Fairy tale

Ah, today was beautiful. I took a trip to Silverdale to go to Barnes and Noble. If I am ever rich I am soooo going to buy myself a whole house full of books. A library of my own. :) *That* is my idea of a fairy tale.... hehe... It always makes me smile to go into a bookstore.

Tomorrow I go back to work after my three-day weekend, and though I'd rather not I'll be ok. I have a few stories up my sleeve, so if it is slow I have something to do. If it is not then that is ok, though I prefer it to be slow.

I have a headache today, but hopefully by morning it will be gone and I can work out. I almost bought some new work out DVDs today, but I think really I should get outside to work out. I live in such a beautiful place and I always feel such a strong connection to the beauty that is in nature that I think that will do me good, assuming I can talk myself into getting up early!

I think I need to go to the eye doctor because I've had a lot of headaches lately and I think it is related to my glasses prescription.

Ok without further ado here are a few pics from this weekend:

Tourist Time

Today I played tourist and went on the Forks Logging Tour. It was a blast. I took about a million pictures (will post later) and a couple of videos. It was amazing how they just toss whole trees like they are toothpicks. So amazing. Now I'm in Forks. This is where the trilogy of books Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse are based. Starting next week the Forks Chamber of Commerce will be giving tours of town to the locations that are mentioned in the books. It is a great idea. The books have become somewhat of a phenomenon and are being compared to Harry Potter in popularity. At first I scoffed at that idea, but I think they might be right.

I like things like this even though it is work-related. I'll probably go home and nap today and who knows what tomorrow (possibly work.)

Today I am happy. No particular reason but I truly feel that something good is coming my way. (Oh please let it be that job!!!)

I feel stable for the first time in a long time, and even though I don't feel like my happiness is complete I feel at last like I am being who I really am and enjoying the ride.

Spring Cleanng

So today I cleaned my house. Everything except my room. It looks, smells and feels wonderful. What was my inspiration you ask? Ok yes the challenge to some degree but also I was mad at this boy who I am not sure where things are going. So anger always inspires cleaning for me because it has a calming and cleansing effect. hehe it worked by the way.

Tomorrow I'm going to a tiny town west of here to take a tour. It should be fun and I'll take lots of pictures. Hopefully they come out well!





So I hope you guys had a wonderful day and I'll be talking to you soon. I'm heading to bed for now!

Ah . . . books

Books are one of those things that refresh, rejuvenate and inspire me. It doesn't seem to matter if the book is happy, sad, dramatic or plotless, I just love curling up with a well written book. One of the blogs I read regularly posted this list and I think I'd love to read all of these books in the next couple years.

In 2007, as part of its 80th birthday celebration, the Strand Bookstore at the corner of 12th and Broadway in New York City (famous for its slogan “18 Miles of Books”) decided to poll its customers for their 80 favorite books. There are some surprising books on this list, which is made up almost exclusively of fiction. Here’s the list they came up with (the books I’ve read are bolded):

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
The Fellowship of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by JK Rowling
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
1984, by George Orwell
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
Slaughter-House Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
Ulysses, by James Joyce
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemmingway
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
A Prayer For Owen Meaney, by John Irving
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
The Stranger, by Albert Camus
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
The Alchemist, by Paul Coelho
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Anthem, by Ayn Rand
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Eupery
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
The World According to Garp, by John Irving
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by JK Rowling
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers
Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
Blindness, by Jose Saramago
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis
The Odyssey, by Homer
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
Franny and Zooey, by JD Salinger
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood (tied with The Picture of Dorian Gray, so this is really "The Strand 81")

Day 2, Season 1

Work, work, work! At last that is *not* the story of my life. Tomorrow begins my three-day weekend! I cannot say how psyched I am. I am dealing with a relationship thing right now where I am contemplating where it is going . . . because it seems to be going nowhere. This man is probably the best guy I have met in a very long time, only we haven't actually met. He seems to be dragging his feet for some unknown reason. So, that brought me down just a little bit. We will see where things go.

