I love a challenge!
Once again, I have brought my blog to the brink of destruction – not quite teetering over the abyss (it’s only sunk to around 600K on Alexa and hasn’t hit the millions, yet!) – and the prospect of breathing fresh life into it as the New Year breathes frost on the windowpane is exhilarating! It is a tradition – just like Pinterest-fail gingerbread houses, NaNoWriMo angst, and making unkempt New Year’s resolutions. That’s right – unkempt, not unkept. Resolutions litter this blog like unmatched socks. Some are well-worn, with holes that match the ones in my soul. Some have been shoved into the sock drawer, where they play hopscotch on Hell’s paving stones and romp with good intentions. Others are neatly paired with unflinching commitment and smoking hot, well-laid plans.
They’re precious, aren’t they?
Only the writing goals really happened: I even took home a 2nd Place prize in Flash Fiction from OWFI, and will be speaking there this year, on social media for writers and writing for children. The volunteering and/or donating to the Houston Food Bank – that mostly happened. Until May, when I broke my ankle. I could have accomplished a lot of work on that owl blanket, or the Punishment Pig, but none of that was happening. A lot of other things happened. If “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” it’s wise to ditch the other plans.
This is a “No Whining Zone.”
So – I’m working on the Punishment Pig:
No, it’s not hot pink embroidery floss, because I can’t see stitches that small right now. But it will be adorably cute. I hope.
I’m renewing commitment to health and fitness and cheering for the fact that I am still 10 lbs. lighter than I was this time last year. I will need to force myself to go to the gym more often; between a still-stiff ankle, vision problems (RCE – at least now we know it’s not eyeball-munching, glass-pooping beetles), and occasional bouts of vertigo (like every time a front moves through), I won’t be traipsing through the woods for a while. I’ll be the old lady who actually uses the safety cord on the treadmill. After a champagne celebration over the mere fact that I could go down the stairs left-foot, right-foot, left-foot, right-foot again after breaking my ankle, it’s clear that I’ve learned to adjust my expectations and take small victories where I find them.
Lots of life happening, this year.
HollyJahangiri
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Hi Holly,
Did I understand your post correctly, you are going to be a speaker? If yes, congratulations!
Happy New Year!
Janice
Yes! See http://www.owfi.org/#!owfi-faculty/c246f – I’m in excellent company. There’s still time to sign up and attend the conference!
Congratulations on your new career as a speaker and also for keeping the weight down at 10 lbs lower than the same time last year. I wish that I could say something similar about the latter.
Happy new year and all the very best.
Rummuser recently posted…2015!
Thank you! I’m not sure I’d call it a “career” just yet – but in the last few months I’ve gone from “WTF have I done?” to looking forward to it. 😀 And I AM getting paid, so we can legitimately call it a “professional speaking engagement,” which is nice. Next goal: Be invited back. LOL
Remember, two pounds lost is better than 10 gained. I didn’t meet my personal goal, but it’s important to recognize small accomplishments, too – such as not gaining weight! 🙂 That’s a step in the right direction.
Happy new year and congrats all your “mini victories.” Here is to many more in 2016.
Rasheed Hooda recently posted…Marketing Ethics
Thank you! Maybe that’s the trick – to set more “mini-goals” to have a greater sense of accomplishment at the end of the year!
I had to ditch a lot of plans in 2015 as well. I’ve decided to put the whole year out of my mind and just look forward to a new and productive and healthy 2016!
Patricia Stoltey recently posted…Looking Back on 2015 and Ahead to 2016
I’m all for that. Here’s to accomplishing an unstated goal for 2015 – “Forgive ourselves for our shortcomings and forge ahead with our most important commitments.” Like I don’t STILL need to lose weight? Of course I do. I’m not giving up because I didn’t meet some artificial deadline I set for myself. (And this was key to my quitting smoking in 2006 – so I know that it works. I quit at 2PM specifically to avoid that “clean slate” mentality – you know the one that says, “Well, I screwed up – might as well not think about it again until tomorrow. Or the day after. Or, you know, maybe next week. I’ll start fresh then…” Never happens. Start at 2PM on a day you’ve already f***ed up. 🙂 That works.
Congratulations on your good news and recoveries! You are a trooper and a Librarian. What in the name of all that’s holy is a Punishment Pig? A wild boar that eats bad little children? I’m shudderin’ ovah heah!
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Ahh, well, the “punishment pig” goes back to my new year’s eve post from 2014: “Lose 78 lbs. by 12/31/2015 and become physically fit enough to hike to the top of Multnomah Falls without getting overly winded, or crochet a Pepto-Bismol pink amigurumi pig with a miniature, beaded tiara and a purple feather boa using embroidery floss and teeny-tiny seed beads, and auction it off to benefit Relay for Life in April 2016.*”
In recognition of the fact that I lost SOME of the weight and kept it off in spite of being a total couch potato, I’m NOT using embroidery floss. (That, and with my right eye messed up from RCE, I can’t even SEE stitches in embroidery floss, so forget that.) But I am making the amigurumi “punishment pig” and hope that it brings in more than it’s worth for the American Cancer Society.
Happy New Year, Holly! I am hoping that some of my get-up-and-go returns to me as well. But it’s always a one-day-at-a-time thing.
I’m glad you’re on the mend.
May your new year bring you many blessings!
Fim
Well, one thing mends, another breaks. Look up RCE (Recurrent Corneal Erosion) and — well, I said this was a “no whining zone,” but I woke up feeling exceptionally whiny this morning and even growled the f-word on the phone with my FATHER (who was appropriately sympathetic since he understood I’d just ripped the skin off my cornea for the umpteenth time this week). Proposed solution (that’s the new rule around here!): Go snarl the f-word at the ophthalmologist and ask about DBSK and Prokera. Which both sound pretty effing painful, too, but if it’s anything like a tonsillectomy (which hurts like crazy for about a week, but it’s the LAST time it does), I’m willing. Here’s hoping we’re both well on the way to two days at a time with that whole “get up and go” thing. 🙂 Happy 2016!