Gung Hay Fat Choy - Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year that is! According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, it is 4706 this year. Totally blows the mind that Chinese civilization is over 4700 years old. I am a rabbit, so not my year yet. It is nice to be able to get a second chance at a new year. I am going to make my new resolutions again:

1. To lose weight.
2. To adopt a healthier lifestyle.
3. To not over extend myself at work.
4. To spend less.

I know talk is cheap, but I am really going to try harder. I am also inspired because I paid off another credit card debt - totally awesome. I didn't think I would be able to pull it off. Slowly, but surely I am taking control of my finances and managing a bit better.

My writing diet is really helping my inner soul, but I haven't seen the weight come off yet. I am trying to exercise more and will be checking out a local gym tomorrow. I had to give up yoga because my schedule just sucks and the traffic to get to the yoga spa sucks. I am trying to find a closer yoga class, but it is really super expensive at the one closest to me, so I am going to keep looking. I love yoga and recommend that everyone try Bikram Yoga (hot yoga). It is super hot, but it feels great! Yoga is good for calming the soul as well. Absolutely loved it! Just can't seem to make it work with the schedule. I hate the fact the studio is kind of small and when I get to class, there are no spaces left and I feel crunched in. So not the ideal workout space for me. I really want to take swimming lessons, but haven't been able to find a facility that offers reasonably priced and convenient schedules for lessons. I know I keep complaining and making excuses, so I am going to check out a local gym tomorrow - end of story. I have started roller skating, even though the weather hasn't been too cooperative lately. I want to skate some more, but the sidewalk and streets aren't ideal for skating. I am going to try skating at the park. Wish me luck, so I don't crash and break all my bones ;-)

My calorie counting has been going well though. I find that I am definitely more conscious of what I eat because I have to record it in my food log, so I feel guilty eating something I shouldn't. Although, yesterday I cheated alot ={ It was New Year's Eve dinner, an extremely important dinner, so I kind of went a little overboard, but I didn't really eat all day because I knew I was going to really eat at dinner. I clocked a total of 280 calories before I ate dinner, so I didn't do too bad overal. I made it a point to stay away from most of the carbs and limited myself to a scoop of fried rice. Oh, the temptation! The New Year is all about fresh starts, and I am going to take one!

I am going to turn in. It has been a long week. Enjoy your weekend! Happy New Year! May the New Year bring you Happiness, Health and Prosperity!

Time Flies!

I know I am a bad blogger. Friends and family have sent their love and support because of my blog, and I haven't blogged in over a week. Sorry about that. I have been super busy with work. The week I started my blog was Regents (NYS exams), and I was in charge of coordinating the schedule for the test, executing the schedule and grading the Global History exams, so I had to put in really long hours - 13 hour days to be exact, so my overtime is going to be monstrous. After the calm of the exams, I had to meet the Fund for Teachers deadline this past Thursday. Funds for Teachers provides grant me to teachers who are interested in doing some professional development of their own design, so I submitted a proposal to do a study tour of the Silk Road this summer. The proposal took me forever, not to mention I had social engagements with my friends this week, so that cut into my proposal time. Cross your fingers, I really hope I get funding for my proposal :P

My friends, my sister and I went to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway this week. I bought the tickets as a Christmas present for them and we went together. It was really alot of fun! Cris, Vanessa and I went for dinner at Churrascuria Plataforma, a Brazilian Rodizio. It was too much food, but we had fun! Cris was really sweet and paid for dinner, and then off to the show. I am not really a big Mel Brooks fan, nor have I ever seen the movie, but it was cute. I liked it better than The Producers and Spamalot. The actor who played Young Frankenstein was the guy who played George the pharmacist on Desperate Houswives. Megan Mulhally was also in it - she was so funny! All in all it was a fun evening for everyone!

I am excited about this week because this will be my first attempt at teaching a drama class. Me teaching drama, who would have thought =P It is going to be so much fun, I hope so anyway. I signed up to bring the Stage Doors program into my school. Stage Doors provides free Broadway theatre tickets to our students and sends in a teaching artist to teach some of the drama classes. I am really excited because it is the 11th and 12th graders, and the program will go better because they are more proficient with their English speaking skills and they are excited about having a drama class. Half the battle is engaging the kids, so it is great that they are so excited about the class! We will be seeing "Passing Strange" this term - all about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, what more could a teenager want! This program was a huge success the first term, with the "Color Purple," so hopefullly, our second term will be a bigger success. Our teaching artist, JoAnna is great with the kids and she is coming back to work with us too, so it is going to be really fun!

As a prep for teaching my drama class this term, Stage Doors required that we see the movie "The Great Debaters." OMG, what an awesome movie! If you haven't seen the movie yet, get off your butt and go see it. The movie is produced by Oprah and stars Oscar winners Denzel Washington (so sweet on the eyes) and Forest Whitaker. It is so good! I won't give you too much information, but it is about a debate team at a small Black, Texas college in the 1930s. The team goes through many trials and tribulations to become a winning debate team, and be able to compete against some white colleges, the finale being Harvard. The movie is so inspirational and moving, everyone should definitely go see it! If it is still playing, I will be taking me drama class to see it. It has so many great life lessons to share with everyone. My new motto for my classroom comes from this movie - "Do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do." I had my students reflect on that quote as an assignment, and it went over really well, so hopefully, it will motivate them to finish the year strong.

