The Many Faces (and pets) of Tora

Celebrating a new year is about celebrating change and growth and progression.. (at least it is for me). So I was reflecting on the years gone by and how much I've changed inwardly. Then I remembered that I've been changing on the outside as well. Here are the pics to prove it:

Summer 2008

Fall 2008

Winter 2008

Spring 2009

Spring 2009

Spring/Summer 2009

Summer 2009

Summer/Fall 2009

Fall 2009

Winter 2009

Winter '09/Spring '10

Spring 2010

Summer 2010

Summer/Fall 2010

Fall 2010

Winter 2010 - Tonight

New Year's Resolutions

Its that time again!

My resolutions for the year 2011 is divided up into three categories. Body, Mind, & Spirit. Because if you think about it, if you're going to resolve to make major changes in your life, then you might as well make sure you're not neglecting an area of your life. Or at least thats what I thought :)

1. Body:

Quit Smoking.

Cigarettes are just so bad for me. I know this, everyone knows this. I don't need them in my life and they're just an unnecessary expense that my health pays for.

Eat More Mindfully.

No more junk food binges or late night munchie runs. I'm done with McMystery meat and sugar and processed crap and chemicals tossing my body into a confusion. I want to start eating foods closer to their raw form, possibly cutting out all processed foods altogether. Cupcakes and my other baked goods are always excluded from diets though of course. :P

Treat myself more often.

I hardly ever go out and do something nice for myself. Shopping, manicures, massages, haircuts, etc. I'd like to devote a small percentage of my income to pampering myself every now and then when I feel like I've earned it.

2. Mind:

Read More.

I think I like the idea of devoting each month of year 2011 to a different book I've been interested in but "never had the time" to actually read.

Go back to school.

SWIHA in Tempe sounds good. I'd love to go for some fun, educational classes. Or even a community college for some basic non-electives. Something like that. Not really the MOST important thing to me.

Blog More.

I miss my blog.. I miss sharing my adventures and thoughts in this public scrapbook called Blogger.

3. Spirit:

Move out.

by the time I turn 21 in October. This is realistic.. so long as I budget correctly, SAVE, and I manage to find as many roommates as I need, when I need them. Having my own place has been my dream since I was 16. Its a lot of expenses, I know.. But my my wings have been spread too far for this nest for a while now. Hopefully in 2011 I can get it right finally. This is probably the most important resolution to me. So I might have to get another job to make it happen.

Create my sanctuary and spend time in it.

I need a space or area in my home where I can relax, drink tea, burn incense, play spiritual music and simply read or meditate.

The Black Keys

I love love love love this album.

Here's some lines:

I've been tried
And I've been tested
I was born tired
And I never got rested
Harder than Marble stone
I'm better off,

Better off left alone

Cause I'm not the one
No I'm not the one
You wanted it all
But I'll give you,

give you none
I'm not the one

Photos from September :)

I Am a Libra

I found this on Astro.com and its very very accurate. I wish everyone who knew me would read it because they would understand me so much better than any amount of time spent or explaining myself could do.



You are a Libra


Your ruling planet is Venus, the mythic goddess of love and beauty. Because of this, lots of people think Libra should be the easiest sign to understand. All you need is love, right? Wrong. Libra is an air sign. And air is concerned with ideals and principles above all else. Ah, love. Of course you think a lot about love. But the operative word here is think.

Your idea of love isn't really an intimate, steamy tête-à- tête or a chaotic explosion of uncontrolled passions. More likely it will involve a quiet meeting in a pleasant environment, where you can expound on one of your many theories on the perfect relationship, your concepts about how people ought to behave toward each other, and your clear, faultless vision of a world where everything is balanced, ordered, symmetrical and harmonious.

All that discussion about love can drive more emotive types mad. Although you can be as sexually inspired as any other sign, in the end the sharing of ideas is as important to you as the sharing of bodies. If there's no communication, you can get bored pretty quickly. Your sign has less to do with ordinary sweaty human coupling than any other, and for you love must always be stylish, never coarse.

Libra is the great perfectionist of the zodiac. You use the words "fair" and "equal" a lot. You believe passionately in fairness, which can cause you unhappiness, because life and people aren't always fair. You also believe passionately in equality, and here, too, you may encounter unhappiness, because finding a relationship where each partner gives and takes exactly the same amount and loves the other equally is like finding a unicorn.

No doubt you believe in unicorns too, and you're prepared to go on searching for that perfect companion, that perfect career, that perfect environment where no human mess intrudes. You're forever seeking the Good, the True and the Beautiful. And in your eternal efforts to change the world and make it a place where the Good, the True and the Beautiful can make their abode, you're likely to genuinely succeed in making life just that bit better and more beautiful.

Librans have the gift of creating style, grace and harmony wherever they go. You pursue your goals with diplomacy, tact and statesmanship, since you know much more gets accomplished when you've managed to convince people that your idea is their idea by a liberal use of the royal Libran "We". Of course, you usually do exactly what you want. But you have the knack of getting everyone around you to co- operate.

You have a positive hatred of emotional storms, so you probably have trouble expressing your own emotions honestly. Anger, hatred, jealousy, neediness, intense desire - frightening stuff, all of it, and expressing it can get you into trouble (meaning that other people might get hurt or angry with you).

Librans, those great lovers of Truth, are often emotionally dishonest with themselves and with others, although it's never intentional and never out of a desire to deceive. But when your anger blows (and it always does, when you've saved it up for too long), it can really blow. You can be the original "meek as a lamb or mad as a hornet" personality. Yet neither of these is really a true reflection of your essentially harmonious nature.

No matter how many times you get out of balance, the path between the extremes will always beckon with its gentle light, and the search for perfect equilibrium will always ensure that your life never stagnates. And maybe you recognise a secret that lots of other people don't see: that it's genuinely possible for human beings to be more than they are: more Good, more True and more Beautiful.

10 Things I Should Know By Now

1. Being a survivor is way cooler than being a victim.

2. Nobody can hurt me unless I let them.

3. Don't waste time/energy on somebody that wouldn't do the same for you.

4. Never drink Jack Daniels.

5. Confidence is my most attractive feature.

6. When you burn bridges, you risk setting yourself on fire as well.

7. Trust and friendship walk side by side, not hand in hand.

8. Never confuse lust with love.

9. If he truly likes you, he'll show it, and you'll know it. If not, then dump it.

10. Express what you feel, not necessarily the intensity in which you feel it.


- Tora Jane