Last year I thought I’d start a new birthday-eve tradition, based on an old tradition, and start writing a little bit about the year I had. For a week I’ve been thinking “I have to write that post” and here it is, nearly 7:00pm on my birthday-eve and I’m just sitting down to crank something out. This is why I don’t blog. I’m lazy.
Last year, as you may remember, I wrote about the things I’d like to accomplish this year. In a nutshell, those things were:
- Move.
- Buy a new car.
- Go on a vacation.
- Swim.
- Go snorkeling.
- Get myself back in better shape.
- Buy and learn to use a REAL camera.
I did not move. I did not buy a new car. I am not in better shape. I did not go snorkeling. I have an excuse for most of these things. No, really, I do. And I’m sure you want to hear all about that excuse, and the things I did accomplish.
Back in June, I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco for work. My best friend decided to tag along and it was as awesome as a week in San Francisco with your BFF can be. We ate at fancy restaurants. We walked for miles and miles and miles. We went on a wine tour. We shopped. We found a rice pudding restaurant. I’m not even kidding.
A week after I got home from San Francisco, where I spent money like a rich, drunken sailor on shore leave, I found out a big family vacation was planned for January in Hawaii. My brain instantly heard that record screech sound effect and Operation Stop Spending So Goddamn Much Money, LARA went into immediate effect.
We had thought about moving but there are a few things around here that need to be done before this place can be listed. Biggish things like replacing a rotting bathroom floor. Things that cost money to fix, money we just didn’t want to spend while trying to save for the vacation. Don’t get me wrong, when I’m lying on a beach in Hawaii in a few weeks, I’m going to think “This is WAY BETTER than a new bathroom floor!” I’m not complaining, I’m just making excuses. As I do.
I likely don’t need to explain why there was no new car this year either.
I did have a mini-vacation this year, to San Francisco and we leave on our trip to Hawaii this year, so that counts, right? Ehh, sorta. It didn’t occur while I was 40 but it was certainly planned, saved for and highly anticipated for the last six months of my 40th year. My 41st year. The Year In Which I Was Age 40. Whatever.
I DID get a new camera this year. I did NOT learn how to use it to it’s fullest potential – although I did take some pretty pictures, especially during the Olympics and in San Francisco (flickr linkage).
Speaking of the Olympics, I’m going to go ahead and call that the best part of my 40th (41st) year. You guys. SO MUCH FUN. I can’t even begin to tell you. It was fantastic and probably one of the best parts of my LIFE, not just of this past year. To have the world here, in my hometown, was amazing. The weather was amazing. Our athletes were amazing. And most of all, my city was AMAZING. For several weeks, everyone was dressed in red. Everyone was smiling. Strangers were polite to each other. You HUGGED strangers in the street. You laughed and cried and loudly sang the national anthem in public, and in private, standing in your own living room. It was the world as I wished it could always be. I miss it.
(This post took a turn. I told you, I’m cranking it out.)
This year. What do I want to do this year? Oddly enough, moving is kind of off the table now. We likely would have moved if we hadn’t had the vacation to plan, but now we are rethinking that idea. We like it here. We don’t have a lot of storage and we don’t have in-suite laundry, but we do have a lot. We have a huge, private patio. We are both within five minutes of work. The mortgage is completely manageable, which allows us to save for fancy trips and nice dinners and wine and other fun things. I’m not sure. I’m not sure where we’ll be next year.
I would still like to get a different car. My Corolla is boring. Reliable, and boring. I am not a car person AT ALL but I still think I’m more of a Volkswagen Bug kind of girl. I’d like to make that happen.
I will learn to use my camera this year. I will continue to swim. I want to go on another vacation.
Let’s not talk about the getting in better shape thing, OK? Let’s just not. I’ve held steady this year. I am no better off than I was this time last year, but I’m not worse off either. Any improvements I make in the coming year will be an improvement so let’s just say I will do my best to make improvements, small or large.
This time last year I was wringing my hands and wailing about turning 40. How did this happen! I’m so old! WOE WOE WOE and this is SO BAD OMG. And, of course, it was no big thing. I’m not stressed about being 41, at all. I’m reserving the next big age freak out for 45, so that when I turn 50 I have something to look back on and roll my own eyes at my own self about.