I love Sundays... It's the only time of the week I get to truly relax. Things are going very well here. At the end of the month, Bryan will be beginning the first initial production of the glasswork that he wants to market in many places throughout Albuquerque and hopefully, eventually, Napa. It's exciting! I hope things go well... Meanwhile, I'm staring at a dirty floor that needs to be vacuumed... but I can't seem to get up the willpower to let go of my relaxation time to tend to it yet. :) Besides, how can you rest when there are baby blankets to be knitted for brand new parents next door?? I'm almost done knitting a beautiful baby blanket for our neighbors Janelle and Zack, who have a newborn girl named Isabelle. She's so precious. :) I've been working on the blanket for about two months now. It's a surprise! I'll upload a picture on here when I am all done with it. I didn't mention that before... I am a very addicted knitter! The more challenging the better! I can't seem to ever put it down.
July has gone very well so far. It has been less tight than months before it. Bryan and I have had fights but miraculously they've only served to bring us ever closer in the end. I guess that's the mark of a good relationship. They say that the first year living together is always the very hardest. Well, Bryan and I have been together for about nine months now, and I can absolutely vouch for that! I've thought we would break up so many times... But we're only happier and stronger now than we have ever been before.
Oh, oh!! And guess what!! Zack and Janelle told us about this free program where if you are a first-time home buyer and fall below a certain income bracket, you can take this free class on finances, and they'll give you 18 months to save up $1000, and if you each save up $1000, then they will match both of you $4000!! That means we would have $10,000 to put down on a home in Napa! :) So we're thinking of just staying in an apartment here and saving up for Napa right away. Things are looking good, and with the economy the way it is, home prices are dropping every day out there!
Well, it's back to relaxing and knitting now. I'll talk to you later!
~Trudy~
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Hello and welcome!
Thanks for stumbling onto my blog! My name is Trudy and this is my very first post here. I thought I would start this blog because ever since I graduated college two years ago, I have decided to go wherever my heart might lead me. So far it has been a wildly unpredictable and priceless experience, and I have learned so much that my life is now completely unrecognizable from where I was two years ago.
Growing up, I always thought I would graduate from college, get married and start having children right away, and enjoy being a stay-at-home Mom or working part-time. I was actually set up to have that exact life two years ago. I had just graduated from college with a vocal music education degree, and was two months away from marrying Jim, a computer programmer who has been an amazing friend of mine for twelve years now. We had been together for five years at that time. But shortly before the wedding we realized that we had been growing apart for awhile and felt it best that we break off the wedding. I had grown up Catholic and Jim's family is very Christian. I had been exploring many things for the past three years, and had realized that I was no longer either of these. I am a very deeply spiritual person but absolutely not religious. To Jim, it was very important for him to have someone share his religion with him. There were some other minor things as well, but the point is, it was better for us to end our relationship. Today we are still great friends, so that's wonderful.
Over that following year, I became self-employed as a private voice and piano teacher working out of a studio and gradually got myself off the ground and into a rented townhouse! This was a big deal because I had always thought I would never be able to support myself as a woman. I also began exploring the world of alternative healing and had hundreds of incredible experiences in the process. I started that year by training and practicing in different types of energy healing, and found out that I very much wanted to study both physical and energetic forms of alternative/natural healing professionally. I had seen way too much over my twelve months of practice to leave it behind! I had become very passionate about it.
About this time, I was dating a guy named Aaron from Indiana, "right next door" to my home in Illinois, who was studying the same things that I was. He suddenly got a job opportunity in Arizona, and we were planning on moving out there together. I couldn't explain my sudden desperate need to be in the West, but it was strong... Aaron and I actually broke up a couple months before I was to join him down there, and after the disappointment passed I was very frustrated to think that I could now never move West.
Luckily, I knocked my own senses into myself! :) If I could support myself when I thought I'd never be able to, I could move across the country on my own! Now that I was on my own again, I thought to myself about what I wanted most of all. It only took about a minute to decide that I wanted to step into my professional studies of natural healing. I called an acquaintance of mine who had recently moved West someplace to go to massage school to ask for advice. She told me all about her school in Albuquerque, which was WAY more than a massage school! I discovered that her school taught all the methodologies I had ever been curious about and more! From massage, reflexology, Shiatsu, acupressure, herbal medicine and living foods... to polarity, cranio-sacral, radionics, and the amazing new method called Core Synchronism. And that's only the beginning!
