May Recap!

The end of May already! Can you believe it? This part of the year always feels like the downhill part. Even more so than the end of the year for some reason. It's like one day it's winter and the next summer is over! But...here we are...end of May. Time to see where I am with the goals.

Let's start with Fitness/Weight since that's my struggle point and the one I was the most disappointed with last month. We added Saturday back in to the rotation as a "when we are not busy" day. By shifting it to the late morning instead of trying to go at 8 when they open we actually made it easier on ourselves. So on Saturdays where we aren't busy with other things there will be an added gym trip. And with that added gym trip I...lost a pound from the end of April which puts me back at flat for the year. So...yay?

I am at that crossroads still where the actual goal for 2019 is burning in my head but the reality of how hard it is to get my weight to budge from where it's stuck (except to go up, I was WAY up at one point this month) is making me crazy. I am not sure if I want to put a BIG push on in June to see if I can get it to move if I am really strict or understand that I don't want to live my life being really strict so just accept this. The problem I am having with the accept this portion is that we insist on having mirrors in the world. Especially at the gym where I spend 5-6 days a week, there are a LOT of mirrors. So...

So anyway. Fitness is good. Weight is still an issue. Mentally struggling with it is about normal, which is to say not normal at all.

Reading! I was three books behind last month and so made an effort to catch up and am now 4 books behind. Well, okay then. I'm sure I will catch up soon. I mean it's reading, how could I not? Especially when fall comes and we are flying more, I can polish a book off on a weekend trip easy peasy. The Discworld books I am finally caught up and on track with. I read a Rincewind one and a Witches one this month. Rincewind is not my favorite character, I don't know why but I don't enjoy his stories nearly as much. But the Witches are my favorite so it all balanced out.

Writing! Counting this blog and the one I am planning on writing right after this I am ahead by 4 total and 5 in my fiction. Not bad at all. I also did two submissions this month so I'm ahead there. Three out of four are done. One of them was a rhyming poetry thing that I did because I know I am bad at that (and it is truly awful) so I thought maybe lessening the hope would be good. But then I got notice of one in an area that I think I am good at and so I sent in two stories to them as well. They were things I had already put up here and the poem is SO bad so there won't be any extra blogs out of them, but there are done so that's good. One more to go.

MasterClass! Took the Gordon Ramsay one I was talking about. It wasn't my favorite. He says "literally" as a verbal tic. Literally going to cut this open. Literally cook it for 30 minutes. At least he doesn't mean figuratively, but it was a lot of literally. And every flavor is "to die for." He also didn't really seem to have a plan when he started as to what he wanted to teach. The parts where he talked about his personal story were very interesting. But I literally will never make sea urchin scrambled eggs that are to die for so...  BUT I did write 9 fiction pieces this month so we will see if it was watching much better writers talk about writing that was killing me. Next month is Judy Blume so if I fall in to another drought I will spend the balance of the year watching randos.

Monthly Museum/Attraction! We went to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, The Natural History Museum and The Zoo while we were back in Albuquerque so killed it. The Pueblo Center was the most interesting. I recommend it. It also gave me something to think about concerning that cultural appropriation hurdle I talk about. The Zia symbol that is on the New Mexico flag, and on a large percentage of New Mexicans was lifted from the Zia Pueblo and they were never consulted on how they felt about their religious symbol being used like that. And it's everywhere in New Mexico. I am not kidding about it being on New Mexicans. I have considered getting a Zia tattoo myself. It's a cultural touchstone for New Mexicans. But it was stolen. So what is the statute of limitations on appropriation? And when does it become broader culture than its origins? And does that matter? Like I said, it was interesting.

Long Term! Got that deck work scheduled. Whew. I was going to count it as a win anyway because I sent in requests for estimates (which were ignored) and Brent actually got three people to do estimates (trying not to think it's because his email was from a man, but this is the second time it's happened) but then the guy today actually came in with a great price so I got it scheduled. Hopefully the weather will co-operate and we will get it done next month.

What's on tap for next month?

I don't know. I need to schedule some long term stuff but I've not thought about it!

Deck work done (weather depending)
And...well I guess I've got a few hours to figure it out and put it on my calendar! Wish me luck!

So there is May. Hold on tight, kiddies, we are rushing on through the summer now!