September Week Two Photo Roundup

My thirty day goal for September is to take a photo every day. I'm going to just do a quick photo roundup each week to keep myself accountable.

Monday, September 8
I wish I could explain to all of you just how much time Zelda spends on my lap. If I am sitting down, there is a very high likelihood that the cat is near me. Unfortunately, the two of us huddled up on the couch is super hard to get photo evidence of, so I did my best here with the two of us while I was attempting to eat dinner. 

Tuesday, September 9
It is official. Hannah's days of getting all three walks in the sunlight is down to one walk in the sunlight. Poor baby. Soon it will be zero. This is our morning walk.

Wednesday, September 10
My friend's mom sent me a recipe for ricciarelli, a type of Italian cookie, that is naturally gluten free. I went ahead and made it. It was fiddly as fuck (notice that it was very late at night by the time I finished) and the results aren't perfect - I didn't use enough powdered sugar and I didn't let them dry enough, so they didn't crack as much as they should have, but in my defense it was closing in on eleven o'clock on a work night). ANYWAY. They are delicious. 

Thursday, September 11

Someone took off work early to get her hair cut.

Hairstylist: What are we doing today?
Me: Cut it off. To my chin.
Hairstylist: No.
Me: Yes.
Hairstylist: Let's do shoulder length and if you want it shorter, we'll do that next time.
Me: Fine. Also, I want bangs. Sideswept bangs.
Hairstylist (squinting at me): Are you okay?
Me: Yes. I just want a change.
Hairstylist (stares at me suspiciously): How about we just do some long layers in the front and then if you want it to be more dramatic, we'll do that next time.
Me: Hmph. 

From my hairstylist's Instagram page. 

Friday, September 12
The trees are changing. I am grumpy about this. 

Saturday, September 13
I have a friend in town and I took her to a food truck festival that was happening in Nowhere. We got egg rolls and loaded fries and bubble tea and I got this cinnamon pretzel for dessert. Look, it's not at all pretzel shape, but it was perfectly baked and delicious.

Sunday, September 14
My friend is still in town and we went to a parade in a nearby town for their German festival. It was pretty lame, to be completely honest, but at least we went, right?

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If you are interested in voting for our next book for Cool Bloggers Book Club, don't forget to vote if you haven't already done so! The Google form is ready for you. The vote is tight, so your vote could make all the difference. 

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Did you do anything fun this weekend? See any parades? Eat from a food truck?

September Week One Photo Roundup

My thirty day goal for September is to take a photo every day. I'm going to just do a quick photo roundup each week to keep myself accountable.

Monday, September 1 - Labor Day! 

The kids were playing pool as I was packing up. I made them all pose for me and they were good sports about it. (If anyone wants a blast from the past, here is a photo of O - the tall kid in the yellow Hawkeyes shirt below - as a preemie.)

Tuesday, September 2 

First day of class for the semester. Because Dr. BB is teaching super early, we're getting up even earlier than before. I am going to have to do something about my lack of SAD lamp time, but that's a problem for another week. It was super foggy and creepy on my (early) morning walk with Hannah.

Wednesday, September 3

Pile of lanyards on my boss's desk. We're supposed to wear these lanyards that say "ASK ME" on them and she was going to pass them out to faculty. I don't know why, but this made all of us laugh when we walked into her office. (Also, I have had "Ask Me" by Amy Grant in my head for days now. If you don't know that song, maybe don't listen. It's sad.)

Thursday, September 4

Pile of stuff for yoga in the student union at lunchtime. Raise your hand if you can spot the lanyard from yesterday's photo!

Friday, September 5

What a crazy day at work. I had a zillion student appointments and reached out to a couple dozen more of the students I am tracking for one reason or another (generally if you end up on my caseload, I try to follow you for a few semesters and then I think I should just keep tracking until graduation, you know?). Meanwhile, it was a gorgeous day in Wisconsin - perhaps a tad bit chilly for me and you'll notice I'm wearing a scarf, but I'm keeping this positive - and Hannah was READY for her walk. 

Saturday, September 6

I have no idea what this sign means, but I immediately thought to myself that the Thirteenth Amendment made this shit illegal. 