So where am I right now?? I am in quirky and wonderful Albuquerque, New Mexico studying at the internationally esteemed New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics!! I am almost done with my initial studies there! I will graduate in October with a license in massage therapy and a diploma as a Natural Therapeutics Specialist. Then I will begin to take their advanced classes and workshops that they offer in many different subjects. My biggest attraction is to Core Synchronism, which has changed the lives of many, from those with chronic pain or emotional imbalance, to those with learning disabilities, autism, MS, seizures and everything in between!
I have also built my entire self-employed business from the ground up again since I arrived here, so I am also teaching private voice and piano lessons to support myself. I have a wonderful studio at a very social, community-oriented piano store.
Now don't think that everything has been roses since I moved here. Far from it!!! I've had to change my entire concept of who I am, and redefine my values, wants and needs over and over again. Enter Bryan.... :)
So where does this eccentric boyfriend come in? Well, I met him online by accident before even coming out here! While looking for an Albuquerque apartment on Craigslist from my home in Illinois, I got bored one night and wandered onto the Albuquerque personals. I wasn't expecting to answer anyone, I was just reading for fun. Then I read these three posts that were all different but all sounded like my kind of people. There were no names on them. I answered all three of them casually and got an e-mail back the following day from a guy named Bryan. He said he thought he'd better answer my e-mail because he had put three posts on Craigslist and I had replied to all three!! :) It was the same guy! It was hysterical...
The rest is pretty much history. Bryan and I have been living together in my apartment for about nine months now, and with all of this crazy change happening to me at one time, it has been the most challenging, difficult, crazy and wonderful experience of my life! Bryan is the antithesis of everything I grew up around, to put it lightly. Despite the seemingly enormous differences between us though, we complement each other extremely well and are planning on getting married and buying a house in Tijeras soon, just outside of Albuquerque. Our long-term goal is to move back to the town Bryan came from: Napa Valley! We think that it could be done in under five years if we live ten minutes outside Napa Valley where homes are cheaper. Talk about living THE LIFE!! Bryan is a professional artist and I will be a musician, music teacher, and massage therapist! What better place could we possibly choose to make a living?? Napa Valley is Paradise. At the moment Bryan's business is just beginning, and I am still a part-time student. In other words, we're basically broke. BUT.... we have great plans for our businesses and we are both very passionate and ambitious people.
So, want to follow us on our crazy up and down ride from Penniless in Albuquerque to Lovin' Life in Napa Valley?? :) To me, Napa Valley is not a destination. I'm not concerned with destinations. I don't believe they exist anymore. It's all a part of the journey, and that is what is so amazing and exciting and rewarding in the first place. That is only one of the many, many lessons that both New Mexico and Bryan have helped to teach me this year. One of the other lessons I have learned recently and continue to learn every day is that money is not the God that we make it out to be. I thank Bryan and Bryan only for this very powerful lesson along with many others... and we are only just beginning on this amazing journey. It's not the journey from Illinois to Albuquerque or from Albuquerque to Napa. It's the journey of Life. :) When you take charge of it and let go of fear and social norms to explore all that it could truly be, instead of letting it take charge of you and just coasting along, .... it's one wild and crazy and unforgettable ride!!
This is only the beginning, and there is no end.
~Trudy~
Growing up, I always thought I would graduate from college, get married and start having children right away, and enjoy being a stay-at-home Mom or working part-time. I was actually set up to have that exact life two years ago. I had just graduated from college with a vocal music education degree, and was two months away from marrying Jim, a computer programmer who has been an amazing friend of mine for twelve years now. We had been together for five years at that time. But shortly before the wedding we realized that we had been growing apart for awhile and felt it best that we break off the wedding. I had grown up Catholic and Jim's family is very Christian. I had been exploring many things for the past three years, and had realized that I was no longer either of these. I am a very deeply spiritual person but absolutely not religious. To Jim, it was very important for him to have someone share his religion with him. There were some other minor things as well, but the point is, it was better for us to end our relationship. Today we are still great friends, so that's wonderful.
Over that following year, I became self-employed as a private voice and piano teacher working out of a studio and gradually got myself off the ground and into a rented townhouse! This was a big deal because I had always thought I would never be able to support myself as a woman. I also began exploring the world of alternative healing and had hundreds of incredible experiences in the process. I started that year by training and practicing in different types of energy healing, and found out that I very much wanted to study both physical and energetic forms of alternative/natural healing professionally. I had seen way too much over my twelve months of practice to leave it behind! I had become very passionate about it.
