Of Vacation, Planners, and Starting Out the Year

That's the problem with long vacations.  It takes a while to snap out of vacation mode.  At least for me, that's the case.  You see, I took a half month leave during the holidays, 16 days to be exact.  So come January 6, the first day of work for this year, everything felt surreal.  I'm not here, I'm not at work...somebody slap me!  

That goes for blogging as well.  I tried to get back into the writing mood.  I've got a handful of ideas but the urge to write just isn't there.  I don't want to push myself to write.  It just doesn't come out right when I do that.  And so, I spent the past week just reading blog posts and maybe commenting on a couple of posts that interest me.

I also spent last week drooling and obsessing over gorgeous printable planners.  Check this and this and this! Almost drove me crazy (lol just exaggerating there).  I'm such a sucker for notebooks and planners, even if I don't max out their use.  The thing is, when I try to account for the cost, even the free printable DIY planners would come out expensive.  Those available in supplies stores, the ones I really, really like such as the Belle de Jour Power Planner is still too expensive for me.  And so, with a sigh, I resigned to just using the old, boring S Planner on my tablet.  It does the job, just that (no offense) it's too boring for me.  I want something colorful with cute icons.  

What's a girl got to do then?  Go app hunting!  After a few tries and ditching at least 3 or 4 other apps, I finally found the perfect one for my personal use.  It's the Jorte Calendar & Organizer and I believe this is available for both Android gadgets as well as Apple.

Remember this?

My old tablet book cover

Well, the blue book cover gave out after more than a year of use.  The synthetic leather cracked in places.  My Galaxy Tab now sports this new look.  

Violet (or purple) this time.  Why not?!

Yeah, yeah, the color is a bit too flashy for my taste.  It's a little adventurous for me, I might say, as I always go for earth colors.  At least it's just with things I use and not necessarily on the things I wear hehehe.  I chose this over the black and the pink one.  Pink is just too girly for me, and black is getting kind of bland.  Let's see what's inside, shall we?

The Jorte Calendar & Organizer

Screenshot of Jorte Calendar

Colorful right?  It makes looking at tasks and memos more interesting.  You can actually customize the colors some more if you don't like this particular theme.  See that cat icon on the 28th?  I've had the misfortune of getting in the way of our cat running around with a big lizard in its mouth.  It's just a scratch but I think some of the lizard's juice or the cat's saliva (ewww, I know!) may have found it's way in the scratch wound at my left ankle.  See those three bluegreen circles with the numbers?  Those were my anti rabies shots and I have one more coming at the end of this month, just to make sure.

Well, so much for an update.  It's a new year!  I know that many people have already prepared their resolutions.  I wonder how you're all doing with those, so far.  As for me, making a new year's list is not a habit.  I do make resolutions, but not necessarily on the turn of the new year.  I make a list of goals as needed.

So, anyway, here's to a better year for all of us.  Glad I'm snapping out of this stupor, lol!