Saturday, May 23, 2009

What I Might Do this Summer (Second Time Around)

For some known reason that I don't feel like divulging - okay, it was to avoid doing something else - I just put at least one label on all my previous posts. In doing so, I noticed that I set forth some goals for last summer with a follow-up in the fall as to how I did on them. As the radio announcer reminded me this morning, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, so I might as well try to come up with a list this weekend.

(1) The last shall be first, eh? My final goal for last summer was to try to get the house a bit more kempt, as in the opposite of unkempt. Didn't make it and may never, but I might as well try again. One of the topics on my list of possible posts is how our big trip has really left me with the urge to downsize a bit around here. After living for two months in the same one pair of jeans and three pairs of cargo pants, and feeling as if I could have done with less, do I really need the dozen or more pairs of pants in my closet that I haven't worn in over a year? Or the suits I got back when I had a job that demanded my presence in an office or at meetings looking quite professional? I certainly don't need all of them. So my first goal is to follow through with this. I've got a pile of clothes to be donated going in the closet, after which there's lots more to tackle. Some people have junk drawers. I have one, plus the upstairs of the garage. You get the idea.

(2) Make at least one something out of the found objects and pieces of paper I brought back from the trip. Hopefully, I'll make more than one, but one is a good place to start. Perhaps I'll start with the spoons. There may be a strange cosmic cause, but I found a spoon or part of a spoon on the street in almost every major city we were in. It got to be something of a joke. "Find another spoon, Mom?" Or maybe I'll start with the flat eyeglass frame since I have several ideas about what I could do with that.

(3) Get my yellow belt in Myo Sim karate. I started going to karate classes in December, figuring that it could only help my kendo, which it has. I'm now at the point, though, where I've been taught everything I need to know for my yellow belt. Lots of things need work, but assuming I can put that work in, it would be nice to have the belt to show for it. My kicks probably need the most work, and I could be a lot more comfortable with falls. I would also like to be able to do the self-defenses without taking so long to think of what the next move is.

(4) And the first shall be last, in the vein of (1) above. I think my first goal last summer was to knock more items off The Fifty. Since I still have a few to go, I'll add that to the list for this summer, too. I got a start on the second Harry Potter book in Spanish, so perhaps I'll finish that. And perhaps I could do the collage item on The Fifty with some of my trip paraphernalia. Since I'll soon be halfway through the decade of my fifties, I'd better get that list done so I can rest up for The Sixty.

Okay, that's four items, the same as I had last summer. Some will be easier to do than others, and some will be more fun. They will at least keep me from getting bored. And if I go work on one of them now, I can keep avoiding that other thing I don't want to do.

2 comments:

kreed said...

That is quite a list of things to do. I should put a more kempt house on my list, too, but that would just be setting myself up for failure as I can't seem to ever really make progress on that! And congrats on the almost yellow belt - you are really a woman of many talents!

Debi said...

I've about given up on kempt, but I am determined to declutter, which should at least make things appear more kempt, right?

I think that looks like a pretty cool set of goals. I'm especially eager to see how #2 plays out! Fun stuff!