Anyway. Most importantly this month was my birthday. I traditionally do a birthday post here but oh man, I was so ill the day before and of my birthday, and then other stuff happened, and then more things, and then I went to Kent, and now it's now. The point is, I had a pretty good day in spite of it being my first birthday without any grandparents, I am now old, and it's time for the annual tradition of goal making for the year ahead (minus a couple of weeks, give me a break).
First, though, last year's list. I don't know if this is the kind of thing anyone finds interesting but me, but I really do, and this is my blog so it's here anyway. I did 15 of the things I said I was going to which I think is actually pretty good going! I've been thinking about these lists, and I kind of find that, now that I'm a vaguely busy person and have lots of things that I HAVE to do, the things I end up doing from the list are the things I REALLY want to do, and the stuff that doesn't get done is kind of ok, because I probably didn't want it that much anyway. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it kind of makes sense to me, and that's good enough.
The list, though.
26 Before 27
3. Run 500 km- Essentially I didn't run at all over the summer and then late November I REALLY hurt my back, so I've only just started again
4. Read War and Peace- Yeah, no
7. Go to Bristol Zoo- I kind of ran out of time when I was in Bristol, but I will try again!
9. Bake at least 26 things- Weirdly wasn't in much of a baking mood all year
10. Blog at least twice a week-Ahem. Yeah, sorry about that
12. Do a Parkrun- See above, re: running
18. Do morning yoga on work days- I did this a few times but I got dizzy this one time so gave up. I did get a new yoga app and pretty much did some yoga every day in March though, so I feel ok about this
21. Read 10 books before buying a new one- to be fair, I didn't buy THAT many books... But I also didn't buy none. So.
22. Watch all the Studio Ghibli Films on Tivo- The easiest thing on the list and I didn't do it. Go figure.
23. Go vegan for a month- One day, man.
24. Give up diet coke for a month- I gave up diet coke for like 10 days and basically wanted to die. I'm just not ready yet! I did have an alcohol free month (nearly) though, so yeah.
It's all about growing and changing and oh my god please stop me before I sound like a motivational speaker or something.
Anyway. This year, I have a list as usual. But I think what I'm going to do is post my progress on the list as I go along. Obviously this isn't going to be relevant for some of the stuff on there (give blood more often, for example- Nobody wants to see that!) but I want to keep up generally with the stuff I'm doing and also apparently I need more ideas for blog posts since I never fucking do the blogging what is wrong with me?! (life). Whether this actually happens or not remains to be seen, but there we go. Nonetheless, here they are:
27 before 28
1. Give blood regularly- I used to do this all the time, but haven't for a couple of years and then I got a tattoo and basically I feel bad about it. I'm back on it now, though.
2. Go to the dentist- I realise that as a grown up this shouldn't be on my list, but there it is. I haven't been for SO LONG and I need to and even though I'm like 'ugh moneyyyy' I'm also like 'but... teeth are more important than, like, having stuff' so yeah.
3. Keep saving monies- I was surprised last year both at how well this went and how easy it was to just save a teeny bit of money a month. I'm so into doing this again this year because goddamn I want to go to Japan so badly.
4. Learn the Japanese- I'm still trying. I really am. I'm trying to be patient with myself because it really doesn't come naturally. But it's coming.
5. Do the Race for Life- Signed up for Margate in July with Bex. Now just have to do the fucker! (You can sponsor me heeeeeere btdubs please and thank you).
6. Redo couch to 5k- But properly. So I can actually continuously run by the end of it. I'm confident about my chances!
7. Surpass 500km in Nike Running- At last count, this means running 137km this year. This seems fully doable.
8. Don't buy ANY new books (kind of)- I've had enough of having an unbearable amount of books to read, and it's only made worse by buying new ones. THIS HAS TO STOP but also I'm not fully banning myself cause it makes me unhappy. So... Kind of don't buy any new books unless I have to kind of?!
9. Continue being less sentimental about books- I don't know if I've mentioned but I've fully been finishing books and getting rid of them straight away. I've been giving up on books early if they don't grab me. THIS IS PROGRESS and I want to carry on with it.
10. Read War and Peace- THIS IS THE YEAR. You know, maybe.
11. Read all the Stephen King- Right. This Stephen King thing has really gone on long enough. I have 18 books to finish before I've read all of his stuff, and I'm really going to try and read all of the things. I don't know if I'm going to get it done BUT this is a Mission Statement of action and whatnot. *nods definitively*
12. Blog at least twice a week- I'M REALLY GOING TO TRY. Make it a habit and all.
13. Do NaNoWriMo again- This is a bit of a tentative goal because who knows what my life is going to be doing in November and I did NaNoWriMo before when I lived at home and had way less general life admin to do, whereas now I have to feed myself and all. However, I need to write things I think, so if not NaNoWriMo, then something. Something.
