A Year in Review

Sure, there were those seven goals that I tried to accomplish this year but there was so much other stuff that happened in 2011.  Some of it was a little crazy, some of it was a lot unexpected but it all made for a very interesting year of life.

In 2011, I…

1.      Greeted the New Year watching fireworks atop a rooftop deck.

2.      Started a blog.

3.      Started – and actually completed – a scrapbook.

4.      Co-planned and co-hosted an awesome surprise party.

5.      Went to Spring Training.

6.      Celebrated my birthday with friends and a lot of elderly people.  

7.      Stood on a beach in Florida.

8.      Stood on a beach in Delaware.

9.      Stood on a beach in California.

10.  Swam in the Atlantic Ocean.

11.  Dipped my toes in the Pacific (maybe?) Ocean.

12.  Watched dolphins swim in the ocean.

13.  Went on a sail-boat (kinda).

14.  Went on a water-taxi.

15.  Flew to the West Coast twice.  And came back both times.

16.  Waited in an airport because of flight delays. 

17.  Drove up – and down – a mountain. 

18.  Got to ride on one of those airport tram cars.

19.  Walked in the rain.

20.  Saw Haystack Rock, up close and personal.

21.  Climbed 164 steps to the top of the Astoria Column.

22.  Drove across the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

23.  Went to a cheese factory.

24.  Partied with friends at the third annual CatchCon.  And lived to tell the tale.

25.  Spent half an hour in Music City.

26.  Walked around the Gaslamp Quarter with one of my favorite cousins.

27.  Shared a hotel room with someone I didn’t know very well – and made a new friend.

28.  Danced the night away with a bunch of crazy bloggers. 

29.  Saw a flash-mob up close and personal.

30.  Ate at a Swedish smorgasbord.

31.  Rented a beach-house with friends.    

32.  Managed to actually light barbecue on a tiny grill – yea for teamwork! 

33.  Walked on two boardwalks in two different states.

34.  Drove past The Stone Pony.   

35.  Got the two most surprising phone calls of my life.

36.  Survived an earthquake.

37.  Survived a hurricane.

38.  Dog-sat for the cutest beagle you ever did see.

39.  Engaged in a bidding battle during a silent auction.

40.  Won the battle but lost the war and was outbid in the last five minutes.   

41.  Figured out that I’m a spring runner.

42.  Went to the doctor. 

43.  Made scrambled eggs for the first time.

44.  Adopted two cute kittens. 

45.  Took a job that I didn’t want only to find it was exactly what I needed.

46.  Went to a couple concerts in the local park. 

47.  Ate Oreos for breakfast.   

48.  Went to advance screenings for two movies. 

49.  Hurt a friend.

50.  Was hurt by a friend.

51.  Did more public speaking than I ever thought possible. 

52.  Taught training classes.

53.  Was a burr in people’s side – and helped get something accomplished despite annoying bureaucracy.    

54.  Donated to the Salvation Army.

55.  Helped assemble IKEA furniture. 

56.  Cooked in a Crock-Pot.

57.  Found out two good friends were pregnant.

58.  Received an award at work. 

59.  Cried a ridiculous amount.  Like all of April.

60.  Wore dresses in the spring and summer. 

61.  Wore leggings went it got colder.

62.  Ate outside on my new patio set.

63.  Spent lots of summer evenings lounging on my deck. 

64.  Went to my first HOA meeting. 

65.  Squeezed 17 people into my kitchen for the second annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving.

66.  Celebrated St. Lawrence Day with my colleagues. 

67.  Watched a highway being built.

68.  Drove on that new highway when it was completed.

69.  Went on a date.    

70.  Went to a baseball game.

71.  Was unknowingly on TV (?) as I “watched” that baseball game. 

72.  Cat-sat for friends.

73.  Made sweet potato fries.  From actual sweet potatoes. 

74.  Bought an iPhone. 

75.  Discovered Pinterest.

76.  Lost – and replaced – three recycling containers.  The fourth one has been labeled!

77.  Came home to find that one of my kittens had taken a flight from two-stories up.  She’s fine.

78.  Completely cleaned my entire car out.  And it stayed clean for about two months.  Wow.

79.  Went out to lunch entirely too much.  Noodles, anyone?

80.  Laughed a lot. 

81.  Attended my first ever Rosh Hashanah dinner.   