Sunday, September 7

Bike with Dr. BB! I swore we'd do more bike rides this fall and I'm honestly going to try for one or two a week. He was a good sport to stop and take a photo with me. 

If you are new around here, this is one of my town's sculptures of the main dairy cows here in Wisconsin. This is the red and white. 

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Did you have any fun adventures this weekend? See any cows, real or sculptural?

Tuesday Tidings

1) Anne and I had an adventure on Saturday. I will leave with nothing more than the following photos.

2) It was raining on Easter Sunday which meant we didn't do the Easter egg hunt for the first time in eighteen years. We did a family trivia thing instead and that was fun, although maybe more fun for the adults than the children. 

Strawberry fluff

Brunchy brunchy. Complete with fluff. It's amazing.

I'm worried that my niblings are growing up a bit too sheltered, though. My oldest niece is 18 (she can VOTE) and acted SHOCKED that someone in her class told her to fuck off. My SIL, her mother, said, "can you believe that language?" and I looked really confused. When I was in high school, every other word I said was fuck. 

THEN! There was a conversation about how Iowa has created a dumb fucking law that is allowing people to have vouchers to parochial schools (listen - I am 100% in disagreement with my inlaws about this and don't want to have this discussion here, but the literature shows that in order to have solid public schools you need solid parents to help with the intangibles) and in the last year since this law has been in place, there are fistfights in the school. FISTFIGHTS, my SIL said. I shrugged. It's not like I went to some tough school - just a rural school in Michigan - but there were fights. Blood was drawn. Suspensions happened. 

ANYWAY. I rarely think private schools are the answer (they can be, but the circumstances have to be pretty severe), I'm concerned that my niblings are growing up not understanding the world, and we're in too far and I don't know how to fix it. 

3) April weather is so mercurial. It has been so windy and randomly rainy, but also randomly LOVELY. And it can all happen ON THE SAME DAY. Today I literally sat in the car shivering and whined about how I was never going to be warm again, but my computer is telling me that temps are going to jump overnight, so who the hell knows what's happening hour by hour?

4) In the mail! Look at postcards that have made their way to me in recent weeks.

5) I'm not purposefully being vague, but things are not as awesome as I would like in my life. There is hard stuff (ugh - the news), harder stuff (family stuff), and more harder stuff (some health stuff). I am doing my best to keep a stiff upper lip, but I'd like you all to know that I am screaming inside a lot. This brings me to my request. I will be in the car approximately twenty hours by myself next weekend. I'm looking for either a good podcast series or a good audiobook. I want it to be engaging, but not want to make me throw myself off a bridge. What recs do you have for me? 

The Fainting Thing

Elisabeth recently had a post about things she's never done. One of them is that she's never fainted. This is unfathomable to me since I faint pretty regularly. Noteworthy times I've fainted.

1) I cut the inside of my middle finger on my left hand with a broken glass when I was a child. I immediately fainted (landed on a carpeted floor), came to with my father carrying me to the bathroom, fainted again in the dining room, and was taken to the ER where it was determined I was dehydrated. No stitches were needed.

2) I was young - first grade, I think. I was happily playing on the jungle gym when all of a sudden I didn't know who I was or where I was. The world went black and I when I woke up, my sister was in the nurse's room with me and I had a giant knot on my forehead. They couldn't find my parents, so they called my emergency contact, my aunt, and I refused to leave with her. It was a big old mess. I had a concussion and could not do anything but sit in a dark room for days. I've never had that feeling of not knowing who I was since. 

3) I passed out in gym class once in ninth grade? Maybe tenth. I was hungry and I was dehydrated and had just run around the gym about a million times. I felt ill, went over to the bleachers and tried to get my head between my legs, but ended up just collapsing, supine, on the bleachers. 

4) I passed out in college when I did a fundraiser called Dance Marathon where I stayed awake and on my feet for 24 hours and by the time I got back to my dorm, I passed out while walking by the front desk. Details are fuzzy, but I woke up as they were calling 911. 

5) When I was newly engaged, I stood up from the couch and immediately passed out, hitting my head on the coffee table. 

