Update on 2008 Goals

As some of you may recall, I made some goals for 2008. I’m here to update you on my progress so far, about a quarter of the way through the year.

Here are the original goals and the progress I have made with each of them:

*Take a Belly Dancing class: Mia and I have signed up for two 7 week sessions so far. I will probably quit at the end of this session and try something else. My instructor is pregnant and due around the same time I would’ve been with my second baby and going to class has become just plain painful as time goes on and she gets rounder while I stay the same (except, of course, for the lovely laparoscopy scars on my belly).

*Walk Dingo 1-2 times a week when the weather is nice: Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been too nice for most of this year. However, as it gets warmer Dingo and I are getting out more. We did get out for a walk twice last week. We’ll have to see how we do from here.

*Read Dante’s Divine Comedy: Haven’t even started.

*Publish my book: A severe lapse in faith has caused me to question the validity of my book. – Can I publish something if I don’t really believe it anymore? We’ll be re-visiting this later on in the year, I’m sure. I did purchase the 2008 Writers’ Guide and got as far as digging through it, but I gave up about the time I realized I had a moral dilemma to solve first.

*Make and use re-usable shopping bags: I’ve made 4 for myself and started using them. An additional 7 are in process – 2 are almost done! And, I’ve actually been using them. Yay me!

*Participate in the AIDS walk: I’m signed up and raising money. The walk will be May 3. If you haven’t given yet please, please, please click on the button on the right of the screen and humor me with at least a small contribution.

*Work on being a good mentor for the young ladies in my life: So, yea… that’s not the most tangible goal I ever set. Maybe I’ll have to define that a little better and figure out what I was talking about.

*Get a bike and bike instead of driving when possible: D fixed up my old mountain bike and even rigged it with a basket. I rode it to work yesterday and today and plan to do so while the weather is nice. We’re probably going to go look for new bikes soon as the mountain bike I got for Christmas when I was 13 isn’t exactly ideal for daily road riding.

*Work on adjusting my consumeristic lifestyle and be happy with less: Um, how does one measure this? I have set some goals for myself regarding my consumeristic tendencies and have been making a few lifestyle changes. I’m also trying to live a slower paced life, which I think ties into this somehow. I’m still fairly unhappy with some of the actual results – for example, if I spend less, I should be able to give away more, right? But instead I’ve been paying more on the car (should be paid off soon!), paying off my hospital bill ($1700 to not bring home a baby?!?!), and putting money aside in preparation for pursuing international adoption. So I haven’t given anything more away and I feel like I’ve kind of missed the point on that one. But my lifestyle is overall getting less consumeristic. I guess we have to take what we can get.

*Blog once a week: Yea, this hasn’t happened. But it’s been pretty close. I think I’m averaging about 4 posts a month, which isn’t too bad.

So that’s where we are at this point. If I actually meet all of these goals I may set more, but for now I think I’ve still got enough of a challenge to keep me motivated. Thanks for everyone who has helped me figure out how to meet my goals – Lisey is walking the AIDS Walk with me, Mia is taking Belly Dancing with me, D fixed my bike, and of course you, dear reader, have been reading my blogs.

Until next time…