My “Now List” is on my website to help me be more accountable about things I want to accomplish. The list is a compilation of professional and personal goals. The “Now” list was inspired by a speaker from WordCamp Portland last year Sarah Pressler and I think it has been helpful.
Looking for my next lily pad of my career path a.k.a “The Job Hunt”
I have had this on my Now list since I created this website back in November. I have been working on finding a job since September researching job openings, revising my resume, applying for jobs, and have had a couple of interviews. I have not landed a job yet but I am still hopeful. Now that the holidays have come and gone the job hunt is at the top of the priority list.
Blogging and creating content twice a week on this website
This has been a challenge. I started off with the lofty goal of blogging every day. I decided that blogging every day was setting myself up for failure and have recently changed this to twice a week. I am on a roll this week, I published a blog post about the Pacific Northwest weather yesterday and today I am working on this post! Only time will tell but I think twice a week is a good goal to have.
I recently signed up for a Blogging 101 course through WordPress.com to help with blogging. It’s my first official course I have taken for blogging.
Creating a travel and food blog
The travel and food blog has not been created yet but keep an eye out for it. It’s coming soon!
Creating a cooking blog
The cooking blog is always on my mind but I am not quite ready to get it started yet. Stay tuned!
Exploring Portland
I have been doing a lot of exploring around town. We are literally a 10 minute drive to down town and at one point we were going down there a couple of times a week! Here’s what I have seen so far:
- The Christmas tree in Pioneer Square.
- The best Pho in town at Fresh Roll.
- On Deck Sports Bar to catch the Saturday college football games and grab a fantastic burger.
- I lucked out checking out Voodoo doughnuts/a>. This is a popular tourist sport and I went when the line was still inside the shop! Great doughnuts and interesting atmosphere!
- Walked around and got to take photos of the famous “White Stag” sign!
- Discovered the Saturday Market and all of the fantastic art booths near the river.
- Found the Duck store.
- Located a movie theater that’s shorter drive than the one we had been going to all the way in Beaverton.
- Walked around the Alphabet District and found this great little shop of nick nacks and they fixed Eric’s watch!
- Went to the original Powell’s book store. Man that place is overwhelming, big, and crowded.
- Found a really fancy deli in uptown named Elephants Deli. Pretty good food and very popular!
- Went to the Radio Room for Christmas dinner
- Discovered a cool pizza place called Pieology Pizzeria. It was pretty good but we are still on the hunt for “The Pizza Place” for us.
- We have discovered several food pods we like to go to: Piedmont Station, Mississippi Marketplace, and little pod right off of Williams across from the New Seasons.
Figuring out how I want to contribute to WordPress
I’m still working on this one. I have gone to one local Meetup and plan to go to more, I signed up on Slack for WordPress, and I am looking at the other ways I can contribute.
Spending quality time with Eric
This is one of my favorites on the “Now List”! Eric is my best friend and my husband. I really enjoy spending time with him and really doesn’t have to be anything big. We go out to lunch or a coffee shop to get out of the house. We have explored Portland together. Lately it’s been all about watching college football together. Last night we watched our favorite team Alabama win the National Championship against Clemson!
Keeping up with furry kids Buddy & Samson
I take Buddy and Samson on walks almost daily, give them lots of love & attention hanging out with them, and recently found a dog sitter for them so Eric and I can start traveling again. Moving to a new city where you don’t know anyone makes it hard when you need a dog sitter. I used Rover to find Morgan and we are hoping she and the boys bond so she can be our surrogate when we are away.
Social Media Manager for WordCamp PDX
WordCamp Portland was back in October so the communications online have slowed way down. However, I have been posting anything that is WordPress news worthy as well as any new content that comes my way. For example the photos from the event were published recently from Found Art Photography! Pics are always great to share on social media and there are some REALLY great shots!
Building relationships online
Recently I had run across Bridget Willard A.K.A You Too Can Be A Guru on Twitter. She blogs and has this great YouTube Channel for her Guru Minute. Reading her blog posts and watching her videos really got me to thinking about how I am using social media and that I want to build relationships online. The past couple of years having my own business online has been a main way of communicating with others for me. Since I moved to Portland I have discovered a whole new world with Twitter. In the Reno Tahoe area Twitter is still a social channel that is not used to it’s potential and now that I am in Portland I have found that it is GREAT way to communicate and build relationships.
Learning new recipes
I haven’t learned any new recipes but I have made some up! My mother-in-law gave me a recipe for a torte that I love. Even though I do follow recipe over the years I tweak it by adding all kinds of new ingredients. The basic recipe is eggs, Bisquick, zucchini, cheese, and a bunch of spices. I have played around with this recipe and basically throw in what ever sounds good! Recently I added sausage, mushrooms, spinach, and bell peppers to the recipe. So, even though I haven’t learned anything new I have tried some new options to a basic recipe.
Getting back to exercising
So far all I’ve been able to do is walk. My knee has been giving me problems and so it has been a challenge. At the very least I walk 1 mile a day and have walked up to 4 or 5 miles in a day. I will keep working on this and talk about my progress.
Making time for mosaic project
Still working on setting up a space for this. I have the supplies need to get the space set up and get down to it!
Getting out and taking photos
I have been doing a lot of this! Taking photos around the city as I have been discovering all the interesting signs, trees, buildings, etc… you name it!
Helping a friend get her business going
I have been doing this since about November. We took a break from it during the holidays and now it’s time to finish up the website.
Get out and networking
I sent out a bunch of invitations but have not been able to connect yet. I need to start attending some of the Meetups I signed up for and look for other opportunities.
Sketch with my Zenspirations book daily
For Christmas Eric gave me a book called Zenspirations and it is the best gift ever! I am a doodler/artist and this book REALLY speaks to me. I pull it out and go through the examples as often as possible. It’s not every day but it is pretty darn close!
Meditate
I have meditated once since I added this to the list last week. I need to figure out where and how to do this without the dogs interrupting me. They didn’t like meditation time as much I did.
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