I heard that this year is the year of the golden monkey, and since I was born in a year of the monkey, I wondered if that had any extra significance for me, but the only thing I've come up with so far is the following:

"The Entertaining Monkey - The "Merry Mercurial"

While a lively year of good times, good friends, and lack of boredom, only rarely are your own Monkey years constructive and capable of permanent development. Monkeys have difficulty staying on a straight and narrow course, tempted to take detours and short-cuts for the pure pleasure of discovery and novelty. However, you do find the year's prevalent upheaval amusing, and will have a strong desire for travel."

This was from this website: http://www.chineseastrology.com/wu/monkeyyear.html

Anyway, today has been busy - I dragged myself out of bed about 10 this morning, and made some phone calls and headed out the door to meet my friend for coffee at noon. We had a lovely conversation and she had to head home to pack to go to Long Island to see her family for the coming week, so we cut our normally 3 hour coffee date to two hours today. I then headed to the mall to try to find some pants to wear to work for my new job. My old pants just don't fit like they used to because I'd gained weight from breaking the leg, and now I've lost some of it, but have been working out, so I had the joy of discovering that I am now the same SIZE I was before I broke my leg even though I WEIGH 10 pounds more than I did basically this exact date last year. So yippee, muscle DOES weigh more than fat, AND it takes up less room! I found one lovely pair of grey slacks that were majorly on sale (good thing until I get my first paycheck!) and they were even a little on the 'loose' side even at this size. Way cool.

By the time I was done shopping, I was starving - realized I'd flown out the door for my coffee date having eaten only half a container of soy yogurt and then a chai at Starbucks, so I hit my door, dropped my stuff, and made some eggs with chicken/turkey sausage and spinach in them and some yeast-free wheat-free rye toast, and practically inhaled the plate.

I've been sorting papers and trying to get my office area cleaned up this afternoon so that when I get all my tax info sent to me that I'll have the rest of it together and can then present it to my accountant in order and as prepared as I can get it. I've also been trying to clean out in general, and the office area is a great place to start. I've realized that when something in my apartment has a home, it goes back to it regularly, but if it doesn't have a home it ends up all over the table, or desk, or bed, or chair. In a 400 square foot studio apartment, that amounts to a sizable mess rather rapidly! So right now all my papers are on the floor behind the desk, and there are two black cats sprawled across the papers. They are so funny about sleeping on paper, aren't they? Cracks me up.

I've been cleaning out stuff from the time I moved into this place, and I've learned how little we really need to live well. Last year I took multiple car loads of stuff to the Goodwill and Salvation Army, and every time I do, I think I'm done. Then I get tired of stuff being all over the place, and I start loading up the car again. I took another load in the other day, and now I'm considering emptying everything off my office shelves, and only putting back what I need or want to keep. Most of it is papers, so it will just get tossed or shredded depending on what it is.

I may also empty out my closet again and clean out everything that doesn't fit anymore, is stretched out, doesn't look good, that I don't FEEL good in, or that I wouldn't buy today. But that won't be happening in the next week or two. I'm booked all this weekend, have plans so far for every night next week, am working during the day, and next weekend I already have two sets of tentative plans. Then I start working nights!

I also bought a book today about self-sabotage. I know I'm guilty of doing it, in lots of areas of my life. I've been aware of this for some time, and have made progress in not sabotaging myself in some areas, but I needed more help., I found a book at Barnes and Noble today in the bargain books section about self-sabotage and steps one can take to allow oneself to succeed. The great part is that it was only TWO dollars! So I'll be posting about my progress through the book, and my successes in life as I put it all into action.

Off to make some phone calls and do some yoga. I'll head to the gym late morning tomorrow, and then I'm getting a massage - looking forward to both!