Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Happy Birthday to Me...




Well, I turned 50 yesterday and I’ve been so busy that I haven’t written the contemplative post I thought I might. I had a crazy busy day, Dr. M didn’t get home from school until 8:30 or so, AND I got two huge zits on my chin, so my actual birthday wasn’t really all that fabulous. Except for the cake & balloon & lamb my coworkers gave me, and eleventy-billion birthday wishes on Facebook, and all the cards I got in the mail. Hmm – come to think about it, except for the zits & a minor skirmish with the IT department at work I had a great day! Ha!


Anyway, 15 months ago I came up with this list. I have not done everything I’d hoped I would, but the list definitely pushed me to do some things that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. And I’m going to come up with a new list to try to accomplish while I’m 50. We’ll see how that goes. If you’re interested you can read on to see how I did. The ones in red font are the ones I accomplished – 28 out of 50. 

1.        Review this list every Sunday & plan which items I can do that week. Yeah, I didn’t do this. Seriously – the easiest thing on the list – ha!

2.        Go see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

3.         Visit the Leo Petroglyph.

4.        Go to an exhibit at the local historical society museum.

5.        Check out the Serpent Mound again.

6.        Make exercise as much of a habit as brushing & flossing my teeth! (I have come up with some mini goals to make this happen). I am working on this one – my new bicycle is already motivating me! (Further update, I hibernated this winter – can’t wait to get back on my bike once the snow melts!)

7.        Corral my sweet tooth. Your guess is as good as mine as to how I do it, but I’m going to start by writing down everything I eat – especially since most people who lost weight & kept it off used a food journal. I’ll reevaluate this goal in June 2013 to see how things are going. I never did figure out how to do this. And talking about it the day after my birthday is no time to be talking about it!

8.        Stay in a cabin in Hocking Hills.

9.        Work a jigsaw puzzle in my own home (this will require sacrificial use of the kitchen table). I have the puzzle, I just never have worked it. I think I’m going to take it to work to do during lunch.

10.      Watch the rest of the Thin Man movies.

11.     Go see Les Misérables in the theater.

12.     Go to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game.

13.     Reduce our debt by $10,000 (more would be better!). We had to get a new car. We reduced the other debt by over $12,000, but the net result of course is an increase. Sigh.

14.     Eat fast food no more than twice per week.

15.     Reduce my use of frozen dinners for lunch – no more than two per week (less would be better!). My new lunchbox has helped so much with this!

16.     Turn the computer off & crochet more in the evenings (I’ll need an action plan for this one – perhaps a buzzer that goes off at 8:00 so I have to get off of Facebook?). Wow I have NOT been doing this at all! Maybe I’ll try to do it during Lent.

17.     Drink 36 ounces of actual water a day (more would be better!).

18.     Do the jar of notes about good things for 2013 (Note: Find a jar for the notes). I’m going to do a post about the notes at some point soon.

19.     Organize the spare room (I might have to do this in stages).

20.     Get my hair trimmed at least twice!

21.     Finally go see my Aunt Mimi’s house & property.

22.     Visit the site of Henry River Mill Village.

23.     Visit my cousin Scottie & her husband John.

24.     Find a pair of short black boots suitable for work and snow. Darn it – I could have used these this winter!

25.     Text my brother once per week Um, I quit doing this a while back. We connect on Facebook now sometimes. Does that count?
26.     Visit Carillon Historical Park

27.     Visit Huffman Prairie Flying Field

28.     Try to crochet a garment for myself (not a hat or scarf. Maybe this.)

29.     Get rid of my stamping & scrapbooking things (to make room for yarn – ha!)

30.     Try to grow lettuce.

31.     Finally visit Rita & Mike.

32.     Meet K, J & S in the mountains like we’ve planned for two years now.

33.     Stop drinking diet drinks. I go in spurts on this – I mainly just drink tea, but occasionally get a craving & have a diet drink.

34.     Finally clean up all the clutter at the office (I know my boss would be thrilled about this one).
35.     Make an appointment to see a dermatologist just because.
36.     Finish reading the Mary Russell books.
37.     Cook something new once per month (yeah – I’m not aiming for the moon here – ha!). I’m doing Weight Watchers again & I’ve actually been cooking more because of that, but I won’t call this one accomplished yet.
38.     Go through my closet with a fierce and brutal eye.
39.     See Anne & Ken face to face again.
40.     Write my 1000th blog post.
41.     Take Dr. M to Trader Joe’s.
42.      Write down all the movies we watch (so I can remember if I’ve watched the movie – sheesh!). Yeah – totally forgot about this one!
43.     Go see Spam-A-Lot
44.     Go to a performance at the Schuster center.
45.     Visit Siebenthaler Fen once per season
46.     Go to the NC Outer Banks
47.     Write & post 40 poems no matter how bad they are. I wrote 11.
48.     Come up with two more things by the time I’m 50!
49.     Ride a bicycle!
50.     Buy a bicycle!

15 comments:

  1. I deactivated Facebook for a while and therefore missed your birthday. So sorry! Happy Belated!!

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  2. Happy birthday! I haven't been on Facebook much so I missed it too! You should be pleased with your progress on "the list" -- you've hit a lot of your goals. As for the things left undone, well, after all, you don't want to hit ALL of them, because then where would you be?!

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  3. ...Happy Birthday for the big 5 0!!! hope you get through the wish list.

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  4. Happy Birthday! You did pretty well on the list anyway. And bravo to you for posting it and being honest with yourself.

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  5. Congratulations on reaching the big 50. I'm glad so many people remembered you on your special day. But I wouldn't worry about aging if I were you. Evidently, you have the skin of a teenager.

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  6. That is a very ambitious list. Congratulations on all you got done. I think you did well, especially for someone as old as you are. (hohohohohohohohohohoho!)

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  7. Well Happy Birthday! If I was on FB I would have been able to tell you that on your actual day. I think it's great that you pulled out the ol' list and are still working through it. A list with just one goal accomplished (or worked on!) is better that no list at all. For real!

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  8. Cake, balloon, lamb...I'd call that a pretty good birthday! Plus, I believe in celebrating birthweek, so don't stop now!

    You got a lot done on you list! We were reminiscing the other day about my list from two years ago and decided that it was a lot of fun and we did and saw a lot of new things because of it. It's so easy to get stuck in a rut without goals egging you on. So I'll do another list next year again. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to see what you pick for your list!

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  9. Happy belated Birthday! Here's to the next 50! :0)

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  10. I'm impressed with all you accomplished!

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  11. Happy, happy birthday! Life gets better after 50!

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