Discovery: Public Transportation

My blog life is now dedicated to me gaining my independence, and until recently I believed to truly be independent you had to have a car. How wrong was I?

I'm fortunate enough, for the first time in my life, to live in a city large enough to have a public transportation system. I made use of this for the first time last night, and its pretty awesome being able to go places without depending on people or paying astronomical prices for a cab. Five bucks to ride all day? I'm down! Cheaper than gas prices!!

Saying last time was the first time I'd used the public transportation system here in San Diego isn't exactly true... I used to ride the trolley from base to Downtown to go the club, but it seem easier somehow, and less public transportation-y somehow. Yes, going to get drunk via trolley is much less public transportation than going somewhere on a bus... don't ask, I could never explain!

I was supposed to meet a friend from work downtown for sushi last night, and I freaked out. Because that's how I handle things. I googled, and looked it up on the MTS website a million times before finally leaving the house. Then I looked it up on my phone about 5 times on my way to the bus station. Once I got to the bus station, I freaked out again... checked the maps several times as well as my phone.

Finally the bus came..... *deep breath* I stepped on, fed my money into the machine and took my seat. So far so good.

That's when my heart started pounding, the stomach developed the ability to do somersaults, and my brain ran though every horrible situation imaginable. The I freaked out again... how do I let the driver no when I want off!!! I decided to watch the people in front of me, to see what they did. Finally someone pulled the cord in front of him, and sign at the front of the bus lit up. Yay! I figured it out. Wait... I don't have a cord like the one he pulled... his was vertical... I only have horizontal one going to the next vertical one near me! Can I pull that? I don't know... I'll just get up and pull the closest vertical one. But how hard do I pull it? Will I break it?

The rest of the trip went pretty much the same way... but I managed to make it downtown, get off at the right stop and meet my friend. Now that I know I can do it, there's no stopping me!! I can go anywhere I want now, it just requires some planning in advance, and by that I mean, Google and go!

Becoming myself

It's been just under a year since my last post and my life has completely changed since then. These changes are a huge part of the reason I stopped posting and eventually made my blogs private. My world pretty much came crashing down around me and for a while it was all I could do to make it through the day.
   
Shortly after my last post AJ and I separated. We are now it the process of getting divorced... we're simply waiting to be able to finalize the paperwork (we have to wait 6 months).   
         
Not to worry though, I'm much better now. I've moved on and even found someone new. Data is my goofy, amazing "old man". He makes me smile and laugh constantly. More importantly he knows how important it is for me to be my own person, and he pushes me to not only see that, but strive for it. He wants me to become a better person, a strong, independent, and unique woman, not for him, but for myself.              
 
That's where my blog comes in, this is going to be my way of pushing myself to do just that. This is going to be where I chronicle becoming the woman I want to be, that strong, unique, and independent woman who values herself above all else. I plan to do all the things I've always wanted and needed to do for myself, and write about it here.   
   
This blog is the start of all that, but what else do I have on my list? Let's see:   
      

• Writing regularly (both blogging, personal journal, as well as fiction)
• Photography
• Cook and shop for groceries more often
• Make a budget (and stick to it)
• Buy my own car
• Work towards being debt free
• Increase my credit score
• Start college classes

This is the just the beginning and I'm pretty excited to see where it leads. Here's to becoming myself!