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Here are my goals for my trip to Alaska:
1. Take lots of pictures.
2. Post said pictures on Facebook or blog when I get back.
3. Spend time with people I love.
4. Do not sleep in past 9:30am so that I have a better chance at accomplishing #3.
5. Feel free to stay up until the sun sets (around 2am) or later if it means accomplishing #3.
6. Drive to the places that I always think of when I think of being at home.
7. Take pictures when I arrive at #6’s destinations.
8. Be patient with the parents.
9. Spend minimal time on the internet and avoid watching pointless tv (watching a movie with family isn’t necessarily pointless).
10. Spend lots of time outside.
I’ll let you know how I do. Or better yet, you”ll hopefully get to see pictures and then you can judge how well I did.
This past Sunday was my half birthday. I know most of you are thinking, “What? A Half Birthday? That’s absurd.” But my mom always celebrated our half birthdays growing up – no big deal stuff, but when my brother and I were little she would make a half of a round cake for dessert that night to celebrate. Anyway, the half birthday this year reminded me of my birthday post from this past November where I made a list of 27 things I wanted to do this year (27 because I am 27 years old) and I realized I should check in and see what I still need to get crackin on. I’m nervous because I’m pretty sure I still have about 23 1/2 things to get done and that’s pretty embarrassing. But let’s see. (My updates and new thoughts are in blue. And sorry it’s so dang long.)
27 Things I Want to Do This Coming Year (as of 11/17/08)
1. Go to Alaska (this one’s easy – I’m going next week). Yep, I went right after my birthday for Thanksgiving and I’ll be heading up again in July.
2. Get my passport renewed (this has been on the to do list for almost 2 years – I’m ridiculous) Umm…still have NOT done this. Ridiculous. Ridiculous!
3. Go to a foreign country. See above – no passport means no foreign country.
4. Read the books from my current “to read” pile before buying any more I’ve actually been pretty good about this. I’ve read from my pile (which is still quite large) and I’ve been going to the library instead of buying books.
5. Oops, except for I want to read Twilight so that I can see the movie in the theater if I end up liking it. Yep, saw it in the theater twice. And I’ve seen it on On Demand too.
6. Downsize the amount of stuff I own. Have sort of done this, but can do a whole lot more. The one thing I’ve been doing well on is using up stuff like toiletries that I seem to just collect and then not finish before moving on to something else. Plus I have big plans for cutting things down more in a couple weeks when I’m taking the week off work but not going anywhere.
7. Take more ballet classes. Nope.
8. Actually go to the gym. Maybe twice?
9. Celebrate at Naomi’s wedding. Yep, in December and it was a lot of fun! But we’ve been playing phone tag ever since. Seriously. Have not actually spoken to her since then.
10. Watch my cheer squad compete for the first time (and hopefully a second time if we qualify for state). Check and check.
11. Take more pictures. Haven’t been too good about this.
12. Blog on a regular basis. Would like to do more.
13. Stop eating out for lunch so much. Not so much.
14. Get my 3rd full body scan to check for any more skin cancer. Appointment is set for September.
15. Figure out a next “step” in my life. Actually decided to just commit to working at my current job at least through December. But nevertheless, this is always on the forefront of my mind.
16. Drink more water and less soda. I’m drinking more water but not really less soda. Basically my fluid intake is just up.
17. Go to my 10 year high school reunion (which I might have to plan 
). The word is out and yes, I had to plan it. Its the reason for my trip to AK in July.
18. Volunteer at a food bank. Not yet.
19. Do a better job keeping my room/house/car from looking like a bomb went off. Actually I have been better at this! It helps that we got another cat and I needed my room to be clean enough to let her be in there during the day without worrying about her knocking crap all over the place.
20. Take time to actually enjoy coaching during basketball season. Totally happened. Was probably the season I’ve enjoyed most so far in my coaching.
21. Continue to send birthday cards to friends and try to keep in better touch with them overall. Sort of, kind of. In different ways than I expected.
22. Write more thank you cards. Unfortunately, no.
23. Try out yoga. Not yet.
24. Clean out my email inbox (how boring am I on this one?!?!). Done.
25. Spend more time with my Grannie. Yes, but sadly because she broke her hip and was in the hospital and is now at a care facility. So I’ve gone much more often to see her – especially when she was in the hospital and it was just about every day.
26. Not allow my social life to disappear because coaching and work take up too much time. This has sort of happened, but sometimes I feel like my friend group here has drifted apart regardless of my own schedule keeping me from joining in on things.
27. Work on focusing on the positive and trying not to allow anxiety to get the best of me. Always a struggle, but I’d say I’m doing better on the whole.
Ok, so I’m going to say I’ve got about 13ish done or at least incorporated in my life regularly. Not quite as bad as I originally thought, but there’s plenty to get working on.