6) I got home from a bike ride and as soon as I parked my bike and got off it, my legs felt like rubber and I got serious tunnel vision and I sat down, right there in the garage, and fainted. 

7) I was dogsitting Mingus and Buddy and when we got back from a walk, Mingus was nipping at Buddy and I was trying to get Buddy into a different room and I opened the screen door to the backyard, thinking one of them could go outside and I could feed one of them inside and one outside and I got tunnel vision and heard the whooshing sound and tumbled down the stairs. I scraped my leg and landed hard on my right arm. 

8) My husband fell on his bike and broke his collarbone. I passed out in the ER. 

9) I had a bad case of vertigo. The world was spinning and spinning. I was home alone, but knew I needed to drink water, so I attempted to walk to the kitchen. I ended up sitting on the ground and trying to scoot/crawl, but I was just so dizzy and the world was a kaleidoscope of colors. I almost made it to the kitchen when I just passed out on the floor. When I woke, Hannah was laying down beside me whining. 

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The common theme with most of these is to make sure you eat and drink, friends. And don't get vertigo.

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Have you ever fainted?

2024 in Chapters

Today is the last day to vote for our CBBC book! The vote is REALLY CLOSE, like two books are tied and the other is in the lead by only three points. Every vote matters. If you haven't already voted, here's the link. I'll tally votes tomorrow and put up a post on Friday with the winner.

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Last year, Elisabeth asked us to write a book of the year with her by titling each of our months. Stephany and Birchie used this format to write up yearly recaps based on those titles and if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me!  

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January: It Happened

It snowed a lot and then my mom had emergency surgery and was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was quite the beginning to the year. 

February: CBBC, Tornadoes, and Snail Mailpalooza

We read My Brilliant Friend for CBBC, an acquaintance had shingles because of a COVID infection and lost sight in his eye (and, DUDE, this guy has just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of skin cancer and he is only THIRTY-NINE, so that's something to think about), we had tornadoes in February, and I sent so many Valentine's Day cards. 

March: SAD Lamp Needed

It was a dark, dark time. I was refusing to think about my mom's health, so I wrote diverting posts about my work uniform, cursing, cow statues, and shopping ethically. 

April: Denial…It Ain’t Just a River in Egypt

My mom was not responding to treatment well. I was supposed to spend a week with her and when I was there she ended up in the ICU with a serious blood infection. Thumbs way down to April.

May: On the Road Again

A friend's sibling died and I went to Ohio. We went to hang out by Lake Huron and I stopped at Bowling Green, my undergrad alma mater. A blogger came to visit me (I mean, she wasn't actually there to visit me, but I tagged on to her adventure.) I also went back to Michigan to see my mom.

June: Rainy Days and Rainy Nights

It was the rainiest June I can remember. I did have some adventures, though, including starting The Century Trilogy, going to Dairy Day at the Mooseum, and visiting The House on the Rock with some blogging friends.

July: The Hospital and The Olympics

The highlight of the month was a visit from a blogger and the Olympics. The lowlights were my husband being in the hospital with rhabdo and me getting a colonoscopy. Thumbs way down to July.

August: The End of Summer Suck 

We read I Capture the Castle for CBBC, my husband and I did a fun weekend away to celebrate my birthday, and I went to Michigan again (and met another blogger!). But things were sort of dour at work and with my mom, so it felt like August was sort of blah. 

September: Routinely Fine

Just a completely normal September. Labor Day family reunion. My big blog event was finishing up my 20th Blogiversary celebration. I had 20 bloggers write lists of 20 things and then I did a week of my own lists leading up to the big day. Another huge round of thanks to everyone who helped me out!

October: Terrible, Thanks for Asking - COVID, A Radioactive Cat, and No Halloween

Poor Zelda got sick and the treatment made her radioactive. I got COVID and was sick on Halloween. We didn't carve pumpkins, go to a corn maze, or do anything fun. Honestly, another thumbs down for October. Fortunately, I read some good books. 

November: Highs and Lows - Terrible Election Results and a Mouse in the House, but Great Books and Thanksgiving

I read some really good books in November. And had a good time at Thanksgiving. NaBloPoMo rocks! We had a solid IRL book club meeting where a cat who is not Zelda sat on my lap.