I am still positive and moving forward though. I have been in an unexplainable good mood lately. I hope it continues. I can't really describe it, but I have this feeling that the winds are changing and my life will soon too. I am excited and scared and positive all at once.

I believe that something will happen very soon. Today I was thinking of the beauty that is in nature. That is one thing that makes me smile no matter what.
These things remind me of the peace and serenity that I hope to reflect in my daily life.

Today I also cleaned my house. It is looking quite nice, I must say. Just have to vacuum but I'll do that tomorrow when I won't wake up the neighbors' baby.

All in a name

I guess I should explain the name. "The Dissident Daughter" comes from a book that I read about a year ago called "The Dance of the Dissident Daughter" by Sue Monk Kidd (author of "The Secret Life of Bees.")


The book is about the awakening of the female spirituality. It has meant a great deal to me. One thing that the book taught me is that women don't have to act like men in order to be equal to them. The stereotypical man who is successful at work is driven, hard nosed and dominant. A woman who acts in such a fashion is often viewed as a B****. In order to be most successful women do not have to act the same as a man. Being equal to a man does not mean acting the same. And that doesn't mean their behavior is bad, just different.

That was a freeing thing to me, and I think I've begun to exemplify some of those characteristics. Just the other day my co-worker was talking to me about women reporters covering the police beat. He said that generally there are two types of women reporters doing it successfully. One is the bats-their-eyes-and-flirts-acts-innocent-and-dumb type. The other is the acts-like-a-guy-trades-dirty-joke-for-dirty-joke type. Then he said, "you of course are the exception." I happily admit I think he is right. Somehow I have managed to get the respect and response out of the police agencies without acting dumb or acting like a guy.

So all that to say, I think I'm getting there. I want to be totally ME. I want to exude confidence and happiness and to feel both completely.

Starting slow

As much as I would like to say I had a perfect first day of my challenge it was anything but. I didn't get up on time, and I didn't write my pages in my book. So here I am practically starting from scratch tomorrow. I am optimistic though. This challenge *is* a challenge, and hopefully tomorrow is smoother. I am at peace though, I feel that things will work out as intended. The perfect job is coming to me. I can feel it. Here is my video without further ado. It is black and white on purpose, I am learning how to do video effects, so I'll be trying different tricks every day.

Figuring it out ---------- Day negative 1

Reaching my goals has never been an easy things. Recently I've rediscovered the things I'm passionate about and I have purchased the guidebook to the 100 Day Challenge.

I am very much excited about these concepts. I would love to have the opportunity to have a new job so to better accomplish these things, but I've decided not to include it as a goal, but rather as something I would like to manifest in my life, because it is not something I want to make a habit of, whereas the things on this list are habits I want to make a permanent part of my life.

I will be uploading vlogs on a regular basis which can be also viewed at my YouTube page. But I will also embed them here with commentary, so personally I think they'll be more fun to watch on here. Ultimately I think it would be fun to have a sort of "support group" of people doing this sort of challenge together, but that is something I think comes in time.

I welcome any encouragement or suggestions, but please keep the critiques out of the comment section and into e-mail. I have thought about this stuff and welcome genuine suggestions, but the critiques are maybe a little negative for the atmosphere I'd like to create. I plan to watch my own affirmations video regularly to remind myself what my goals are.
So here is my affirmations video and below my goals.



So I think I have my goals... yay

1. Lose 20 pounds. This will be accomplished by moving my body in some sort of exercise daily. Whether my stair stepper, pilates or a walk around the park, I will move every day.

2. Write 200 pages of a first-draft on my novel. This can be accomplished by writing two pages every day.

3. Have "me" time every day. This will be done by waking up a little earlier so to get to work on time to leave earlier.

4. Do one new thing every week.

5. Make new friends and build up existing friendships. To do this I will make an effort to do one social thing every week -- things that are unrelated to work in any way.

6. Keep organized my car, desk and home.