What is HBJ? My twitter story.

Starting today and until the story is finished, you'll be seeing tweets like this a little more often.

She opened her eyes and screamed. This was not her room. She lay on a bed of stones in a cold, dark cavern...Still in PJ's #StoryTweet #HBJ1

— Alexandria (@AlexandriaMWolf) November 20, 2015

 The story will come out in a series of tweets. How many and when really will depend on a lot of factors like how often I come up with something to add and whether or not my feed has already been spammed with stuff.

Now, I don't expect the story to be my best work but I don't expect it to turn out too terrible. In fact, my goal is to eventually take the entire series of tweets and edit them into a full-length story. Just to confuse people I decided to use the hashtag #HBJ1 which, for those of you that know my projects, is the acronym for Hannah-Belle's Journey which is going to be a short series that is a work in progress.

I'll use that acronym for this story but I don't think the acronym is actually going to signify anything about the title when I get there. I am pantsing this story - meaning that no thought as to what will happen next is going to be written down anywhere.

You all know I like planning, but in this case we're going to leave it open-ended. Let's see where I can go with this.

Moving! Life Changes! New Dog?

So my life has been pretty weird lately. And by weird I mean great changes have happened. And by lately I mean, well, you'll see.

So firstly, for those of you who don't know already, I did not end up making it to school. FAFSA got turned in, but information oddness made things weird and I was not going to deal with all of the stuff, especially considering deadlines were... pretty much already upon me.

However, I do plan on applying for college next fall. Starting over from scratch.

Secondly, I have a job. I had two jobs, but the first one did not work out on either side and 6:30am is not worth $8.15/hr. So the other job, the one that's still around, that is a line cook job. That's right, I managed to not people. I have bad social anxiety and peopling is not my thing. So huzzah.

However, my need for variety has kicked in and so I'm looking around for a second job. Preferably one that pays at least $10/hr. Two jobs I should have applied for over two weeks ago have already been filled, so now I'm just searching for the right opportunity. I am ready now.

Next, my fiance and I ended our engagement. This is a sad moment in my life, however I am happy that instead we are friends. And not in that "let's stay friends but never talk" kind of way. We actually still hang out and chat.

Oh, also, about a month before that point I ended up moving out of the apartment I shared with said awesome guy.

I now live in a room in a house with other people. Scary. But fun. It provides me a lot of freedom as well as an odd responsibility. This is the first time I've ever been truly "on my own." Maybe sometime I'll make a post about freedom or being on my own but that time is not now.

Now is the time to go into something a little more interesting.

SURPRISE! I'm a dog person.

Yes. Cats are cute and cuddly and I would adore one as a pet. (And if Simba {Cat} magically didn't have a "must pee to mark territory even though I've already been fixed so this is definitely attitude" problem, he would have a furever home. Here. With me.)

In order to have a pet here at the house I have to pay a little more rent each month but it's worth it for the great gift that pets are for your mental sanity.

So I went to the local humane society and walked around all the dogs. I saw ones that I liked and seemed to like me back in those brief instances and I would ask questions. I took a large, black dog out for a walk... and ended up having a housemate hold the leash because the dog was stronger. I was a little sad because I would've loved to help an older dog but we didn't gel in the room together either.

After walking the dog we were asked if we wanted to walk another. Behind the door was this cute little face jumping up and down in a kennel. It had the markings I tend to enjoy and reminded me of a pit, but smaller and skinnier.

So we walked that dog.

It turns out, this dog and I get along great. For the next week and a half I visited every couple days, bonding with and trying to understand the dog. I attempted to teach him how to sit. I walked him a couple times.

And today? On the 9th of November I, Alex, put in an adoption application for this adorable middle sized pup. If I get accepted it will be my first ever dog that I will own.

(For concerned parties: I have dog-sat multiple dogs before in multiple homes, not to mention my grandfather would always have dogs. This is all to say - I'm not going into this blind. Thankfully.)