14. Make at least 10 beautiful things- And now with the things I can blog about! These things obviously don't all have to be for me, but I wanna make nice things and yeah.
15. Try one new Lush bath bomb a month- I just wanna have 12 nice baths this year and maybe take pictures of them, ok?
16. Have a Hummingbird Bakery Afternoon Tea- I've wanted to do this ever since I've learned it was a thing and whenever I talk to people about it they seem into it, so I'm definitely going to make it happen this year!
17. Go to Bristol Zoo- It's a thing, Imma try and make it happen (again)! I actually need to go to Bristol some time when it's not for a run so I can actually enjoy myself, so going to try and make that happen too!
18. Go to the beach this summer- I didn't do ANY of the important summer things last year because I had to stay inside and read about Shakespeare and cartoons and whatnot. THIS YEAR, Imma fix that, and go to all the beaches.
19. Have many picnics this summer- See above.
20. Go somewhere new- Standard goal. I'm not sure where since I feel like I've exhausted my friend visiting options in this country, but I'll figure out a place, I'm sure!
21. Explore the Natural History Museum- I have been there, but it was a while ago and I definitely missed the dinosaurs because there was a queue and ugh, no. Coincidentally there's an exhibition there I want to see that ends in a couple of weeks and so that seems like a good time to do that.
22. Go to a Butterfly House- This is cheating slightly because there is a butterfly house kind of next to the Natural History Museum and Imma totally go there because I think they're magical. But, in general, I will take all the chances to go to a butterfly house.
23. Go to the Shakespeare Exhibition at the British Library- It's on from now until September, I think I can manage it.
24. See Titus Andronicus somewhere- So the deal is- I've now seen A Midsummer Night's Dream onstage and I'm seeing Romeo and Juliet in June. Titus Andronicus will then be the only Shakespeare in my dissertation that I haven't seen, so if I have the opportunity then by golly I'm going to!
25. Make Frances see Les Mis with me- So Frances and I said a long time ago that instead of buying each other birthday and Christmas presents that year, we'd see Les Mis. And we still haven't. Because we're the worst. I am going to make this happen because damn I wanna see Les Mis again!
26. Go Vegan for a Month- I mean... I've probably aimed to do it every year? So maybe I'll actually try it this year? Time will tell!
27. Harbour Positivity and Expel Negativity- This is a pretty obvious thing to do. SPECIFICALLY- I feel like everyone who hangs out with me lately has to endure (along with all the excellent things I have to say, of course!) at least 3 rounds of 'no one loves meeeee' and also 'but why don't I have a boyfriend?' I think a little bit of self pity is fine every so often, but I KNOW the girls who say things like this and I DON'T wanna be them, so yeah. Trying to stop.
BOOM. Apologies that this post has been a bit TL:DR, but we had a lot of goal making and catching up to do, kids! I think we all did really well. And now you know all the things I'm going to be doing for the coming year so congratulations for that! Yay everything! (kinda)
Happy belated birthday post!
ReplyDeleteI helped you cross some of that stuff off the list! And you know that by the time you finish the 18 King books he'll have published another 25 haha. That man is a menace to anyone wanting to read his entire book list.
Haha why thank you!
DeleteYou totally did help! I meant to add 'I did this with Tika! And this with Kayleigh! Thanks, internet!' Cause gosh that was a good like month of overseas visitors :) Stephen King is a menace to society and must be stopped (except noooooo cause he can't ever die ever). I already started on that goal Kayleigh! I read like 40 or so pages of The Dark Tower before I'd had too much wine and couldn't continue cause I'm a mess hahahaha
Well, we have lots of beaches on the Isle of Wight! And nice picnic spots. And I can show you the big second-hand bookshop in Ryde (which might not help with the "not buying books" thing, come to think of it...)
ReplyDeleteThis is such a good point Katie! I'm definitely coming down there to see you, we just need to figure out a weekend! (Or possibly a weekday... Not sure what kind of holiday I've got left at work cause it is definitely not much :/)
DeleteI love the one about picnics :-) An excellent goal! Good luck - and happy belated birthday!
ReplyDelete"I don't know if this is the kind of thing anyone finds interesting but me, but I really do, and this is my blog so it's here anyway." hahaha I heart blogging for stuff like this. Also yes, I find this interesting
ReplyDeleteI need to work on not being sentimental about books and getting rid of them and THIS WILL HAPPEN and I'll prob do giveaways or something. Which I guess wouldn't help other people trying to get rid of books. Just passing the problem along.
PLEASE if you do see Titus that you do a blog post about it.