Yup, This is the Year

This is the year to:

1.     Run a half marathon

2.       Learn to bake bread

3.       Check out Krohn Conservatory

4.       Loosen up

5.       Plant my own herbs

6.       Study yoga

7.       Update my style

8.       Go to the dentist every six months

9.       Visit the Contemporary Arts Center and the Taft Museum of Art

10.   Get a week’s worth of groceries at Findlay Market

11.   Join Toastmasters

12.   Buy in bulk

13.   Take an official “Cincinnati Tour”

14.   Sharpen my knives

15.   Join a book club

16.   Go antiquing

17.   See live jazz at Schwartz Point

18.   Take Donnie to Kings Island

19.   Attend our Community Council meetings

20.   Watch “Grey Gardens”

21.   Eat at Boca

22.   Entertain

23.   Spring clean

24.   Start doing regular breast exams

25.   Make a craft from Pinterest

26.   Go to Devou Park

27.   Ride the Metro

28.   Finish “A People’s History of the United States”

29.   Build a stand-up desk

30.   Give up Diet Coke

31.   … And cable

This project begins with a confession:  I like to say “no”. 

Most often, “no” is often an attempt to simplify my schedule and give myself an hour or two of downtime:  No, I’ll pass on brunch, I need a day with nothing on the calendar.    

Sometimes “no” is a philosophical response to a world with too much unnecessary stuff:  No, I don’t need a new pair of boots, the old ones are fine. 

But too often, “no” is nothing but laziness and procrastination:  No, I’ll wipe down the baseboards next weekend.

Most of the items on this list are not things that will change my life or make me a better person.  They aren’t radical and most of them aren’t even very ambitious.  These are probably not things that will be mentioned in my obituary (In 2014, she sharpened her knives.).  This is not a bucket list.

In a way, this project is simply about saying “yes” to a bunch of things that I have been putting off.   More importantly, is about making sure that I live the life of the person I want to be at this stage in my life.  Writing about it will hold me accountable and force me to pause and reflect. 

Here we go! 

 

#thisistheyear