December: A Tale of Two Energies 

The first half of December I ran around like a lunatic and tried to do all the holiday things, but then I just cuddled with Zelda on the couch when I took off the week between Christmas and New Year's. We went to a light show and a solstice bonfire. Christmas Day was super fun. 

What were some highlights from your 2024? 

Who's Your Unsung Hero?

There's an NPR series called My Unsung Hero where people talk about a kindness that has left an impression on them. I am a real sap and sometimes tear up when I read the stories. It has been a real slog here in these United States since round about 2016 and it's looking like we're heading into another tough time and sometimes I read through some of my favorite stories to remind myself that we are all in this together and that kindness still exists. 

My Unsung Heroes

It was A Day. It was a lovely summer day. I had been for a run and taken our pretty new dog out for an extra long walk. My husband was on a bike ride. I was just about to shower and eat lunch when I got a text from my husband that he'd been in a bike accident and he needed me to come get him. He had broken his collarbone and ended up in the ER. Well, after he'd been patched up, I realized I was dehydrated and super hungry and was starting to get light-headed. I went out to the nurse's station to ask where the vending machines were and I totally passed out at the desk. By the time we were both discharged from the hospital (FFS), I was exhausted, but not hurt or sick. I got my husband camped on the couch with some water and pain medicine and I took Hannah out for a walk because she'd been in her kennel for a lot of hours.

Well, the stupid badly behaved, sort of mean terriers around the block were loose. Their fence was open. They were running around and I was trying to manage Hannah who clearly thought they were prey and I still had my stupid hospital bracelet on and every time I'd corral one of those dumb dogs into their yard they'd bolt. I was worried they were going to get hit by a car and I just couldn't handle all three dogs at once. I just stood in the middle of the street and yelled "someone help me with these dogs" and two men (no idea who they are - I live ON THIS BLOCK and I've never seen these men since) came out of houses, saw what was going on, and took action. One fixed the fence issue and the other picked the dogs up and threw them into the closed fence. 

Honestly, I have no idea what I would have done that day without those kind men. 

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Do you have an unsung hero in your life?

12.9 Location - Annual Trip to the Corn Maze

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the ninth day of the month is "Location."

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While I guess I've only written about it twice on this blog, every year my husband and I go to a corn maze in October. When we lived in Minneapolis, we went to this corn maze at an apple orchard and they were actually open AFTER DARK and one year we went on the night when it was actually populated by terrifying people in costumes running around scaring you as if it weren't scary enough being in a CORNFIELD IN THE DARK.  Anyway, we're older and I'm short one good ankle, so we go to a very tame one with lots of breaks and these number markers that let you know that you're going in the right direction.

Why, yes, this is how I behave in public. Don't you? If you're really paying attention to this blog, you'll catch that I am wearing my new sweatshirt and my favorite hat. Tis that time of year. I just noticed you can also see how messed up my right thumb is. Wow. This photo has it all.

Because we've now been doing these corn mazes for going on two decades together, we have a system. If we think something is a loop, one of us will point in one direction, the other will point in another, and we'll go off our separate ways until the loop joins and we meet. This is done silently because WHY WASTE WORDS? We find it very funny when people are staring at maps or having discussions about strategy. Our only rules are a) go to the right if there's a choice or b) go in whatever direction other people are not. Because of these rules of the corn maze, we rarely actually talk about the maze while we're doing it.

Anyway, this maze is part of an amazing farm that has lots of fun activities for kids, including a hay ride, a corn pit, a petting farm, apple and pumpkin cannons, and just a gazillion booths to buy apple cider, donuts, kettle corn, and other fair food.  I enjoyed petting the goats a lot (did you know they were super soft?) and really enjoyed getting my fingers nibbled on by a donkey. We did not partake of any food, although we both admitted that the smell of the apple cider donuts was very tantalizing. 

It was a little early for us to go this year - look at how green the corn still is! - but our weekends in October are filling up a bit too quickly for my liking.

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Have you ever been to a corn maze? What spooky season activity should we do next weekend?

8.13 Failure - Of Communication

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the thirteenth day of the month is "Failure."

