60 posts tagged “resolution challenge”

I suppose I should finally get around to doing my list, now that I'm a week and a half late. I also suppose I should go back to see what I wanted to accomplish.

Let's say these, because I did do them when I said would, but they never stay done:
Vacuum
Iron
Clean Kitchen Table

The last few weeks were nutso busy, even for me. This is a pretty quiet week. I have rehearsal tonight, going to the First Friday Art Walk (it's killer, you should come out for it sometime) and to the bar Saturday morning for the Michigan State v Michigan game.

I just may GO GREEN! all the way and ride the bus, since the bar is walking distance from the bus line that is also walking distance from my abode. That means I'd have to be on the bus by 7:30 to get there by 8:45. Or I could drive and leave my house at 8:15 and get there at the same time. See why we don't ride the bus out here? But it would give me a chance to catch up on all my reading. So that's a plus.

We'll see. If I do the bus, then I can stop on the way back, pick up the local shuttle bus circulator and go to the Tempe Oktoberfest. Then I can drink all afternoon and take the bus back home. That's thinking ahead, I tell you what.

What else? Oh yeah, my list.

1. Clean all the stuff off the piano. It's the kitchen table overflow area.
2. Fix guest bathroom toilet. I came home from Safford to find a pool of water in the guest bathroom. Glad I went in there - every since Elvis left I have no reason to go into his bathroom. I shut off the water and drained the commode. That's as far as I got. I'm not having guests for - wait, I'm hosting book club in two weeks. Good thing I'm putting it on my list! I don't know if it's from where the water lines attach or somewhere else. 
3. Dust. We can dust every day out here in the desert. I don't, but could.
4. Work out. I'm doing pretty good this week. Let's hope I can keep it up.
5. Write a letter to Grams. She's doing great in Wisconsin. Yay!
6. Write a letter to soon to-be-departed colleague. A wonderful guy here in town accepted a job as an arts center director in Calgary. You Canadians will love him. We'll miss him terribly.
7. Read two magazines. They are taking over my house. Yikes.

That's enough for me. I think I'm doing other things this weekend but I can't remember.

It's at least a dollar short, too. Maybe even a whole Euro short, and that's saying a lot.

I'm headed to soggy San Diego this weekend for Miss K's 40th Birthday Bash. I think it might be soggy, what with that hurricane business and all. It's supposed to rain here, which will bum me out because I hate missing a good desert rain. If it also rains there, I'll be doubly bummed because I'll be on vacation.

Busy week, lots going on. Miss K and I are going to see "The Hangover" tonight. We might be the last two people on earth who haven't seen it. Including children. Seriously - what family takes 12 year olds and younger to this kind of movie? Apparently, a lot of families from what I hear. *eye roll*

I'm sure it's amusing, but I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to humor. Especially when movies are aiming straight at teenage boys/post adolescent males. Teenage boys and I are not equipped with the same funny bone structure.

Cleverness, originality and irony = funny

Horny people with gastro-intestinal issues = not funny

So we'll see. I'm pretty 'eh' about it, but I do love movie theater popcorn. I'm pretty sure I could live on popcorn if I tried. One time at a baseball game, I came close to eating my weight in kettle corn. Good times.

What was my point? Oh yeah, my list. Here's last week:

1. Ignore whatever I had on the last list I did, whenever that was, and start over.
2. Bust my ass at work
3. Get to bed early - I've been sleeping like a rock and am still tired. 
4. Work out (all that county fair food has settled into the buddha belly. Ugh.) Not that it's helped any. Pfft.
5. Get all the newspapers off the kitchen table - I threw out all the July papers, though. That's progress.
6. Take care of the bills and paperwork (I have been uninspired to do anything around the house. I'm turning into a pathetic slob. Yikes.) - most of them. 
7. Iron clothes (I'm running out of wardrobe options) - Nope
8. Be nice to myself - I don't want to check this off, because I'll still be nice to myself. :-)

Here's what might actually happen this week.
1. Early to bed, early to rise.
2. Become healthy, wealthy and wise.
3. Pack for San Diego

Yep, that's all I got for now. Setting the bar low!   

I'm already thinking it's 2010. Aack. That means I'm speeding up time and getting to 40 faster (2011 will be here soon!).

I'm already having freak outs. Mostly though, I'm feeling really unbalanced lately. The most rational explanation is that I'm still getting used to not having my best buddy around. Elvis' passing has left a massive hole in my life and while each day gets a teensy bit easier, I still have meltdowns, feeling wracked with guilt, sadness, loneliness, etc. 