Ummm…I can’t believe I haven’t posted a blog in over a month. What? First of all, April where have you gone? And second, why can’t I get my lazy butt to think of anything to say? It’s not like things haven’t been happening. I went on a trip to Tennessee, we had cheer tryouts, I went to a coaches conference, I even made homemade bread on Friday (exciting, I know). But apparently I’m either too tired from life to actually write about it or its just that even with things happening they are too boring to report. I don’t even know what to say from here. Can I just tell you that it really bothers me that my life feels mundane all the time? And that it’s so overloaded even while be so boring? Sorry Sorry Sorry. I feel like this has been my complaint for the last 5 years, so I apologize to those of you who have heard me whine about it all that time. And I think the advice most people would give me is to just DO something already. But here is the problem – I don’t know what to do. And in the not knowing, I just have a lot of fear of doing something wrong (wrong as in I will hate that outcome too), and so I somehow convince myself that just staying in this normal routine will be better than trying something different and failing. Wow, this blog post has gone all therapeutic now. Again, my apologies. Ok, so here’s my plan for now: I will blog at least 3 more times this week so that hopefully I can see that my whole life isn’t boring and that there are good things happening in it all the time. Some of the posts will be about this last month, but hopefully some will just be about stuff this week. All right, at least I’ve got a plan. Albeit, a small one, but a plan nonetheless.
So you know how I wanted to write more for my Lent resolution? Ya, not so much. I have one of those old composition notebooks that I wanted to fill up and I think I’ve only got 1 page front and back written. Ridiculous. At least there’s still a little over 3 weeks until Easter, but at the rate I’m going I’ll have maybe another half page written by then.
The good news is that this weekend marks a week of lesser responsibilities and commitments for me. I of course still have some stuff on my plate, but my parents will be heading back home after a 2 week visit here, my roommate is on her spring break visiting family, and cheer is much more minimal (you know, just a meeting with the other coach, a parent meeting, and a banquet – no big deal). For the most part it will be me at work or me at home with the cats. Oh ya, I’ve become a total cat lady. Kinda sad, but I love them anyway. So maybe I can force some quality writing time in the midst of getting the kitten to stay off the table and the old man cat to come out from under the bed. Exciting, I know.
The end is finally in sight. Basketball season is almost over. This year our girls team made it to state (after 2 very nail biting, must win games that were won by 1 point and then 2 points, with me screaming like a maniac in the stands). This is the first time since 2005 that either of our basketball teams have made it and my cheerleaders are sooo excited. Like can’t get them to shut up for a second excited. And the questions! They never stop with the questions. When are we getting out of class? What do we do in our down time? Can we go to the movies? Why does the basketball team get to leave before us? Doesn’t it take 6 hours to get there? (no. only 3 hours and 39 minutes according to mapquest.) What are we driving in? Why doesn’t our hotel have an indoor pool? When are we going to go shopping? As you can see, most of the questions don’t even have anything to do with actual cheering at the tournament.
Anyway, we leave tomorrow and could be home anytime between Thursday afternoon and Sunday morning (depending on how the team does). And honestly at this point, I’m up for anything. I’d actually they rather do pretty well so that making this whole big trip is actually worth it. But since we haven’t made post district play since 2005, my body and mind are really feeling this extra time. Last year I was done with the season 2 weeks ago! It was a surprise, but it was still heavenly. But the one thing I keep reminding myself is that no matter what, come Monday I am officially done with the season. We’ll still have a banquet to honor the girls, but no more practices or games or attendance checks. Of course tryouts for next year are just around the corner, so we’ll start a whole other slew of stuff, but it’s very different from regular season responsiblities and will be a welcome change.
Saying all that, I have REALLY enjoyed this basketball season. I loved my squad (even when they were/are crazy and goofy). They were amazingly talented when they put their mind and effort to it, and that was fun to see. I have 4 seniors and I’m really going miss them all. Back in November on my birthday, I had listed all the things I wanted to do this coming year (I’m too lazy to link it right now). Enjoying coaching during the basketball season was on the list because I was feeling overwhelmed and tired from coaching in general. I worried that this season would be miserably long and boring. I’m so happy to come out on the other side and say that it’s been anything but miserable or boring (long, yes, but I’m okay with that).
So yay for Monday, and in the meantime I’m going to cherish this last (and unexpected) hurrah with my squad.
I am very excited to get home from work and practice tonight so that I can get started on something that Marta is starting over on her blog. I’m looking forward to having some accountability (however small it actually is) and just some inspiration to get writing. In college I was an English Lit major, which I definitely enjoyed, but about half way through completing my requirements I took the one creative writing class that was required for the lit majors. And I loved it. I was so unsure and wary of the whole thing at first, but while in that class little seeds burst into sprouts and made me see that maybe, just maybe I could write. I even considered changing my focus to creative writing, but realized that it would take me about another year to complete my degree and so just stayed with lit to save myself the money and the agony of attending college for a 5th year.