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(TL; DR) People get lost on a lake and poor choices were made but everyone is found safe and sound. 

As you know, I returned to Michigan again last weekend for another graduation open house. Western Michigan was showing off on the day of the party (clear blue skies, 82, a breeze) and we all stayed too late sitting in a circle around an unlit campfire (drought conditions = fire ban) while my friend told a family story.  Buckle up, it's a ride. Also, the cast list is enormous.

My friends Gustavo and Cecelia (all names have been changed to protect the innocent) have what they call a "cabin" on a chain of lakes "up north." If I'm telling the story, I'd describe it as a shack in mid-Michigan with lake access, but I'm not telling the story.  They frequently invite folks to stay with them at the cabin and one weekend they invited a big group.

Gustavo's parents, Justine and Big Alan 

Gustavo's brother, Alan 

Alan's three children, Autumn (12), Conor (15), and Tristan (8)

Gustavo's niece Desdemona (12) and his nephew Blake (6)

Gustavo and Cecelia's own children Alice (17), Johannah (16), and Derrick (14)

Buffy (her real name) the dog was also present, but she doesn't actually play a role in the story. I just want you to imagine thirteen people and a big dog sleeping in what is essentially a two-room shack.  

Buffy (her real name) is the cutest, cuddliest, sweetest dog I've ever met. You can smoosh her face and kiss on her all you want. She's also good at ball and waiting for her food. I want Buffy to show Hannah how to be a real dog.

Anyway, Gustavo and Cecelia had taken their pontoon out earlier in the day and it had broken down. They just barely managed to get the pontoon to the dock before the engine sputtered again. They knew the pontoon was broken, but no one else really did.

Cecelia had been working all week and was tired, so she took off for a nap in the air-conditioned bedroom.  

Gustavo and his mom were cooking dinner in the kitchen.

So when Conor, Derrick, Autumn, and Desdemona asked Big Alan if they could take the kayaks to paddle the chain of lakes, Big Alan did not ask Gustavo or Cecelia if this was a good idea. He just said yes, told the kids to have fun, and off they went.

But. The thing is that it takes an hour to get around the chain of lakes on the pontoon. It's really a day trip if you're going to paddle it. And it was about an hour before the sun was going down.

Eventually Gustavo and his mom realize that not all the kids are coming to eat dinner. Where are they? Big Alan grunts about letting them kayak the chain of lakes. The kids have a fishing kayak (the Rolls-Royce of kayaks, I guess), two regular old kayaks, and an inflatable kayak.

Gustavo takes the younger boys out in the canoe to see if he can see them. After a short in and out of the channel, they see nothing. When Gustavo tells this part of the story, there are lots of embellishments about how they ran into a black bear and a nesting loon, but that's all made up because he felt badly for Tristan and Blake who didn't have much of a role in the rest of the story.

The sun is going to be setting soon and everyone's worried about these four kids. So Gustavo goes to get the neighbor guy who has a working pontoon and asks if he can help Gustavo find the kids on the lake. Neighbor guy gets all the gear - flashlights, towels, etc. - and just as they're about to unmoor the pontoon, Gustavo sees the yellow tip of an oar and sees Derrick's kayak. He calls off the neighbor, thanks him for helping, and wanders back to his cabin.

He gets to the cabin and sees Derrick and Conor.

"Where are the girls?"

"We left them crying two lakes back. I thought we'd just grab the pontoon and go back to get them."

Whomp whomp. You may recall that this entire saga began with the pontoon breaking down.

Gustavo and Alan take off in the kayaks that Derrick and Conor had just returned to find the girls. Gustavo is in the Rolls-Royce kayak and Conor is in a kayak that had been overturned and not completely emptied because the boys had had quite an adventure themselves.

Meanwhile, Cecelia is awake from her nap and is seriously pissed that Big Alan just let four kids with hardly any experience head off into the wilderness just before dusk. Her nieces are missing, her husband and brother-in-law are off looking for them, and it's officially past sunset now.  Justine starts picking up the yard because she's the kind of person who cleans when she's stressed and she realizes that there are an awful lot of beer bottles scattered around. Who drank all these? Well, that would be Alan who just took off in a sketchy kayak half-filled with lake water to find his daughter and niece in a chain of lakes he's never been on before.  