I try to step back and remind myself that my life is great and I really have no complaints. But that doesn't help me when I'm feeling down in the dumps. Then I start wondering if I inherited some of DadH's depression and maybe I need to go to counseling or start taking happy pills. I'm hoping this is just a phase.

Even though my schedule is packed as per normal, I don't feel like hanging out with people. Then I go home to be by myself and then I kick myself for not spending more time at home when Elvis was around. Rewind and repeat.

Enough of my navel-gazing belly aching. Here's as much of a list as I think is do-able.

1. Ignore whatever I had on the last list I did, whenever that was, and start over.
2. Bust my ass at work
3. Get to bed early
4. Work out (all that county fair food has settled into the buddha belly. Ugh.)
5. Get all the newspapers off the kitchen table
6. Take care of the bills and paperwork (I have been uninspired to do anything around the house. I'm turning into a pathetic slob. Yikes.)
7. Iron clothes (I'm running out of wardrobe options)
8. Be nice to myself

That should about do it. Have a great week!

I had an uber-productive weekend. Yes, I know there are supposed to be umlauts on uber, or I should spell it ueber to be correct, but I'm not getting graded on my Deutsch anymore. Es macht jedenfalls nichts.

Without further ado, here's last week's list:
- buy gift for bridal shower
- Iron clothes - Whoops
- Vacuum - I vacuumed my place to within an inch of its life. I even moved furniture around. I kept thinking how I would never do this much if Elvis was still around. His location in my house dictated where I would and wouldn't vacuum. Why scare the cat if I can wait and get that room when he departs?

- Fix Miss K's shell purse  - It's still missing one shell. I might go to the fabric store if I get ambitious and see if I can find a replacement.
- Read two magazines - Nope, but I did finish watching the X-Files Netflix DVD that has been sitting around for the last two months, so that counts for something. I missed Elvis horribly on Saturday night when I was camped out on the couch watching the DVD, though. Couch Time just isn't the same.

- Yoga - the instructor on Saturday was so freaking hot I had a hard time concentrating on what I was doing. Yowza.
- Go through bills and assorted paperwork
- Post more Costa Rica pics
- sleep - 10 hours on Saturday night, a full eight last night (and I'm still tired)
- maybe take the light rail downtown to the Phoenix Public Market. - maybe another time.

What to do, what to do...
- laundry
- Iron clothes
- Read two magazines
- Swim (going to a class tonight. It's about time I get back in shape)
- Bills and paperwork
- Post more CR pics
- Call up some old friends to keep in touch

That should keep me busy for a while.

Ciao!

Time to get back from vacation mode, woe-is-me mode, etc. mode, and snap back to it. 

How do people even find time to watch TV and stuff? Last night I didn't have plans so I left immediately after work, went to the gym, went grocery shopping and came home around 7:30. Then I made dinner, went through my mail (finally) and then zonked out at 10:00 p.m. I was hoping to watch another episode of The X-Files, which I've had from Netflix going on two months now. Maybe I'll get to that on Saturday. Of next week.

Okay, here goes.

My schedule:
Tonight - going away party for a friend. My Best Meatballs Ever are cooking in the breakroom. Good thing two of my co-workers don't eat meat/beef and two more are out of the office. That leave two more (plus me) to snack on one or two now and again.
Tomorrow - transfer remainder of VP Finance responsibilities to the volunteer board person new person. HOORAY!
Thursday - possible cocktail hour
Friday - happy hour with the old gang from Megacorp. Yay!
Saturday - gym/RiGY09 list stuff
Sunday - bridal shower. yay.

List:
- buy gift for bridal shower (registered at Macy's, which is across the street. Yay!)
- Iron clothes
- Vacuum
- Fix Miss K's shell purse (some shells fell off when I borrowed it)
- Read two magazines
- Yoga
- Go through bills and assorted paperwork
- Post more Costa Rica pics
- sleep
- maybe take the light rail downtown to the Phoenix Public Market. That's a big maybe, but I want to check it out and the temp is supposed ONLY be 107, down from 114 right now. So the morning might only be 100. That's not bad. Really. Trust me on that.

I suppose that's enough. It'll be my first weekend at home without Elvis. It's weird not having him around. I may find more reasons to be out of the house so we'll see how I do at tackling my list.

Ciao! 

I feel like I didn't get crap done last week. Let's see what actually happened.

