Motorcycle Wiring

A friend came over to help me with some motorcycle wiring problems I have been having. My first problem was with the brake light; it wasn't coming on when I applied the brakes. To test this, he pulled the brake lever and I checked the light, since I can't pull the lever and see the light at the same time. Turned out only the foot lever wasn't registering the light. This was fixed by a simple adjustment to the switch position. Took about 5 minutes. My friend made the adjustment and said,

"Well that was easy. Now what?"

I thought for a minute and decided we should check the headlights, the high beams were not coming on. So we fiddled with the lights, got them taken apart He pulled on the wires for the high beams and said, "oh, well here's your problem." Turns out I never did wire the high beams. That would definitely explain why they weren't coming on. I decided I didn't want to mess with wiring those in right then, so we put them back together.

"Well, that was easy. Now what?"

I thought for another minute and decided that my turn signals were next. They weren't working either. We took the light bulb out, checked to make sure it was good, it was. We moved to the bars where the mechanism to turn them on is. Took this all apart and cleaned it up a little since it was all sticky. This didn't fix it and we couldn't take it apart anymore to look at the actual switch. I decided we should trace the wires out of the switch to see where they went. Followed them to one end of a connector….that wasn't connected to anything. My friend hooked it back into the other end of the connector since I couldn't reach. Guess what? Turn signals worked! So did the horn. Amazing how that works. When you connect the wires to where they are supposed to go, they work!

"Well, that was easy. Now what?"

Well that was all I had to do. After about an hour of work, we had fixed all the electrical problems I was having with my bike. I wish it was all that easy.

I miss you.

Once again, I thought I was over you. As it turns out I'm not. I dunno, maybe I am. I'm going back and forth in my head as I'm typing this. Whatever. Maybe I just don't care anymore. I really wish I could just not care. It would make everything a whole lot easier. Maybe someday I'll forget you, and your little dog too.

Getting Life Organized

(Title inspired from my friends comment a few posts back)

Me being as ADD as I am, I actually have to plan and organize things that most people wouldn't even need to think twice about. But, having realized this about myself, I have taken quite a few steps this semester to help get me more organized. I borrowed a book about ways to organize life for people with ADD. Apparently, the normal techniques for normal people don't work for us. Makes sense, I have been trying them my whole life and they don't stick! My first step was schedules. I have developed a LOT of schedules. I have a laundry schedule (which reminds me, I need to get today's laundry started), I have a cleaning schedule, I have a menu, I even have a menu planning schedule, I have a piano playing schedule, and I have an eating schedule.

My cleaning schedule splits the important weekly cleaning chores into different days of the week, so it only takes about 15 minutes, 3 or 4 days a week It took a week or so to get this started. Actually, this really only started last night. I was behind on my cleaning, so I had to get everything all the way clean once before I could get started…

And here is an example of how my ADD mind works! Believe it or not, mid sentence up there, I decided I should write and ADD blog. I just did a quick web search and didn't find much, and nothing that was helpful for me at all. I know what you're thinking, this will just take more time and I already have a hard time getting done what I need to. Well, as you can see I spend *so much* time on this blog…extremely sarcastic just then, if you didn't pick up on that. I will see how it goes. Back to your regularly scheduled blog reading…

Where was I? Oh, yes. Cleaning. Last night, I was having focus issues. Could not bring myself to sit down and do homework like I really needed to. I was extremely tired, which didn't help. I decided I was going to be productive anyway. So, I put my homework away and I dusted, vacuumed, swept, and mopped instead! I was still tired when I finished, of course, but it felt good to get something productive done. This got me on track for my cleaning schedule. Now I can keep up with the schedule each week and I won't get overwhelmed.

Side story! After cleaning last night, it was time to cook dinner. I had planned dinner in my head earlier that day, salmon, wild rice, and herbed broccoli. I should know by now, especially when I'm tired, things never go exactly as I want them to. After spending a couple hours cleaning, I poured rice into a measuring cup. Can you see where this is going? Of course, the rice went all over the floor. I had just swept! If you have never had this happen, rice bounces everywhere when you spill it. So, I swept again. Thought about using it since I did just clean, then decided against it. I don't clean that thoroughly.

Ok, this is getting really long. I apologize. I'll summarize the rest. I have been sticking to my laundry schedule, and my menu fairly well. This helps me spend less time thinking about what to wear in the morning and what to cook in the evening. Also, I have leftovers to take to school with me for lunch. Uh, I kinda thought there was something else, but I can't remember now. Oh well! Thanks for reading all the way through this way too long post!

Class vs. Motorcycle vs. My Brain

I got up late today. I slept through two alarms and a text message. I don’t know what my deal has been lately, but I have been very tired. By the time I was ready to go, I was going to be late for my second class as well. I decided to spend the next couple of hours before my third class getting my motorcycle ready. I went to buy a battery and get the registration renewed. Last time I got a new battery, I didn't actually put it into the motorcycle and get it ready, so I assumed it was just like a car battery. Buy the battery, put it in the motorcycle and you're good to go. Wrong. Apparently, you buy the battery, then you have to fill the battery with the enclosed acid. It comes with step by step instructions so after a short pep talk and a few phone calls to fellow riders, I decided I should be able to handle it.

