Snake skin

   This year has been filled with so many changes I don't even know where to start! I feel like a snake that was long overdue for a decent skin-shedding so now I'm shedding about 20 layers of skin at once and boy does it itch! But really, that's the best way I can describe this feeling inside of me. I itch.

   I think you all know by now, but I left my job at Pizza Pipeline after 6 years in the company. I had thought that I still had 1-2 years left there, but an amazing job opportunity just fell into my lap and I couldn't pass it up. In July I accepted a job working as a Passenger Service Agent for Horizon Air at the Spokane Airport. Right now I am not scheduled for very many hours but my supervisors have all told me it is very easy to pick up shifts. So it will be hard not knowing for sure my schedule or hours every day for a while but I have made the necessary adjustements to my budget to accomodate this time in my life until I can move up in the company.

   I am displeased because my phone has decided I don't need to take pictures anymore. I really want my contract to end with Sprint, so I am not getting a new phone. That means no pictures for a while. :( If I had a working camera phone I would post a (weird) picture of my fingernails. Because for the first time, they exist! After 10+ years of nail-biting and 6 years of working in food service I decided I just didn't have the capability of growing a decent nail, and I was fine with that. It was at the end of my week I spent at CSA101 training in Seattle that I first noticed my fingernails were actually growing. What! And now, 3 weeks down the road, I have real, honest to god, long(ish) nails. It's really weird typing with them. I haven't decided if they are going to stay yet, but for now they are a novelty and I am obsessed with them. I don't know what cured me of my nail-biting but apparently I just don't do that anymore. Which is just fine with me, way fewer gross fingers in my mouth this way. ;)

   Another thing that I do now is my hair and makeup every day. Every. Day. I used to not care, because I was going to wear a hat all day at work so why bother with the hair and all my makeup was sweated off by noon at the latest (thank-you 500 degree oven!). But now, my makeup lasts all day! My hair stays in place, and lets face it, passengers like it when their agent looks good.

   On that subject, I freaking LOVE my new job! Everyone is soooo nice, friendly, and helpful. Even the customers are great. I have gotten so many compliments on my customer service and smile, (from passengers) I can hardly believe people are really this nice! It's nice to be around people who appreciate me and take the time to tell me so. WAY different from working in the food service industry. Oh boy is it different.

   In my personal life I've been making a lot of changes too. That's where most of the "itchiness" comes in. I feel like I've made so many adjustments already but still the itch persists so I know there are more changes to come!

   I decided a few weeks ago to quit drinking for an undetermined amount of time. This decision came about in part because I need to tighten up my budget for a while until I get more hours at the airport, and in part because I really haven't been drinking that much these days so when I do I feel it's a waste of time and money anyways. I have a lot better things I could be doing with that money every month like paying rent, or making a car payment, right? It's been hard making the decision to quit, even if it is just temporarily though. With my friends, drinking is a social thing, which is fine! It just makes it hard to hang out the same way when I'm the only completely sober person in the room, but I am trying to still hang out and participate in the same activities regardless. A third reason I'm not drinking is because of the years I spent drinking while in a negative mood. My body became programmed that way to think that when I was drinking, something was upsetting me, and something usually was. I have washed my hands of those negative ways now, but still my subconcious has not figured out completely how to drink happily so I really want to take some time to reprogram myself in that aspect.

   I am so happy right now. So this is what happiness feels like! About 2 years ago I was so burnt out on everything in life. I was sick of the dating game, I was sick of my job, I was sick of Spokane, I was sick of almost everyone in my life. I was miserable and didn't know what to do. I had acquired several thousand dollars worth of REALLY stupid debt so I felt like I was stuck with no way out. It was then that I started making positive changes in my life, and although it has taken a few years, I am proud to say I am now bad debt free and am living my life extremely positively and I refuse to sink back into that negative thinking. Turns out, you can change your life just by changing your thinking because by changing your thinking you almost unconciously change your actions! Last Thanksgiving I was visiting my brother Joel in Houston and we had a really nice long talk in the car my last night there. All my plans for changing my life were then in the baby stages of action and I told him my life was going to be different the next time I saw him. Well, I'm planning on going to Houston here in about 2-3 weeks, and I didn't lie! (I'm actually ahead of schedule too, it's only been 10 months, it didn't even take the whole year!)

   I don't know what layer of skin I will be shedding next, but so far all the layers I've lost have made me a better person, so I am no longer afraid of what the future holds. In fact, I am SO excited for the future now. Onwards and upwards :)