Gustavo and Alan are gone. Gustavo has the nice kayak and soon he loses Alan because Gustavo's kayak can get through some swampy areas, but Alan gets stuck.

Then Alan's phone starts ringing. It's the girls! They had somehow managed to get their kayaks to a random person's dock and knocked on doors until they found someone who would let them make a phone call. They call Alan's phone because it's the only number that either girl has memorized (sidenote: even with cell phones, we should all still memorize important phone numbers!).  All the kids are safe.

But what of Gustavo and Alan?

Cecelia manages to get Gustavo on the phone when he's in one of the small spots that gets reception in the middle of the lake. She tells him that the girls are safe, so he and Alan can come back. Just before Gustavo can tell her that Alan is missing, the call cuts out.

And Alan walks up behind everyone and says hello, scaring the pants off the more delicate members of the party.

Alan's side story is that he eventually did exactly what the girls did and docked his kayak at the first place he saw and he just walked the shoreline until he found the cabin. If I were him, I'd still be wandering around random shorelines because I have no sense of direction. I literally have no idea how he did this.

But Gustavo is still on the lake. 

Big Alan is on the phone with the 911 dispatcher.

Cecelia is panicked.

The kids are either pretending nothing is happening or sharing their exploits.

And then Gustavo finally makes it home before emergency services are activated.

What have we learned kids?

There's a reason we ask our moms if we can do things and not our grandfathers.

5.14 Control - On My Own

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the fourteenth day of the month is "Control."

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Last Saturday, I took myself off to Madison with a list of the following things:

Art museum
Lululemon

Stickers
Shower oil
Girl Scout cookies (?)
Duluth Trading Company

And, best of all, I was all by myself to do these things.

First, I took myself to the art museum on UW-Madison's campus. I got there just after opening and there were very few patrons there and it was glorious to just wander around and enjoy the art. It was quiet, delightful, and I highly recommend it if you get a chance. It's free!

Then I wandered off to a nearby mall with a Lululemon. I was looking for leggings, but they are all shiny over there, so I opted out. Then I went over to Target to buy St. Patrick's Day stickers because I needed to get some for the cards for my nieces and nephews. I wandered around a few other stores, trying to find some shower oil, but couldn't find it. I went to a nice grocery store where I found myself some lunch AND there were Girl Scouts selling cookies in the lobby, which was amazing and exciting. 

I then drove to Duluth Trading Company. I did find some cotton leggings there, but let me tell you that jeans these days are...not my jam. Then I took the car through a car wash and headed home.

I know this sounds like just another day of doing errands, but I swear to you that I don't remember the last time I did anything like this. Yes, I sort of freaked out at DTC because it was very crowded. Yes, I chose to get lunch and eat it in my car instead of in a restaurant. But, you guys. I did it! I went out in the world and I survived.

It has been three years since the start of the pandemic and it has had a serious toll on who I am as a person. I have become less bold and less adventurous and I'm quite sad about it. I am trying to change and have a goal of a new adventure every month. But I'm exhausted from the effort at pretending I'm comfortable in places where I'm not, figuring out how to politely decline invitations to events I'm not yet ready for, and putting on a happy face day to day so my husband doesn't realize how much of a show all of it is. 

But I am determined. This will not be the last day where I get in the car and go somewhere with an itinerary of my own control, doing things I want to do, and having a good time. 

Here's to more adventures. 

4.7 Contact - How Do Advertisers Reach You?

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the seventh day of the month is "Contact." 

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This is just the last photo I took on my walk with Hannah yesterday. I live in such a beautiful place.

We've talked before that I'm a hard person for advertisers to reach. There are options, of course: I pass by billboards when I'm driving, I occasionally listen to terrestrial radio in our older car because it doesn't have any connectors for cell phones, I do listen to ads on Spotify because I don't have a paid subscription, and there are ads galore on my Duolingo app. I also do check in on Facebook once daily (to send a message to my accountability buddy) and use Instagram fairly regularly.  

