PLANS!

You all know how I love my goals, my sub goals, my mini goals and my stretch goals. I like to feel like what I am doing is reaching for something. Like I'm moving toward things, even if I don't appear to be doing much different to a lot of people. In that vein I've been doing a monthly goal this year along with my yearly goals. January was to cook dinner 3 times a week, February was to do a Spanish lesson 3 times a week, March is to cook dinner 3 times a week, do a Spanish lesson 3 times a week and publish a blog 3 times a week. Excluding the first week where I gave myself a little smaller target since we were going to be gone for half of it.

Basically March is reinforcing the January and February goals (which I met, by the way) while making sure I get some blogs published which fits with my yearly goal of posting 156 blogs total with 52 of them being fiction. I think sometimes that's necessary. The reinforcing part. I pick up and put down a lot of things so sometimes I do something then walk away from it and don't go back, even if it's something I really want to do. So March is for reinforcing.

April is going to be another monthly goal in service of a yearly goal. That whole print submission thing. I want to submit 3 pieces by the end of the year. April marks the first third of the year gone (EEK!) so April's goal is to get something, anything submitted someplace. I'm pre-sweating it, but I will get it done. I love my stars too much to not do so.

Along with those things I'm also researching cutting the cord for our cable. Not really something I'm excited to be researching but we've been talking about doing it and Brent is way too fucking busy at work to do it so I am. There is a ton of stuff to look at on one hand and on the other it's not actually easy to compare because they (cable and different streaming services) know that a lot of us will just revert to easiest as the setting instead of least expensive. My head starts to hurt after about a half hour of it all so I can see that their nefarious plans are working.

I'm also starting to make some head plans for a visit from friends at the end of the month. We have one friend who will be here almost a week and another two who will be in for the weekend. The reason they are head plans right now and not more is that it's right at hockey play off time so if the Hawks are playing at home that weekend I will be taking everyone to a playoff game or two, if not we will be doing something else. That and some of the things we had originally talked about we can't do due to the massive forest fires last summer. But I'm thinking tulip festival, Coast, Mount Hood possibly depending on weather, Saturday Market, Japanese Gardens, Zoo, drive up to Multnomah Falls for a peek from the parking lot even though the hike is closed...you know nothing much just a few options...

Also making plans for an August trip around my birthday with the boys to LA then staying there and visiting with friends who will be taking an August trip for a birthday remembrance. So excited for both halves of that trip. Love going to new places as a family, and we don't get to do the whole family thing as often anymore, and seeing someone I haven't seen in years after that as well as meeting an old friend face to face for the first time. Hugs are well overdue in that situation.

AND making plans for Fall football trips already. Looks like we are going to do three games. One of them I was on the fence about because it can be really cold already at that time of year, but I am trying not to be such a baby about the weather and let Brent enjoy it some more. Though it's beginning of November, not end, so I am still being a bit of a baby.

We are also already talking about next winter's trip. We are thinking we might hit Mexico or the Caribbean instead of Hawaii. Someplace the water is just a touch warmer that time of year. It's hard to do though, since we love Hawaii and seeing the whales, but we also really loved being there in the summer when we could walk out and snorkel at 7 AM without a chill. The older I get the more I appreciate not getting a chill first thing in the morning. (Baby)

Sometimes plans start but don't finish. I almost went to London last weekend. The game I played years ago was celebrating its 10th Anniversary and there was a big meet for players. I had dismissed the idea of going since I no longer play but as people I am friends with started talking about going I considered going just to see so many of them in one place. My friend who is visiting here at the end of the month gave me the dates and encouraged me to go. Another friend chimed in with the DOOOEEET! and Brent, of course, said do whatever you want to. I joked that if the margarita hadn't worn off I would have gone. But it's really true. Brent looked at flights during dinner and I looked at them when we got home. Points was the way to do it, but even then it was all of my points plus a good chunk of money and I would have been leaving a few hours after we got home from Hawaii and flying a LOT of hours for a couple of days and...well once I slept on it I realized it was probably something I should have planned a few months earlier when I wasn't even considering doing it but could have afforded it a little better.

It was the right decision. I would have been exhausted and there were a lot of people there. I love about 10 of them. Like about 15 more and have no idea who the other 100 are since I don't play anymore. It would have been a lot of energy to take in. I would have loved parts of it, been so excited to see a few people and look in their eyes. And I would have hated parts of it. There is a low level of drama at all of those things that is always tough for me to process. It's taken years for me to understand that about myself, but I do, and I'm good with it. So it was the right decision. (the secret to being happy about your life is to tell yourself that the decision you made that you cannot change was a good one.) Someday I hope to see a lot of those people face to face. But just in smaller groups where I can actually spend some time one on one with them and talk. Those have always been my favorite parts of the meets I've been to anyway. Going to the Empire State Building with just Kathie and Glenn gave me a chance to get to know them in a way that dinner with EVERYONE did not. Walking to get coffee in Toronto with Nadine let me learn about Stacey in a way that I never would have otherwise. Corrie and I driving through Buffalo and crossing the border together is a great story, and then picking up Free Healthcare/New Shoes was the best.

And then there have been the chances to meet people in small settings away from big meet ups altogether. Visiting Dana in Phoenix and having dinner with her in a sports bar during March Madness gave us a great funny moment that we would never have had in a big crowd. So I will say that small groups are best for me. Dinners, lunches, coffee dates, even a wedding with a gorgeous bride and an adopted brother. So as I make plans I need to make sure I keep in mind how much those small moments mean. And keep telling myself that big groups exhaust me because when I see the pictures I want to reach through the screen and squeeze everyone (probably good for them I wasn't there) but more importantly, I want to talk to them. To hear their voices, to learn something about them I didn't know before. To see in their eyes what or who is really important to them.

Plans. Make some.