82.  Got a lot of advice.  And I even followed some of it.

83.  Bought really expensive running shoes.

84.  Went pumpkin-picking.

85.  Went on a hayride.   

86.  Learned to waltz. 

87.  Saw the Presidential Christmas card before most people. 

88.  Explored Harper’s Ferry.

89.  Cleaned out my fridge. 

90.  Organized my closets. 

91.  Joined a credit union. 

92.  Got up early four Saturdays in a row to go running. 

93.  Dashed through sprinklers. 

94.  Decorated a Christmas tree.

95.  Ate ice cream for dinner.

96.  Went to a street fair.

97.  Watched fireworks on the Fourth of July. 

98.  Tripped up stairs and cursed a lot. 

99.  Started writing a novel.

100.  Looked in the mirror every morning and liked the face staring back at me.  

 What’s in store for 2012?  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

The Goal Post



If you're looking for some goals,
there's a few under my desk!



So, whatever happened to that whole 7 in ’11 thing?  You know, the seven goals that I wanted to accomplish this year that I posted on a dry erase board.  Forget the goals – what happened to that dry erase board?! 

In May, it fell off my cubicle wall (that’s a story in and of itself, involving a very recent widower and a very bad day when nothing seemed to be going right!)  Anyway, I don’t have much wall space in my cubicle and it was too much effort to get the required property pass permitting me to remove it from the building so it was relegated to the place where I relegate all of my miscellaneous crap like old files and various pairs of shoes – under my desk.  So, the dry erase board and the colorful goals were shoved in a dark corner.  And you know what they say – out of sight, out of mind. 

But compared to Men in Twenty-Ten, I actually think 7 in ’11 was fairly successful.  About those goals?  Well, here’s how they panned out:

1)   NASCAR Driving Experience – I didn’t end up doing this.  I did pretend to be a NASCAR driver on a new highway that they opened near me.   That, and the speeding tickets that I got throughout the year, fulfilled my need for speed.  I’m hoping my brother and I get to do this in 2012 because it would be cool.    

2)   Hot Air Balloon Ride – This started off as a really great plan – I even had tickets from a Groupon deal.  But whenever I called – a few times in the spring and later in the fall – I only got their voicemail and they never returned my messages so I kinda gave up.  And now the tickets are expired.  Maybe it wasn’t my time to go up in a balloon. 

3)   Try one new food a week – I wish I could tell you that I tried 52 brand new foods but I can’t.  Food Friday as an event fizzled out but I still tried to be open to trying new foods.  Sure, sometimes I still need to be reminded to just stick it in my mouth and chew – like a recent episode involving cashews – but I think I’ve gotten a lot better.  Now, I eat burritos, paninis, and tomatoes – basically anything ending in a vowel!  Well, except for tacos. 

4)   Regular doctor/dentist appointments and taking a vitamin once a day – I gotta check under my desk for that bottle of vitamins.  Whatever happened to them?!  I did go to the doctor, took a vitamin once, and looked up a dentist.  I have to get better about the whole health thing though.  Next year, next year. 

5)   Run a 5K – Wow.  This actually happened.  Not once but twice.  Okay, okay, I didn’t actually run the entire 5K (either time) but as one of my favorite quotes on Pinterest points out – I still lapped everyone on the couch.

6)   Slow dance to Eric Church’s “Love Your Love the Best” – I’m still waiting for my cowboy to slow dance with but I did dance with a hot salsa dancer in San Diego and then there was that whole awkward date thing at the dance school so I’m going to beg for mercy and ask that you consider this goal accomplished.    

7)   Go to a non-English speaking country – Darn, I totally missed my chance to cross the border when I was in San Diego!  I didn’t get to do any foreign travel this year – my fall turned out to be a bit busier than I expected so I wasn’t able to plan my European vacation.  But I got a great big suitcase for Christmas and I’m itching to check it and hop on a flight somewhere.  Just not Paris.  See, some things never change. 