1. Finance report. - Done and done. Problem is, they couldn't find anyone else to take this job for next year so I'm finishing up some more stuff until the new board figures something out. I hope I didn't screw up the books too bad. :-P

2. Fix garbage disposal. I paid my friend Sean in lamb steaks. I asked him to grill them for me so it really wasn't much of a payment to him after all.

3. Spend as much time with Mr. WuvWuv as possible. - This is the reason much of the rest of the list didn't get done. He pinned me down on the couch for most of Saturday. He's holding steady, I'm still stressed about leaving him for 10 days. :-(

4. Work on the painting for a friend that I meant to do last year and totally forgot about until I came across the photo of her cats this past weekend. - Totally slipped my mind. I'll take the photo and a sketch pad to Costa Rica with me.

5. Vacuum. Decided it would be best if I waited until the last minute to do this.

6. Read. I think I did some of this so I'll count it.

7. Yoga
8. Swim
9. Relax - For the most part.

I'm crammed for time as I leave on Thursday. Here's what I need to do before then.

1. Knock out a lot of work that I didn't get done last week here in the office.
2. Print out address list for postcards.
3. Print out cat photo to sketch
4. Plan and pack carry-on bag
5. Pack clothes that have been piling up on the guest bed. I spent what seemed like a zillion dollars at Target yesterday supplanting my vacation wardrobe.
6. Clean house for catsitter
7. Give catsitter extra local contacts in case of emergency
8. Call vet and let her know Elvis has a catsitter

I'm sure there are lot more things I need to do, but those should cover most of it.

Gotta run. Hasta luego!

My good friend Sean, who lives to give me grief, has informed me that I will be buying a new disposal and not cheap out by using the liquid duct-tape option. I then informed him I have been spending plenty of money lately, thank you very much.

Sean and I might have been an old married couple by now, but we decided years ago we would kill each other within weeks so it's for the best if we just stayed friends.

I asked if this means he'll help. "Yes, but I'll need something from you."

Me: "Do I need to put out?"
S: "No. But your sewing machine does."

I'm conflicted on how I should feel about that.

Moving on. Here's last week. Cranky said I get a pass because of all the other crap I had to deal with:
1. Finance report. Time is running out for me on this. Blargh - FAIL
2. Upload Chicago Peep Meet Pics! - Sort of. They are on my computer at least
3. Vacuum- FAIL
4. Spend as much time with Mr. WuvWuv as possible  - SUCCESS!

This week:
1. Finance report.
2. Fix garbage disposal
3. Spend as much time with Mr. WuvWuv as possible
4. Work on the painting for a friend that I meant to do last year and totally forgot about until I came across the photo of her cats this past weekend.
5. Vacuum
6. Read
7. Yoga
8. Swim
9. Relax 

I can't remember what I had before, but I'm sure I have one holdover of my last list. I'm too lazy to open a new window, find it and cut and paste. No one is keeping score anyway, right? I'd hate to fail my own life. Ha.

Other stuff first - it's a cloudy day, I'm hoping we get some rain. Maybe Cranky can send me some of hers.

Elvis woke me up in the night with heavy breathing. He was straining like he was on Sunday night. My poor kitty. The vet is supposed to call today and let me know if he might have Valley Fever instead of lung cancer. This morning he was okay, still not great.

I'm hoping he can stay well enough that I won't worry about him before I go to Costa Rica. On the other hand, if he gets worse, I'd rather make those decisions before I leave. I talked to my friend who will be catsitting him so she knows the situation. I trust her implicitly, but I don't want to put any major responsibilities on her like that.

Okay, onto non-sad things.

My Baseball Guy is in town because his team (Rangers) is playing the Dbacks. He set me up with some sweet tickets - but they were in the Rangers friends & family section. When Catsitter Friend and I cheered on a particularly good play by our hometown boys, a little girl in front of us about 7 years old whipped around and gave us the stinkeye. It was hilarious. Then I'm all, "BRING IT, LITTLE GIRL! BRING IT!"

BG and I went out for a cocktail after the game and to chat at his hotel bar, where there bartender TOTALLY came onto me. In a discreet yet obvious way. It was bizarre.

Enough stuff. Here's my low-achiever list for the weekend:
1. Finace report. Time is running out for me on this. Blargh
2. Upload Chicago Peep Meet Pics!
3. Vacuum
4. Spend as much time with Mr. WuvWuv as possible

Thanks again to everyone for all the love, hugs, good wishes and jujus. :-)

This weekend was pretty quiet. My friend Anne cleaned out her closet and I took home about 40 pounds of clothes. I kept most of it, the rest goes to Goodwill. That meant a day of nothing but laundry for the Amester yesterday. Oh, and a swim. I needed to work out some soreness from another round of hot yoga on Saturday. I'm glad to be getting back to it after a year hiatus.