But I don't listen to ads on podcasts and I don't watch television or much YouTube, so it's tough out there. I'm also sort of a tightwad who basically only spends money on food and SmartWool clothing. 

So if advertisers really want to reach out to me, why do I get things like this:

Do I seem like the person who is interested in "ufology?" That I would spend money on books on the topic? I mean, if this were an ad for public libraries, maybe I would be interested!

Your turn. What do you get advertisements for that don't suit your lifestyle or interests?

2022 Q2 Goals Update

It's quarterly goals update time! As a reminder, here are my goals for 2022. Here's how Q1 went. Now on to the second quarter.  My health goals went okayish. Everything else was so so.  It was a tough quarter for me professionally and some of that unhappiness bled into these personal goals.  

Area One: Health 

1) Work out five times a week for 30 minutes or more. Yoga twice a week.  Something else three times a week. 

April
24/30 days of formal workouts of 30 minutes or more
13 yoga workouts
12 strength/cardio workouts

May
26/31 days of formal workouts of 30 minutes or more
9 yoga workouts
16 strength/cardio workouts

June

24/30 days of formal workouts of 30 minutes or more

8 yoga workouts

16 strength/cardio workouts

I did 74/91 days of formal workouts (81.3%) this quarter, which is higher than the 5/7 days goal I had set (71.4%). The yoga goal of twice a week would work out to 26 over the quarter and I did 30, so I hit that. My "something else" three times a week would work out to 39 over the quarter and I did 44, so I also hit that metric.  I feel pretty darn good about this. 

*2)  Drink at least sixteen ounces of water before lunch and sixteen ounces of water after lunch every day. 

April: 16/30 (53%) days in the morning, 29/30 (97%) days after lunch

May: 10/31 (32%) days in the morning, 29/31 (94%) days after lunch

June: 25/30 (83%)days in the morning, 29/30 (97%) days after lunch

After a lackluster early performance, I did get better about filling my mug with water after my morning tea in June.  Let's call it a small win.  

Area Two: Professional 

*1) Apply to a new job at least once a week until I have a new job. 

I've sent out a bunch of resumes and cover letters and have even had a couple of interviews, but I'm still stuck at my current job. I'm honestly so unhappy about this that it's even hard to type it out. 

2) Respond to emails for my volunteer gig in a timely manner. 

Ha ha ha. People have taken to texting me when I actually need to respond. I'm obviously letting this slide.

Area Three: Communication 

1) Continue to post in my blog at least twice a week.

April: 20 posts

May: 20 posts

June: 17 posts

Easily met this goal. Yay!

2) Continue to write a note to K/D/M once a month.

April: Everyone was sent an Easter card.

May: I sent everyone a card for Mother's Day.

June: I guess I just didn't do it this month. Oh, well.  

3) Keep lists of snail mail I send and books I read.

April: Book list here. I sent one bill, eight Easter cards, including to K/D/M, two birthday cards, and a legal document through the mail for a total of 12 items out in snail mail.

May: Book list here. I sent four Mother's Day cards, three bills, and one birthday card for a total of eight items out in snail mail.

June: Book list here. I sent three birthday cards, one Father's Day card, and one bill for  total of five items out in snail mail. June was not my best month for mail. 

*4) Text T/T/M every week. I feel like I'm letting some of my best friendship sort of fall to the wayside because I'm mired in work-related unhappiness, but I need to let these people know I think about them all the time.  Texting isn't intrusive to them, either, so this is a win-win.

April: Completed!

May: I did fail this for one of those people on one week, but otherwise completed.

June: Completed!

Area Four: Post-Pandemic Re-Entry 

1) Visit a new park/nature preserve/outdoor space at least once a quarter.

 This quarter I went to a park for a graduation party in Michigan.  It was new to me!

*2) Visit my mom.

I did not visit my mom, but I'm going to be seeing her in the first week of July, so just barely outside of the second quarter. 

*3) Have people over to our house at least once - for a game night, dinner, or just a hangout. We can't keep ourselves in a bubble forever.

    April: A friend was visiting from out of state and she came over for lunch.

    May: We had friends over for dinner one night.

    June: Womp womp. No one entered our house except for us.

