Life after the move: it's not so scary anymore. Challenging myboundaries. Nerd fitness is awesome!

Because of the move and due to following a new awesome site for fitness and life (Nerd Fitness), I've been focusing on slowly stepping past my normally restrictive and fairly tight safe zone and learning to be a more awesome me.

I've been way, way behind on blogging, though as I've mentioned previously - I just moved to a new place with the Bf (sh*ts been super hectic, stressful, etc). Have not had a lot of time to read others' blogs and update my own. BUT, now thats it's our second full week here and we have finally unpacked the majority of the boxes, set up the house to look like a real home, and had people over, it is all really coming together great!

Sunday was what really had us rushing to set things up because we had Bf's family over to check out our new place and in the morning things looked pretty unimpressive. That lit a fire under our butts and so we were able to scramble around and make the house look pretty impressive. Reminds me of school deadlines - kinda like that night before last minute pressure.

Anyhoo, I think I might have mentioned how gloomy I was feeling when we first moved in. I'm generally not so swell at new changes and big transitions. But time heals most things or at least makes them more tolerable. After the initial shock wore off the ice started to thaw and I think this weekend did a lot to boost the awesomeness of where we now live and all the benefits.

Basically, the reasons behind the move included the facts that our lease was up, that Bf was doing a horrendous commute to and from work (Pomona to Sherman Oaks - can be up to 2 hours in traffic), and that we wanted to live closer to friends (namely wifey and her bf). Another thing is that living where we do now near Pasadena allows for easier access to Los Angeles where there's a bigger job market (tho probably more competitive), so this let's me be more flexible and cast a larger net.

Perks of our new place were very largely apparent from what an awesome weekend we had. We went from a nice apartment that was kinda far off and super inland (inconvenient place for work) to a nice town house in a quiet area with tons of things around that are walking distance and that is right down the street from downtown Pasadena and fairly close access to LA so we can get to more fun stuff without having to actually live too close. Our new area is perfect for walking the dogs around. I've seen people take their kids for walks around here too. There's a whole bunch of schools and churches around here. The old place wasn't as horrendous as we thought after a few walks around, but it was definitely more sketchy and is nothing compared to our quaint new neighborhood. The dogs have really benefitted from walks, and so have I.

I have to admit that I can be a quasi agoraphobe and be pretty resistant to moving far out of my shell (zodiac sign is Cancer Crab if that tells you anything...). In general I've benefitted from the exposure of new sights, sounds, and people. Combined with the trials of interview stuff that I've been doing, I'm becoming more and more convinced that there's nothing wrong with being myself. That sounds somewhat odd, but in general I've always thought that it was more prudent to clam up and cautiously wait a long, long time until I knew it was absolutely safe to be me. As an introvert, like I mentioned in my post Introverts Unite!, I dislike small talk and much prefer to jump into talking for "real". I think I'm still trying to find the line between not being too brash or quick (so as to not scare ppl off) and waiting eons to really get down to things.

I mean, the fastest way to bond is to find relatable topics and learn bout one another (I think?). Wifey and I are actually on a quest to make more female friends with seems somewhat challenging and complex, more on that to come in my next post for sure! Making female friends is totally a topic that needs to be discussed in depth in its own space.

Amazing what good sleep can do for one's mood. Yesterday I was feeling so down in the dumps because I didn't sleep well. So the whole day was kinda ick and I was very eeyore-ish. Today, I'm back to feeling hopeful, raring to go, and optimistic about the move, life, and the future ahead.

I'm learning that challenging your boundaries even in very small ways can do a whole world of good. Practice makes perfect and even making tiny goals to step outside your comfort zone will do a lot to help move towards any goals you might have for yourself. Therefore just trying to say "hi" to new people and smiling or making eye contact with strangers makes me feel a lot more empowered than simply keeping my head down and always hiding/avoiding.

I am really, really inspired by nerdfitness.com (hooked on), which I stumbled upon while looking up health and ways to improve upon my current physical state. The web site is oriented to nerds or merely people who enjoy video games, geeky stuff, lord of the rings/star wars, or quasi awkward-feeling ppl like me. I'm not totally, but the site really pinpoints relatable things like fears in life and being scared to change things to reach your dreams. There are a TON of inspiring articles about making changes and moving toward awesomeness one step at a time. Go check it out for fitness or merely for improving your life if you're a little shy and awkward like me.

Also, I think I'm going to change around this blog and simplify it a lot more. When I first started this I think I had a lot of grand ideas about including a ton of different areas like video games, cooking, beauty, etc. And while those all do pop up in my posts to different extents, I'm going to stick with just blogging about life, things that happen, and all that. I need to simplify, organize, and allow things to be more organic!