About this time, I was dating a guy named Aaron from Indiana, "right next door" to my home in Illinois, who was studying the same things that I was. He suddenly got a job opportunity in Arizona, and we were planning on moving out there together. I couldn't explain my sudden desperate need to be in the West, but it was strong... Aaron and I actually broke up a couple months before I was to join him down there, and after the disappointment passed I was very frustrated to think that I could now never move West.
Luckily, I knocked my own senses into myself! :) If I could support myself when I thought I'd never be able to, I could move across the country on my own! Now that I was on my own again, I thought to myself about what I wanted most of all. It only took about a minute to decide that I wanted to step into my professional studies of natural healing. I called an acquaintance of mine who had recently moved West someplace to go to massage school to ask for advice. She told me all about her school in Albuquerque, which was WAY more than a massage school! I discovered that her school taught all the methodologies I had ever been curious about and more! From massage, reflexology, Shiatsu, acupressure, herbal medicine and living foods... to polarity, cranio-sacral, radionics, and the amazing new method called Core Synchronism. And that's only the beginning!
So where am I right now?? I am in quirky and wonderful Albuquerque, New Mexico studying at the internationally esteemed New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics!! I am almost done with my initial studies there! I will graduate in October with a license in massage therapy and a diploma as a Natural Therapeutics Specialist. Then I will begin to take their advanced classes and workshops that they offer in many different subjects. My biggest attraction is to Core Synchronism, which has changed the lives of many, from those with chronic pain or emotional imbalance, to those with learning disabilities, autism, MS, seizures and everything in between!
I have also built my entire self-employed business from the ground up again since I arrived here, so I am also teaching private voice and piano lessons to support myself. I have a wonderful studio at a very social, community-oriented piano store.
Now don't think that everything has been roses since I moved here. Far from it!!! I've had to change my entire concept of who I am, and redefine my values, wants and needs over and over again. Enter Bryan.... :)
So where does this eccentric boyfriend come in? Well, I met him online by accident before even coming out here! While looking for an Albuquerque apartment on Craigslist from my home in Illinois, I got bored one night and wandered onto the Albuquerque personals. I wasn't expecting to answer anyone, I was just reading for fun. Then I read these three posts that were all different but all sounded like my kind of people. There were no names on them. I answered all three of them casually and got an e-mail back the following day from a guy named Bryan. He said he thought he'd better answer my e-mail because he had put three posts on Craigslist and I had replied to all three!! :) It was the same guy! It was hysterical...
The rest is pretty much history. Bryan and I have been living together in my apartment for about nine months now, and with all of this crazy change happening to me at one time, it has been the most challenging, difficult, crazy and wonderful experience of my life! Bryan is the antithesis of everything I grew up around, to put it lightly. Despite the seemingly enormous differences between us though, we complement each other extremely well and are planning on getting married and buying a house in Tijeras soon, just outside of Albuquerque. Our long-term goal is to move back to the town Bryan came from: Napa Valley! We think that it could be done in under five years if we live ten minutes outside Napa Valley where homes are cheaper. Talk about living THE LIFE!! Bryan is a professional artist and I will be a musician, music teacher, and massage therapist! What better place could we possibly choose to make a living?? Napa Valley is Paradise. At the moment Bryan's business is just beginning, and I am still a part-time student. In other words, we're basically broke. BUT.... we have great plans for our businesses and we are both very passionate and ambitious people.
So, want to follow us on our crazy up and down ride from Penniless in Albuquerque to Lovin' Life in Napa Valley?? :) To me, Napa Valley is not a destination. I'm not concerned with destinations. I don't believe they exist anymore. It's all a part of the journey, and that is what is so amazing and exciting and rewarding in the first place. That is only one of the many, many lessons that both New Mexico and Bryan have helped to teach me this year. One of the other lessons I have learned recently and continue to learn every day is that money is not the God that we make it out to be. I thank Bryan and Bryan only for this very powerful lesson along with many others... and we are only just beginning on this amazing journey. It's not the journey from Illinois to Albuquerque or from Albuquerque to Napa. It's the journey of Life. :) When you take charge of it and let go of fear and social norms to explore all that it could truly be, instead of letting it take charge of you and just coasting along, .... it's one wild and crazy and unforgettable ride!!
This is only the beginning, and there is no end.
~Trudy~
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