I'm pretty excited. I'm also pretty scared. But I made my decision and I think it will be good for me and the pup. Now if I could only decide on a good name. Right now it's between Wonder and Focus. I plan to take obedience classes with this dog so I can learn how to dog properly and hopefully find a way to help him learn what my anxiety signs are too so he can give me a hand when I'm having an attack or start picking or some such. That will of course be further down the road but I'm hopeful.

I'm excited for daily walks, playtime, naps, and everything good that comes with a dog. I'm also prepared for all the things that could happen on the other end of the spectrum like chewing cords, barking, jumping on guests, and knocking over my stuff.

I'll be "dog-proofing" my room tomorrow.

Yes, I know I haven't been accepted yet but the way I see it I'm going to have a dog eventually and I might as well be prepared right now.

Charmed!
Alexandria

Ready?

I think I might be ready.
"Ready for what?" you may wonder.
Ready for school. Ready for work. Ready for life.

I've done a lot of healing since I left Minnesota. I learned a lot; I grew. I've published books and have ghostwritten blogs and articles. I've taken walks on trails and throughout the community. I've visited coffee shops, watched the Northern Lights, and throughout it all made some really cool friends.

But now it's time to continue the growth.

I am going to college in the fall, provided my FAFSA gets done on time (waiting for info.) If it doesn't? Well, that's the other part of this. I'm looking for a job.

I've submitted three resumes by email, hand delivered an application (with my resume obviously), and am in the process of getting more applications and applying for more places. I'm a little scared about how this will all turn out. I'm about as scared of getting a job as I am of not getting one.

I haven't worked a traditional job since mid-2013.

I'm applying for part-time. I'm applying for full time. I'm applying mostly for jobs that don't involve people. But there are a few customer service oriented jobs in there including an office assistant job at the nearby college.

I'm also applying for scholarships.

While I might not get them, this is a very important step for me. I'm working towards bringing every aspect of my future into my own hands.

Am I still tempted to pack a backpack and bus to Colorado?

Absolutely. That will always be there. But I recognize that, right now, it would not be my best option. I need to get my BA and a little more work history before I can modern-day nomad. So until then, that's my plan. School. Job. Skills. Saving.

Currently I live with my fiance who lost his job about a month ago. We're trying to get by with our lack of a usable vehicle (no registration/insurance), our lack of income until one of us gets a job, and our lack of any idea what the future holds for us. We're both working to make this work. We're both healing.

I'm ready to handle what life throws my way. I'm just hoping one of the things it throws is a job or scholarship.

Stay Awesome,
Alexandria

Just Because I need to write this down part two

Yet again you've come across another list of my ideas of things I need to create and do and learn that I will otherwise forget because I don't have the time or energy to do them now. Some of these are even a year old. *Cough* cat purrs * Cough* Hence what I mean by needing to write them down. Luckily some of these have made their way into conversation and so are less easy to forget but hey, always nice to have them somewhere besides my brain.

• Harnessing cat purrs into usable energy
• Find someone that understands stuff like this
• Or just learn it all mahself
• And then employ someone to do the actual complex mathematics. Because there will definitely be complex mathematics.
• On a related note, making shakelight style phone chargers
• WHY HAS NOBODY DONE THIS YET??
• Solving the problem of death by "old age"
• We don't actually die of old age. Ever.
• Evolution doesn't care about how old we get.
• Metabolism and other "normal" things kill us.
• Yes I'm serious.
• Inventing a robot that would take my garbage out for me.
• Kidding. Mostly.
• Write a recipe book where everything is garlic based
• Make the title some terrible vampire pun
• Figure out how to write a "cozy mystery"
• And write one
• Because apparently they're popular right now
• Although I could just do a murder mystery instead
• Always a good idea
• Get a fitness specialist certification
• And do pretty much nothing with it because how does one even fitness business?
• The knowledge would be pretty cool though.
• Write a page on my life for every year of my life.
• Write pages for the last 21 years as well.
• Try to become a centenarian.
• Make sure someone knows to publish it when I die.
• Do the picture a day for a year thing
• And actually keep up with it
• Learn how to French Braid
• Learn how to write a sales copy
• What even is a sales copy?
• Using the term grown (as in grown ass woman) in a photo series about the fact that I'm a "grown" adult but I like crayons and glitter, etc.
• The term has been used too often recently
• Liking cartoons does not make you not an adult
• The stereotypes attributed to adults is irksome
• Create a book series based on current events
• to help educate people
• so when someone says "this is unrealistic" I can show them WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

