:
György Ligeti Concert Romanesque
Aram Khachaturian Concerto for Violin
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 7 in D minor Op. 70
Full Program 

The Ligeti piece was incredible - more of a modern peice, the rythm was frightening.  I honestly don't know if I could have played some of it, at least not without A LOT of practice.

Karen Gomyo is a 28 year old violinist, and the Khachaturian is one of the hardest peices in the violin repetoir.  She had some interesting interpretations to it, and was amazingly well played.  The sad part was she was so stiff and jerky with her body - I could not watch her during her performance.  I am amazed someone at her level of playing has not corrected this.



Dvorak is always incredible, and the orchestra did a beautiful job of it.

I don't remember the last time I made resolutions - but this year is unique in so many ways.   

Here are some heartfelt desires in no particular order:
- Pass SharePoint certification exam by end of January.
Health
- Climb Mt. Olympus - the one in SLC
- Use my gym membership - at least during the winter
Arts
- Attend Saturday life drawing classes as much as possible.
- Complete an oil painting
- Get better at Piano playing - find a piece I want to be able to play by end of year
- Play music with others
Finance
- Eat at home more often - make 2 dinners a week
- Budget my money more carefully - set and meet a realistic goal
Self
- Meditate
- Be Authentic, more aware, more in the NOW
- Be aware in my relationship with Kris, own my junk, appreciate the new, heal and drop my past
- Know my worth