Since then, I’ve hardly done any creative writing and I think that is because of at least two things: 1.) My schedule. I am typically so overloaded with my daily to do’s that I’m too tired to even consider trying to do something like write for an hour. 2.) My self confidence. In that one class that lasted just 10 weeks there was some hope inside of me that was beginning to grow. But the fact that I didn’t continue on with it has made my confidence in the fact that I could possibly write something interesting diminish greatly.
And here are some reasons I want to join in with Marta and get started again:
1.) Maybe some of that confidence will come back. 2.) Maybe I will begin to see something else I can do with my life. 3.) Maybe I can coax those little sprouts into something bigger and more beautiful. 4.) Maybe I can become a famous author. (Ok, if I’m honest this one is always in the back of my mind and I know it should not be the thing that pushes me, but at this point I’m allowing it in just in the hopes that it might spur me into actually committing to practice this writing thing again.)
So we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully well. At the very least it will get me trying it again.
Today is my 27th birthday. This is a day that never really crossed my mind when I was younger – I thought being 20 was old. But here I am at 27 with 30 sort of looming right there in the near future. Weird.
I celebrated with friends yesterday. A bunch of girls from my small group joined me at the Abbey Garden Tea Room (one of my favorite places ever) for a little tea party and then a few of us went to the new James Bond movie after that (I liked it but I think Casino Royale was better).
In honor of this day and the year that has led up to it and the year that will come from it, I decided to make lists of 26 things I did in my 26th year and 27 things I’d like to accomplish or do in my 27th year. So here it goes:
26 Things I’ve Done This Year (in somewhat chronological order)
1. Went to Alaska twice
2. Continued to support Harriet who lives in Uganda through Childcare Worldwide
3. Read Pride & Prejudice for the first time (I’d read every other Jane Austen book except for Lady Susan but still had not conquered the most famous one)
4. Learned to make really good garlic mashed potatoes and cooked a butternut squash for the first time (random I know, but these mashed potatoes are so good that I get sudden cravings for them at least every other week)
5. Got my first bikini wax (I know – TMI, but it was significant in my year only because now I know they aren’t to be feared!)
6. Went to Disney World for the first time (not as great as I imagined)
7. Had surgery to remove a melanoma
8. Became an aunt to my darling nephew
9. Started my fifth year coaching cheer
10. Went to Disneyland for the sixth time
11. Met my good friend Naomi’s fiance
12. Camped at a music festival on Orcas Island (and played about a billion games of Bananagrams)
13. Went to the dentist for the first time in 5 years
14. Hosted my friend Carlie and her baby on their visit here from TN
15. Took a CPR/First Aid class
16. Got hooked on the abc family show Greek
17. Took my first ballet class in 5 years (after having danced from 2nd grade through my senior year of college)
18. Went horseback riding (this was a birthday present to my roommate for her birthday 2 years ago! I finally made it happen.)
19. Went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour (I love Chelsea Hightower.)
20. Quite working at the INN (sad.)
21. Started this blog
22. Went to Hood River for Naomi’s bachelorette weekend
23. Went to the movies by myself
24. Got rid of 2 garbage bags full of clothes and a box full of shoes (actually I still need to take one bag and the shoes to Goodwill!)
25. Went to Stoney Ridge Farms for the first time (This is the Disneyland of pumpkin patches. Oh, and I ate an apple right off the tree for the first time!)
26. Voted in the presidential election
And now…27 Things I Want to Do This Coming Year
1. Go to Alaska (this one’s easy – I’m going next week)
2. Get my passport renewed (this has been on the to do list for almost 2 years – I’m ridiculous)
3. Go to a foreign country
4. Read the books from my current “to read” pile before buying any more
5. Oops, except for I want to read Twilight so that I can see the movie in the theater if I end up liking it
6. Downsize the amount of stuff I own
7. Take more ballet classes
8. Actually go to the gym
9. Celebrate at Naomi’s wedding
10. Watch my cheer squad compete for the first time (and hopefully a second time if we qualify for state)
11. Take more pictures
12. Blog on a regular basis
13. Stop eating out for lunch so much
14. Get my 3rd full body scan to check for any more skin cancer
15. Figure out a next “step” in my life
16. Drink more water and less soda
17. Go to my 10 year high school reunion (which I might have to plan )
18. Volunteer at a food bank
19. Do a better job keeping my room/house/car from looking like a bomb went off
20. Take time to actually enjoy coaching during basketball season
21. Continue to send birthday cards to friends and try to keep in better touch with them overall
22. Write more thank you cards
23. Try out yoga
24. Clean out my email inbox (how boring am I on this one?!?!)
25. Spend more time with my Grannie
26. Not allow my social life to disappear because coaching and work take up too much time
27. Work on focusing on the positive and trying not to allow anxiety to get the best of me