Area Five: Miscellaneous

*1) Keep track of mileage walked with the dog. 

April: 53.78 miles logged this month, which is roughly 1.8 miles a day.  Most days we walked three times, but there were occasional days when we did one more or one less.  On an average day, we walk about a quarter of a mile around the block first thing in the morning, a mile or so in the afternoon, and whatever Hannah feels up to right before bed. On any day that we only went on two walks, she was walked by my husband to get her to three walks a day.

Number of Walks	Number of Days
2	3
3	24
4	2

May: 48.8 miles logged this month, which is roughly 1.6 miles a day. There were a couple of really hot days when Hannah was not up for anything and a few days when she was in some considerable amount of pain and we got less than a mile on those days.

Number of Walks	Number of Days
2	3
3	24
4	4

June: 40.82 miles logged this month, which is roughly 1.36 miles a day. There were a couple of really hot days, Hannah has had some bad pain days, and I was out of town a couple of days. Also, and this is key, fireworks started at the end of the month and Hannah has been basically refusing to go for her evening walk for a couple of weeks now. This will probably go on all summer. Poor scared dog. 

Number of Walks	Number of Days
0	1
1	1
2	7
3	21

*2) Keep track of how I spend my time for a week. Lisa did this in January and I stole the idea from her. Stephany and San did it, too, so I'm really just being a follower.

In college, I was overcommitted and I was having a mini-breakdown in my therapist's office when she had me take off my watch. She kept it for a week and in that week, I stopped watching the seconds pass by and chilled the fuck out. I still don't wear a watch to this day.  I started this exercise on a regular, not much scheduled, nothing urgent happening Saturday, but by 1:30 that afternoon, I found myself checking the clock every two minutes and freaking out over a whole lot of nothing. I immediately stopped tracking my time. As much as I'd like to have the data this exercise would produce, I think I'm going to have to just pass on it.  

*3) Create a document for Dr. BB in the event of my untimely death. Inspired by Suzanne's post.

Ha ha ha. I did not even start this. Rollover to next quarter.

*4) Just figure out how to put more money in my investment accounts. (rollover from last year and last quarter)

I DID THIS! Holy hell. I figured out how to log in to the online account in early April and I set it up to take more money out every month. It wasn't even that hard!!

*5) Continue to donate $50 a month to a local charity. 

April: This month was high in expenses, but I donated $30 to the community foundation for the community center where I worked, so I consider this a job well done.

May: Nope. I bought raffle tickets at the Farmer's Market ($20), but that hardly seems like it counts. 

June: I donated $100 to our local community center ($50 for our yearly membership and $50 for a fundraiser).

I'm basically just including my goals for next quarter here so they're all in one place. Most of these are remaining the same. 

Area One: Health

1) Work out five times a week for 30 minutes or more. Yoga twice a week.  Something else three times a week. 

*2)  Drink at least sixteen ounces of water before lunch and sixteen ounces of water after lunch every day. 

Area Two: Professional

*1) Apply to a new job at least once a week until I have a new job. 

2) Forget responding to emails in a timely manner. Just figure out how to organize the email inbox for my volunteer gig. 

Area Three: Communication

1) Continue to post in my blog at least twice a week.

2) Continue to write a note to K/D/M once a month.

3) Keep lists of snail mail I send and books I read.

*4) Text T/T/M every week

Area Four: Post-Pandemic Reentry

1) Visit a new park/nature preserve/outdoor space at least once a quarter.

*2) Visit my mom.

*3) Have people over to our house at least once - for a game night, dinner, or just a hangout. We can't keep ourselves in a bubble forever.

*4) Buy more KN-95 masks. For a while I thought I could get away without them, but I'm still not comfortable going into public places without a mask, so here we go again.

Area Five: Miscellaneous

*1) Keep track of mileage walked with the dog. 

*2) Create a document for Dr. BB in the event of my untimely death. Inspired by Suzanne's post.

*3) Donate $50 a month to a local charity. 

*4) Brush the dog and cat's teeth. I did a great job in the first quarter when I tracked it, but when I stopped tracking, I stopped doing it, so I'm adding it back.

How are your quarterly goals going? Are you setting any new one for the third quarter?