I'm still feeling blorpy. I was hoping to lose 5-10 pounds before Costa Rica (July), but I guess I should be doing more than just hoping. Like working out and watching what I eat (and drink). Eh, whatevs. I'm happy and I'll be in Costa Rica.

But first - CHICAGO! SQUEE! I still need to get a souviner. My flight on Friday leaves before the airport shops open so now I'll have to scour Old Town Scottsdale and hit up some of the tourist trap stores to get some appropriate schwag.

It's a short week, so I'm going to try and actually accomplish something. I'm going to try and not be around TOO much. Ha. Like I have that kind of willpower.

Here's last week's list:

1. Set up new Blackberry phone, to be delivered by mail TODAY! Yay! - Still can't get work email, but I upload pictures of Elvis. So that's a success!
2. Finish VP Finance Report - *whistles, shuffles feet*
3. Call Grams in her new place. She's doing a lot better! Her mind is back and she's doing a little walking. - MomH said her phone isn't working right. I'll call her when it's set up.
4. Vacuum - Did a bit of cleaning this weekend. Feels good to have a clean house and clear sight lines to spot scorpions.
5. Read one magazine from pile (I'm busy every single night this week but tonight) - I don't believe this happened. I'm busy every night this week, too.
6. Bikram yoga 2x (I bought a pass for the next two weeks) - so sweaty, feels sooo good.
7. Run once - Whoops. It's those late nights doing me in.
8. Get ready for CHICAGO!!! (and buy tacky AZ souvenir) - I have a ride to the airport and a catsitter, that's all I have going for me right now! 

This week:
1. Pack for CHICAGO!!!
2. Buy souvenir for CHICAGO!!!
3. Finish VP Finance Report
4. Stop driving self crazy by doing things I know I shouldn't do because I know it will drive me crazy thinking about how I shouldn't have done those things when I know I'll drive myself crazy. See the endless loop of hell I put myself in sometimes? I need to stop the madness!
5. Find presents for double birthday party on Wednesday
6. Renew passport. I'm good for Costa Rica, but it expires before the end of the year. Who knows when I'll suddenly need to leave the country, after all?

Have a great one!

I'm whooped. And I didn't do anything more exciting than float around in Miss K's pool for a few hours yesterday. The day before I did Bikram Yoga and I'm still sore. Saturday night was the Bloomin' Beerfest at the Irish Cultural Center. Miss K and I decided we were taking it over next year. The silent auction was pretty much a garage sale with a lot of crap and some of the beer vendors didn't show. Thank heavens for Four Peaks, who saved the day. I was a big fan before, an even bigger fan now.

My life is burning me out, which happens once in a while. I'm looking forward to wrapping up the rest of my volunteer obligations and being a lazy bum. As lazy a bum as I'm capable of, that is. I'm sure I'll get involved in something else soon enough and the time off from other things will help me figure out what I want to get involved in next.

Leadership Institute graduation and the party was a blast on Friday. I played the sax to much acclaim during my team's presentation on public funding for the arts. Yes, I worked in my real life work into our group project. Bonus!

Okay, enough of that. I'll put my list up and then grab my second cup of coffee. Then I can be all jittery for the rest of the day.

Last week:
1. Work out 3x
2. Finish two magazines from the pile
3. Buy tacky AZ souvenir - forgot
4. Finish VP Finance Report and just be done with it - this may end up being the new "write to German relatives" entry
5. Find a few tunes to play on sax for the graduation skit. - Harlem Nocturne, Don't Get Around Much Anymore
6. Iron clothes - forgot
7. Buy some new cute summer clothes. My closet consists of suits/work clothes and working out clothes. Not much in between. - sort of. The Ann Taylor across the street was having a sale, but I ended up buying all black. Not very summery.

This week:
1. Set up new Blackberry phone, to be delivered by mail TODAY! Yay!
2. Finish VP Finance Report
3. Call Grams in her new place. She's doing a lot better! Her mind is back and she's doing a little walking.
4. Vacuum
5. Read one magazine from pile (I'm busy every single night this week but tonight)
6. Bikram yoga 2x (I bought a pass for the next two weeks)
7. Run once
8. Get ready for CHICAGO!!! (and buy tacky AZ souvenir)

Maybe this week I'll look at the list before next Monday. :-P