I got the acid into the battery with a couple minor hang ups, but nothing major. Next step, let the battery sit for 30 minutes, then charge according to chart on the next page. Wait, what? It was then 11:15 AM, and I was still expecting to put the acid in and take off. So, I texted my friend in my 3rd class and told him I wasn't going to make it because I didn't have time to get there, thinking it takes more than 15 minutes to walk, catch the bus, ride my bicycle, and my battery wasn't ready. I decided to be productive at home since I was missing so many classes.

I dug out my helmet and all my other riding gear and looked it over. Cleaned my helmet and visor, and I even wore my helmet outside for a few minutes to make sure the sun didn't glare off of it in any weird ways. I had time to eat lunch and take a look at some homework before my classmate met me to do homework before class.

As we were sitting there, I was tell her about my morning. It wasn't until then, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, that I realized that my math class is at 12:30 and I had texted my friend telling him I wasn't going to make it to class just before 11:30. I had a whole hour more before my class than I thought! I missed that class for no reason at all. Well, my reason was that my brain doesn't always work right!

At least I got my motorcycle all ready to go and I was able to ride it today.

Pandora

I bought a Pandora account. For those of you that don't know, Pandora is an internet radio thing. You create stations by starting with a seed song or artist, then Pandora picks other songs it thinks you will like based on the seed song. You can give these songs a thumbs up or thumbs down. Thumbs up means they guessed right, and they will continue to pick more songs like that. Similarly, thumbs down means you don’t' like that song and it won't play it anymore. A free Pandora account offers 40 hours of free listening each month. Apparently, I listen to more than that because I run out every month, with at least a week and a half left. So, today when I ran out, my study buddies suggested I buy an account. It is $36 a year, so $3 a month, a cheap price to pay for unlimited music. Especially since, it was pointed out to me by these same study buddies, that I heavily rely on Pandora to concentrate while doing homework. A very good point. So, $3 a month for at least 75% better concentration while doing homework is definitely a small price to pay.

Ok, Now it Hurts

My face hurts just a little and my feelings hurt just a little.

My face hurts because I am clumsy. I was opening a door today to leave a study room. I didn't have much room behind me so I was standing close to the door. When I opened it, and started to walk through it, I literally did that. I tried to walk through the door, not the opening. The door opened about 5 inches then bumped into my foot. I had forward momentum going and my face decided to make heavy contact with the corner of the door. I have a nice little bump next to my eye. It hurts when I smile, and when I blink, and when I look to the right, and just about everything else that might involve muscles of the face. Then again, it is my own fault.

My feelings hurt because I think it is finally sinking in that this guy I am so interested in is not interested in me. I am no longer happy just having him as a friend. I think that is because I don't really have him as a friend anymore. He doesn't want to hang out with me alone because he is too tempted to do things he shouldn't since we are not dating. I suppose this is a good thing, then we won't get ourselves into trouble.

So, I am alone again. Well, I was alone before, but I didn't feel as alone as I do now. I know what you'll say, someday I'll meet the right guy and it will all work out. Or, maybe it's not God's plan for me to get married. If that's the case, He needs to stop bringing such great guys into my life. Either way, nothing I can do about it right now, life goes on, I'm too busy with school anyway, there are other fish in the sea, and so on and so forth.

Back to Linear Algebra...

Eat, Sleep, Pray, Study, Climb

I spent part of the day yesterday organizing my life. It was long needed. I didn’t' get a lot of homework done, but I figured out my new approach for the climbing club, finally caught up on dishes, planned my meals for the next two weeks, went grocery shopping an started thinking about my schedule for other stuff. Like laundry. I think I am going to go back to a laundry schedule. See, I have all these ideas, I implement them for about a week, then I decide I don’t' really need them, and I fudge them here and there, and I just stop completely. But, If I have the schedule in place then I will stick to it for the most part, and if I deviate once in a while, it's ok. I also sat down and really thought about what is important in life.

I know it seems silly, but I wrote down 5 words of things I neglect that I really really shouldn't. Eat, Sleep, Pray, Study, Climb. They seems so basic, yet they often get skipped or put off, as an college student would agree with. They are in the order that I forget them too. I most often put off eating and sleeping so they are first. I made signs, just simple ones with a sharpie on printer paper. One word per page, nice and big, and I hung them on the wall. That way I will see them and remember to do them. Hopefully it will help me remember to take lunch to school with me, get my homework done early so I c an get enough sleep and what not. So far, it's been working. I made it to bed relatively early the last couple of nights, and I'm not too far behind where I want to be on homework. The signs area also reminders when I get off track to guide my focus back to what I should be doing.

On a side note, I took third place in the women's beginner category at the climbing competition at Eastern Washington this past Saturday. Our team took 4 places overall. We go to Oregon State University in Corvalis in a few weeks and I hope I do better there. Also, I will get to see Becky!

On another a side note, I have finally decided that since "the guy" is so determined that we can't hang out, I should really stop bugging him about it. I guess whether he says he does like me or not, either way he doesn't want to hang out much. I should take that as he doesn't like me as much as I would have liked. So, I'll leave him be.