So these are more of my ideas. Within the next 3-5 days expect a post that touches Charleston, Racism, and my ex. It's a thing that is important to me and it is a thing that I feel needs to be said.

Biphasic/Siesta Sleep

Biphasic sleep. This involves sleeping twice a day, or as shown by the phrase "siesta sleep" it's basically a "normal" chunk of sleep plus towards the middle of your day give or take.

Yes, I know. I've tried this before and stopped. But that was years ago and I was operating under different circumstances.

Right now I am in Michigan, I live with my fiance. I am a stay-at-home freelancer with no set schedule for anything. This is actually not the perfect setup for biphasic sleep but it's actually pretty good.

The perfect setup is having a set schedule that already allows for a "break" in the middle of the day. Like having classes go until noon and not start again until 3 or something like that. That is the perfect setup.

So I'm setting up a "schedule."

Biphasic sleep, or siesta sleep which is a much less controversial term, has two parts. The first part is the main chunk of sleep. Most of the time this is between 5-7 hours, depending on how long your nap is and how much sleep you need.

For me, I'm going with about 6 hours. I'll go to sleep earlier if I'm tired earlier. Allowing that part to be relatively fluid because I need to figure out how much sleep I need anyways.

Next is the nap. The nap can either be something like 20-30 minutes (a power nap) or 60-90 minutes. I'm going the power nap route this time. Last time, I tried for about two hours. This was not a good idea. Some people are more inclined to longer naps, some are for shorter. If I'm napping, it needs to be short - even if it is under the term biphasic sleep.

The difference between biphasic sleep and a nap has to do more with the routine, anyways. When your body is used to taking a nap every day at a certain time, it goes through the two phases.

Amusingly enough, I think this will allow my wake-ups to be easier.

My naps should probably be before or after lunch. I'm going to start on after lunch and see how that goes. The good things about after lunch is that it's middle of my day and it should hopefully be right before I'd hang out with someone. So yay, right? We'll see.

Anyways, toodle-oo
-Alexandria Hathaway

Just Because I Need to Write These Down

I get way to many ideas and they're all going to escape me so here is just a big list of my current ideas on random things that involve obscure references and oddity.

