"Another year older is another year wiser."
Yup, it's my birthday today. I haven't had much progress in reimagining myself. I have been since trying to do that in small ways- change my diet, limit my half-finished projects, ride my bike to school rather than take the bus. But it occurred to me that in order to truly remake Rhiannon, I would have to outline exactly what I wanted to be, how I wanted to live, and how I want to survive.
So to that end, I start with something that has been a part of me since the very first inkling of self-awareness: how I look.
1. I want to lose weight.
I am obese. I am obese and gooey-looking. I am obese and killing myself. My "ideal BMI" is roughly half of what my current weight is. Essentially, I need to loose 170 pounds. I'd like to be on the Biggest Loser; I'll make that a goal to find out when the auditions are for the next round. In the meantime, I'll work on loosing 10 pounds and trying to find a scale that won't reset itself when I step on. Oh, wait, here it is.
2. I want to wear all my own fashions.
Currently, I'm a jeans-and-a-tank type of girl. Which is cool, yeah, but it so screams "I'M IN COLLEGE" when I'd rather be screaming "I'M INTELLIGENT AND INTERESTING."
What's one way to do that? Make my own clothes. It would also be cheaper, too. You know how much jeans for a six-foot-tall woman go for? A lot. Only Fashion Bug's sales keep my butt covered- literally. If I can mix interesting- or vintage- fabrics and wrap them in new ways, I can get people going, "Wow! Where'd you get that fabulous dress?" Best part, I can make it as comfortable as I like- or, I can start wearing corset dresses.
3. I'd like to start making my own shoes.
Being six feet tall messes with your foot size: I wear size 13 (or 14, depending on the brand) in women's (American sizes). That's more than 14 inches long, six inches across.
Combine that with the abundance of horribly uncomfortable, ugly-ass shoes. Not too many places carry cute or comfy size 14 shoes. So what's a girl to do? Make her own. I've heard cork is a good medium for it.
4. While we're at it... I'd like to make my own soaps and shampoos.
I'm an eco-nerd: a geek that likes the environment. Have you ever looked at a bottle of shampoo? Do it. Like, now. I'll wait. While you're at it, look at a bottle of the clothing detergent you use. Chances are, it's either exactly the same, or just extremely similar. Yup, you put clothing detergent on your head. So do I. That's how scalp zits break out. And as soon as I can get a-hold of the ingredients, I'm going to make my own soap. Apparently it's not that hard. And I can make my soap smell like Abe Sapien.
Home and Hearth
Ahh, the American dream: a 4,000 square foot house, four cars, a pool in the back, and debt that would make Donald Trump curse like a... well, he already curses like a sailor. You get what I mean. Most people dream of having it all- why else would a show like MTV's Cribs become so popular?
Thing is, that lifestyle is killer on the environment. It's also- at least to my mind- more of a lukewarm thing; it looks good to all your friends who don't have the big, fancy house, or the pool, or the snazzy SUV. Your friends, however, probably don't think of the fact that not only do you have to clean that massive house, but you also have to pay a lot more to heat and cool it, too. Plus the more space you have, the more likely you are to fill that space with useless crap. So to that end...
5. I want to own my own house in less than ten years.
Well, really, I want to get on that bandwagon by the five-year mark. I'm already shopping out different places I could do a rent-to-own sort of thing. However, the sorts of places I imagine I could afford are a little bit... downtrodden. Places ranging between big piles of junk disguised as a house to smaller places that only need a little bit of TLC. Which brings me to a problem besides the finance part of it: I don't have any handyman experience. However, I have a ready solution to that: the local technical college is offering a wide variety of "side" classes, ranging from learning the guitar to learning how to make pastries. These classes are for the public- in other words, they aren't for credit. I'm signed up for a bunch of them: "Urban Chickens," "Permaculture," "Tools for Women," "Electrical and Plumbing," you get the idea.
My credit is a little bit meh (not too much history, that is) so I will probably have to have a cosigner. However, using an online calculator, I found that a mortgage for $30k will amount to approximately $180 a month at a 6% rate. Not bad. Between that and utilities I'd be at less than $400 a month... which is cheaper than my current apartment, and would most likely be bigger. And I'd have a yard. Which brings me to...
6. I want to grow most of my own food next year.
Did you see a couple of those titles for classes up there? Chickens and permaculture. For those unfamiliar with the term, permaculture refers to sustainable ways to grow food. It's usually done with organic methods and non-genetically modified plants.
There is a method of growing that I've been looking at called the "Square Foot Garden." Basically, you mark out a square foot for each type of plant, and fill up the square foot with that plant. It's condensed, so weeds don't have too much of a chance. You have to keep it decently moist, but that's easy enough. The easiest way to pull off this method, from what I can tell, is to build square foot boxes. This is useful if you can't bend down too well- put legs underneath the boxes, and you're set.
And, yup, chickens.