So, I only accomplished three or four of the goals I set for myself.  I’m kind of disappointed but you know what?  I did a whole lot of other stuff this year that’s worth mentioning.  Tomorrow – all that stuff and more. 

What Happened to November?

It’s December 1^st already?!  Where in the world did the November days go?  It seems like just yesterday I told you about my grand plans to do both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo.  50,000 words for the former, 30 posts in 30 days for the latter.  How’d I do?

Well, obviously you can tell that I didn’t manage 30 posts in 30 days.  I had a pretty good run for the first nine days of the month and then I went back to my old sporadic ways.  But you should read all the posts in my head!  I swear, they’re really good. 

That brings me to the novel.  I didn’t hit 50,000 words…I’m about 30,000 short.  But I do have, what I think, are some pretty good chapters and I’m going to keep working on it.  Just because we flipped the calendar to December doesn’t mean the novel writing has to stop, right?

Maybe trying to do both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo was a crazy, unrealistic goal.  Maybe other people were able to do it.  I couldn’t.  There were so many other things to tackle this November and some days writing just fell off the list of priorities.  Granted, I probably should’ve put writing before naps…but you know how I love my naps. 

Am I disappointed because I didn’t meet my goal?  Nah.  For me, the victory – the satisfaction – comes from attempting it in the first place. 

I can always try again next year.  Besides, November will be here again before we know it. 

The Tortoise and the Hare

The tortoise and the hare - a story about friendship…and running. 

At the beginning of the year, the tortoise set a goal to run a 5K.  It was a crazy, ridiculous goal for the tortoise and was met by eye-rolls by many in the tortoise’s family.  The tortoise didn’t run.  Aside from climbing a couple flights of stairs every once in a while, the tortoise was content to curl up in her shell, watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (because all tortoises dream of being ninjas), and take lots of naps.  But the tortoise set the goal anyway, figuring, well, if it didn’t happen, oh well - at least she thought about doing it.  That’s half the battle right there. 

January turned to February and February turned to March and the tortoise was still firmly ensconced in her shell.  Then, sometime in March, the tortoise's friend, the hare, hopped over for a visit and told her that she wanted to run a 5K too.  So, they joined a running club together and you kinda know the story:  the hare turned into Steve Prefontaine when she tied up her laces; the tortoise turned into turtle soup.  But they had 12 weeks to train and prepare for their big 5K.

For 12 Thursdays from April to July, there was a bit of a routine between the tortoise and the hare.  Usually, they would send emails to each other in the morning – were they really going to running club that night?  If it looked like rain - at 7:45 in the morning - there were silent prayers (at least by the tortoise) that running club would be canceled.  More often than not though, the tortoise and the hare sucked it up and joined all the other tortoises and hares to train.

Today was the big race.  This isn’t a fairy-tale so I can’t tell you that the tortoise magically turned into a hare, ran the whole 5K, finished first in her age group, and won a $25 gift certificate to the local running store.  No, that didn’t happen.  But, the tortoise did run farther than she’s ever run before.  And, with the help of a very good friend (now known as the Rogue Runner) and the hare – who finished a good ten minutes before her and was on the sidelines cheering her on towards the finish line – the tortoise ran sprinted across the finish line and accomplished one of her goals for 2011. 

To the hare --

We did it!  Congrats on a great first race and thanks for helping me accomplish Goal #5!  I’ll call you when I’m ready for the 10K!

                                                                                    -- From the tortoise    
----------------------
In case you're interested in the results (and who isn't?!) - I finished with a time of 39:18.75 - that's several seconds less than 40 minutes!  I was 297th out of 397 runners.  Am I disappointed?  Nope...being the glass half-full gal I'm trying to be these days - I think that's pretty darn good and it means that I was 1st out of the last 100 runners.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.  

Here are some pictures.  The action shots are courtesy of my friend/personal race photographer/the Rogue Runner, Miriam.

#179 - Ready to race!

I'm in the white and black running behind
(not next to) the lady in pink and blue.

The hare is actually way far up in front in the teal.
Can you see her?  Me neither!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a running tortoise!