• Secrets of The Job Process Book... Series... Blog... Website... Something.
• Awhile ago I wanted to do a thing about all the different job related stuff because nobody seems to understand how resumes work. Nobody understands how interviews work. And nobody seems to understand that you don't just miss a day and not call in. 
• This idea was shelved because effort and stuff.
• And because I'd have to get a new retail job for research.
• Get a Retail Job.
• For research.
• And hilarity.
• Plus the cash wouldn't hurt.
• Make a book about a crazy adrenaline-obsessed person who must continue to do crazy awesome things in order to avoid depression.
• And don't rip off the Pretties or whatever that one book was.
• Which I just now realized was a thing.
• Of course that's not even the actual premise of their book.
• So I'll be good.
• I have a friend like this. More research is needed.
• Obviously some details will be fabricated. Because fiction.
• Have different days where I go to different places to do my work.
• Like the library one day.
• And coffee another day.
• And all that jazz.
• Would fit well with a retail job.
• Make a blog full of article samples.
• But then someone might take them for their own in an attempt to get a job and so that would be bad.
• Make a How To Elance kind of site.
• Because Fuck the "water cooler."
• Write a huge philosophically intense book... that all ends with a dick joke.
• Write a book that seems like it's just a bunch of dick jokes but is actually philosophically intense.
• Actually succeed at finding a sleep schedule that fits me.
• Actually take a typing test and then try to improve said typing score because I can't type as fast as I think and it gets annoying.
• Holy shit you could literally see how fast you think by increasing your typing score until you can type as fast as you think and then you could be like "I think about 110 words per minute."
• Of course this would only work if you thought:
• At a speed slower than the response time of a key press
• Only thought one thing at once
• Unless you could type like 110 words a minute on both hands on separate keyboards. But that's only two lines of thought.
• Work on that whole ambidextrous thing again. Cause that was legit.
• Learn how to Leatherwork.
• Get materials for leatherwork.
• Learn how to treat wood.
• Get materials to treat wood.
• Actually have an exercise routine of some sort.
• Because my arms are way too flabby.
• And they need to be stronger so I can use my saws effectively.
• Because I need to be able to outrun bees.
• Because I want to be a ninja.
• Write that one book on productivity.
• Actually get to the point where I have successfully learned how to be that productive.
• Write a book that showcases the cost of someone's time, regardless of what they're doing. 
• Because you're not paying me to scan your groceries, you're paying me to not do anything else I could be doing at that moment.
• Work on a book about effective ways to handle anxiety.
• And do a bunch of blog posts on the subject so people don't have to spend money to not have anxiety attacks. That would stop them from making money/conversing/living.
• Learn how to use my sewing machine or get a newer one.
• Because I need to figure out how to do the halter top thing I was planning on doing.
• And because Story Bears are still a thing.

Congratulations. You just spent your time reading all this stuff. Now go make your own list. You know you have those ideas. Do them.

Part Two of my Food Intolerance Journey!

Fried Foods week was not as hard core as any other week has been thus far. It was very laid back. My conclusion? Moderation, moderation, moderation.

Honestly though, this week wasn't as needed as it would've been a year ago. This is because I stopped using as much oil. When I was younger I would use WAY more oil than was needed. Everything needed to be deep fried. Now? I do the cute little teaspoon thing.

So I just need to keep doing the small teaspoon for frying and make sure my week doesn't consist of only pan-seared foods. This is easy.

Simple stuff.

Next week we move on to sugar. By sugar, I mean no sugar. Nada. I have lots of veggies and noodles and other things so I don't have to be too concerned. The goal of this week is to see if no sugar makes me feel better.

If I feel the same, I'll resume my sugar eating habits. If I feel better, I'll just use moderation with my sugar and mostly stick to the unprocessed stuff. (I.e. less soda.)

Remember, this is all based on how I feel and is only happening to make me feel better. I feel I should mention that because some people cut out sugar for other reasons and those are not my reasons. My reasons involve my stomach, my fatigue, and just in general how I feel.

In other news, Wings is out on Amazon. Which is nice. I'm walking to cats almost every time they're open, which is cool. This also means I'm getting some exercise.

I've also been trying to get better at not taking on too much at a time. Believe it or not, I've been improving. This is great news, especially since I've just started an online course on elance. Hopefully my funds will go up and my stress will go down. That's the plan anyways.

Finally, for those of you paying attention and for those of you interested in helping out with the car situation, here is the fancy progress bar and how to help! From what I know of the car, we have definite transmission issues and potential intake problems. NEW! We now also have suspension problems!

And all the cars problems are expensive, so working towards getting a new car would be beneficial.

Apparently there's also the potential of the car exploding. This would be exciting if it didn't mean potential injury/death.

New Car Downpayment

$325.75$2,500

Note: I heard there was trouble with the previous donation box thingy, so much as I'm going to regret putting my email address out on the net, you can send me paypal monies using the email address bbnewgo @ yahoo . com

You're all awesome!
-Alexandria Younk