Shout out to Gayle for being so supportive of me! Love you, Gayle! Thank you so much for your support!

Enjoy!

Are you True Blue?

Are you True Blue? I am totally true blue - a true blue New York Rangers fan! Tonight was a very special night for Rangers fans around the world! The Great Brian Leetch, the Rangers best defenseman ever, had his #2 retired and his jersey lifted up to the Garden rafters to hang beside Mark Messier #11 (I love him!), Mike Richter #35, Rod Gilbert #7 and Eddie Giacommin #1!!!!! Even though I couldn't be there (darn tickets were sold out), I could feel the electricity sizzling at MSG through the TV. The ceremony was quite touching - Brian dedicated the ceremony to his best friend, a broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, who died on 9/11. The NY Rangers organization and Garden Faithful honored him and presented him with a custom-made Harley Davidson, so beautiful and shiny new ;) I soooooooooo wish I was there - boo hoo. I am such a die-hard fan that I love to see my favorite Rangers players, especially Mark Messier and Adam Graves. OOOOOOOOh, speaking of Adam Graves - his #9 will be retired next year! I am so going to have to get tickets as soon as they go on sale because I HAVE to be there. I missed Messier and Leetch, I am not going to miss "Gravy"! He is such a sweetheart and his retirement is well deserved. I remember meeting Gravy at a charity signing. He had organized an autograph signing to raise money for a terminally ill child on Long Island. I went to the hotel where the event was supposed to take place, and ended up waiting until 2:30 in the morning to meet him. The team's flight was delayed and rather than cancelling, he came late that night and stayed until the wee morning hours to sign everyone's items. When my turn came, he just kept apologizing profusely and was so sweet! I even got to take a picture with him - so cool!!! His retirement is well deserved because he is not only a great player, but a great guy! The cherry on top of this awesome night was the Rangers pulling out a win in a shootout 2-1! Brendan Shanahan scored the only goal in the shootout. Go Shanny! As the excitement starts to fade, I am starting to fade into exhaustion - from work and for overworking myself watching the game.

Before I turn in, I wanted to thank everyone for your awesome comments! Thanks for all your support and love! I hope I didn't bore you to death! Hugs and Kisses!

Welcome to Joie de Vivre!

Hi, everyone! I am so excited to be launching my new blog! Welcome to Joie de Vivre! Thank you so much for joining me on this unique journey of reflection and inspiration. Joie de Vivre is inspired by love of Paris, the City of Love ;) and my desire to create a healthier lifestyle for myself. I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a while. I have been stalking a few blogs and found it quite interesting to be so engaged and inspired by other people's lives, no matter how ordinary or extraordinary their happenings may be. I tend to stalk scrapbooking blogs, so I can learn new techniques and look at some of the beautiful work these talented scrappers were creating - such awesome stuff :) I have kind of run into a scrapper's block and haven't had the creative juices flowing in a while. I thought starting a blog would help jump start my creative flow again. I also wanted to work on my journaling. Journaling is my weak point in my scrapbooking and in life. I want to be more creative and descriptive with my writing, so I thought the blog would be perfect to help me improve my writing. I can practice my writing on a daily basis (hopefully) and apply my new and improved skills to my scrapbooking.

I am also using this blog as a way to change my life. I have been trying to lose weight for many years, and have found it extremely difficult to maintain the weight loss. I have tried every diet under the sun without success, and am hoping my latest attempt will be my most successful and sustainable. Another inspiration for my blog was Julia Cameron's book, The Writing Diet. Julia is a writing teacher, that teaches writing techniques that help to unblock your creativity. She believes all people are creative, but life keeps getting in the way of that creativity. She teaches that writing can keep life in check and restore one's creativity. Writing can be a way for you to vent, so all your emotions are not bottled up (very therapeutic) and positive energy can keep flowing, or it can be a positive form of creative expression - maybe you are a closet poet. I know I sound like I am preaching and trying to sell a product, but I am not. I will be the first to tell you, I absolutely HATE, HATE, HATE any form of writing! I hate it! But I have been doing this Writing Diet for two weeks, and my creativity has been recharged! I want to scrapbook now, and have completed a really cool mini-album, which I will post at a later date. So what is the diet? Interesting . . . She says you can write the pounds off. She says that many of her students, who started her workshops a little on the heavy side, shed pounds throughout the course of the workshop. Writing helped them to control and cope with their lives, so that they didn't turn to food as a coping mechanism. It sounds logical because most people are emotional eaters, which is why the weight keeps piling on. The whole premise is to grab your journal and write about your life or eating habits, so you will forget about the food and not eat, eat, eat. She also has you keep a food journal, so you can examine your eating habits. Like I said, it makes sense, but will it work? I don't know yet. It has only been two weeks. I have been doing a lot better with my eating habits because of my writing. I am accountable to my writing and feel so guilty when I have to write down food that I know I shouldn't be eating. I also feel like I am in better control of my eating with the journal. No weight loss yet, but will keep trying. With a new exercise regiment, and my journal in hand, I am going to make my Writing Diet work. Writing in my journal everyday, has really unblocked my creativity and has paved the way for a healthier me. I hope blogging will be able to provide added support throughout my weight loss journey. This blog is an extension of my writing and journaling, and just me! Boring old me! I wonder who is actually reading this ;)

Thank you for taking the time to read through my ramblings! If you have a second, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think about my blog or ramblings.