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!