As predicted, I’m slow to take a good long, wide-net look at 2018. I’m just now starting to consider what is worth looking in the rear view for. Of course there are the easy and obvious things, like my measured stats.. steps, sleep, heart rate, weight, yadda-yadda, woof-woof. A big part of me is like Schmesh! Whatev.

I mean one doesn’t have to dig too deep to recognize this was one of the best years of my life, despite anything my stats might reveal. After all, I did fall in love and am now betrothed to the most wonderful, caring, thoughtful, loving person I’ve ever met. He just happens to also be crazy-mad in love with me, so that’s the bonus plan.

The only other thing I have to say about that is.. it’s about time the Universe came through for me in the relationship department. Not that life owes anybody anything and it is what you make of it. The best take away from this development in my life this year, is that we can’t really predict what will happen and we should cherish all that is good and not dwell on all that’s not.

That’s a pretty good lesson. As I carry my 45 years of life experience into the new year, I need to be mindful of it every day and grateful and generous when my cup runneth over.

Now would be a good time to execute the mic-drop and turn and walk off stage, but I haven’t even gotten to the part where I document and pontificate over everything else. For real though – This next bit is truly for posterity, and probably not worth anything to anyone but me. So selfish! 🤷‍♀️

Steps (and exercise)…

Average step count per day –

2016: 9294

2017: 14,992

2018: 13,717

My goal for 2019, believe it or not, is 12K per day. That’s because I want to focus more on strength and endurance. I don’t have great ways to measure that, but I want to start doing more free weights and Jazzercise again this year and so we’ll see what weights I can handle. I quit Jazzercise in June this year because of $$$ and time. I think I will be in a better position soon to start again soon. My FitBit does have an “exercise” view on the dashboard, and I’ve never really spent a lot of time looking at that. Perhaps there is something worth investigating, but who has time for that?! 😉

Sleep.. (average sleep per night)

2016: 6 hours and 49 minutes.

2017: 6 hours and 43 minutes.

2018: 7 hours and 0 minutes. 😎

My goal for 2019 is > 7 hours and 15 minutes. I’ve got this one totally figured out at this point. I have the formula for success, so it comes down to following that. Sleep is still the best litmus test for my overall mental health. If I’m not getting it, that’s a problem, and the effect of getting poor sleep bleeds into all the other aspects of my life. Yeah, so it’s important.

That’s pretty much where the “easy” data accounting stops. FitBit keeps track of other things, like my heart rate and monthly cycle and weight and daily exercise, but it does not look like there is much to report on for an entire “year”. I can report even without looking at the app anyway on a few of those things. For example, my weight went up over the course of the year by 5 to 10 pounds and I’d like to see that come back off in 2019 but that might not be the best thing for my mental health. My monthly cycle is pretty regular and I know even though I don’t record it that I don’t drink enough water each day.

What else is noteworthy? I’m still employed part-time (supposed to be 30 hours a week but even that seems to be a struggle). I finished my first year of a masters program and am now taking a break from that. As a consequence of both of these things, my bank account is suffering, but I’m not too worried about that since I am about to sell my house. I magically don’t have frequent headaches anymore (in truth I think this went away in 2017 when I quit my job AND started taking Curcumin instead of tylenol or ibuprofen).

In 2018 I went to Austin, Nashville, Key West, Nebraska City (twice), Boulder and Broomfield Colorado, and Cancun Mexico. I narrowly escaped having to go to Cali twice for work, which normally I would have been excited about, but now that I have a partner to travel with, traveling for work seems less appealing. Also thanks to Jim, I have several new shows (which I previously denounced TV completely), and I have forgotten how nice it is to just escape and relax that way every once and a while. I would highly recommend Colony, Maniac (Netflix), The Crown (we’re still in the 1st season), and the jury is still out on Pine Gap. We have only watched 1 episode so far, but it looks like a winner.

I can’t say I’ve ready any single book cover to cover (except for school stuff), but my hope is that in 2019 that will change too. I published my first poem, which is pretty exciting and has left me thinking I would like to do more of that. There might be a NYR (New Years Resolution NOT the New York Rangers) attached to that, which is a topic I will likely take on in the next week or so (just in time for the 2 year anniversary of this blog perhaps). Other goals will be addressed at that time as well.

I went to three music concerts – OAR, Fall Out Boy, and Twenty-one Pilots. I also had tix for Imagine Dragons and was seriously bummed that those conflicted with my Florida trip (because I was not paying enough attention to dates when the tickets were booked). I gave them to my darling daughter and she ended up taking her dad. How’s that for being the best ex-wife in the universe?

***

At the present moment, I am sitting with my laptop in front of a pretty good fire in my fireplace. I’ve literally been sorting and packing all damn day (except when I took a break to shovel the snow off of my driveway). After dinner I looked at my stacks of boxes and I feel pretty good about my progress but I also spied the giant bin of firewood in my family room. It would be silly to move such a thing, and I really could use that bin, so the fire made perfect sense. It’s been that kind of a day anyway, what with the snowfall and the quiet nature of the day.

It is kind of funny that in years past I have done a heavy amount of thinking and analysis about my year and what I should do more or less of. I’ve looked for clues to try and guide me in the future so I can be healthier, stronger, happier, and more satisfied with my life. This year, there is just not as much thinking to it. It feels like I have “arrived” in a number of ways and now I just need to do more of the same. Call it “maintenance mode”. Of course there will always be bumps, and just as my relationship status suddenly took a turn for the better this year, I’m very aware that something bad could happen. Sort of like what I was saying at the beginning of this post. The best we can do is enjoy each day as it comes, live in the present moment, and not take anything for granted. That seems to be echoing through my mind today, and should definitely play into whatever goals or resolutions I make for 2019.

I think that’s it for today (and for 2018). Peace and Love,

~Miss SugarCookie