My 40th Year on Earth: A Beginning

Happy New Year! I hope you've had a wonderful first week of 2019, and have only had to correct yourself once or twice when writing the date. I know, I know, no one writes anything anymore, but I'm old so humor me.

As I said to someone at work this week, January is the longest month of the year, lasting about three months and feeling like seven. I was only at work three days this week and I already feel like I need a vacation. Maybe it has something to do with that phenomenon of not really knowing what day it is between Christmas and New Year's. Once I step back into the reality of actual life, I realize my vacation was but a moment of randomly scheduled events and sitting on my couch with Keely. It feels like a lifetime ago.

The start of January also means it's time for me to assess my goals for the year and reorganize something (probably the spice cabinet, but maybe the pantry). I've never been one to make resolutions, but a goal I can do. I mean, I've been working on a project at work about this exact thing for precisely ten years (I've only worked there for a year and a half), so I need to follow the advice I've been writing and put these goals out into the world. Usually, I try to make a list that includes both small, easy wins and lofty aspirations. I feel like I was too ambitious last year, as I didn't accomplish much of what I set out to do. However, while I didn't do all of the things, other things ended up being part of my life instead, so it all balances out. I accomplished a lot last year, so I'm satisfied with that. Since I didn't do all the things I listed last year, it also means I can move some forward to this year. Win-win in my book.

There's the added bonus this year of it being my 40th year on Earth. As I was thinking through my goals for the year, I thought of a conversation with a friend from work who told me how much I would love my forties. To her, it's a powerful decade of life, and I am 100% behind this. Because of this conversation, I got to thinking I should enter my 40th year on Earth boldly and with the same sense of purpose I entered into my thirties. Back then, I did 30 things I had never done before during the year; things like wearing lipstick everyday and wearing only skirts and dresses for a month. I credit my love skirts and my affinity to lipstick to this experiment. What will I keep doing after this year?

Now, being bold doesn't have to mean things like sky diving or walking across hot lava. I don't equate boldness and extreme sports, although feel free to do so if that works for you. Instead, I'm defining boldness as those things that make me move out of the comfort zone I've created for myself in my little apartment with my enormous cat. It's moving into a new decade of life knowing that I tried things that are terrifying to me (see March, July, November, and December), while also doing things I know I can accomplish but are completely outside of my norm (see January, April, May, and September). The rest of the list are things I've always wanted to do or are just fun, to balance out all the terrifying (see February, June, August, and October).

Without further ado, my list:

• January: Participate in a Polar Bear Plunge to benefit Special Olympics VA.
• February: Ride in my first Mardi Gras parade. Hail Nyx!
• March: Actually sing at a karaoke night.  
• April: Mastering the Art of French Cooking - I'll make a four course meal from this iconic cookbook.
• May:  Take a welding/jewelry class. 
• June: Experience my 40th Birthday Extravaganza. I don't know what this means yet, but I'll figure it out.
• July: Launch my podcast, Don't Be a Jerk at Work.
• August: Enter the Arlington County Fair baking contest, probably in the holiday cookie category.
• September: Take drum lessons.
• October: Go to Hershey Spa because why wouldn't I want to go to a chocolate spa? (PS - I don't like strangers touching me, so this is both a fun goal and a little uncomfortable for me.)
• November: Put The Craftery plan on paper. 
• December: Send Transient Suburbia proposal to at least two publishers.

Now that I've shared these with you, I'm more likely to actually achieve most, if not all of these goals. Each month, I'll provide an update on how it went and what's coming next. You'll be my accountability buddies or something.

Here's to a fun and exciting 2019!