Life in the Cheese Drawer

i somehow thought i had more time, i guess, and did not do my year in review yesterday! it was on my mind, cuz i did my books of the year, but apparently my mind had a different idea.

so, let’s review 2023.

1. i am not going to list take more pictures in my to-do list anymore. or maybe i need to reframe what i consider pictures. i take a ton of pics on my phone, so maybe i need to stop thinking i need to get out the fancy cam. the best camera you have is the one you have with you.
   
   this was a good plan because i did not take more pics on my big camera. i went places and deliberately chose not to bring my big camera because it was too much. i DID go out and take pics of the northern lights with my cam. so that’s something? anyway, i like the idea of letting this one go.
   
2. travel! i will hit the nail on the head with this one – i already have a trip planned for next week to orlando with my sisters. there will also be a week at the lake and hopefully something else! i want to get to a few more state parks this summer, too.
   
   got this one in! we did go to orlando, which was super fun. we ended up going to disney, universal, the ocean, some went to disney again, and we all went to universal again.
   
   then two months later, i went BACK to orlando for a work conference and went back to universal. what a time to be alive.
   
   i did go camping a couple times over the summer – i went to whitewater in SE MN and then i went up to savanna portage west of duluth for some outdoor time and some hiking. and of course the week on the lake for the derry reunion.
   
   then in october, i went to palm springs for another work conference, and after it was over, i drove to the coast so i could spend a night in dana point (where lesley fightmaster lived), look at the ocean, and then drive down to san diego to fly out.
   
   then in november, i went BACK to california with megan to fulfill my dream of going to yosemite national park – which was awesome! 5 stars, would recommend yosemite. we should’ve stayed one more day.
   
   i think i nailed this one.
   
3. figure out what to do my my yoga teacher certification. i don’t know if i start a youtube channel, talk to some studios in the area, or just start yoga in the park and see who shows up? we’ll see what i’m compelled to do.
   
   well, so far all i’ve done is do some yoga at work for various events. i do it about once a month and it’s super easy. it’s something, though.
   
4. meditate more. when i was doing it regularly for my class, it was really easy to do it anytime, but that slipped away and i’d like to get back into doing it more regularly.
   
   i forgot about this one! i do try to pay attention more and to be more present. and i did meditate occasionally. but it’d be good to do it more.
   
5. keep on running. i’ve been slacking the past couple months, and i have to get back into it to get going for the earth day half in april. real training starts in february! and i don’t know if we’re doing ragnar this year 🙁 we may be trying something else, but the ragnar experience has declined. booo.
   
   ugh, so i have kept on running, but i have been slacking even more. the earth day half was terrible again, weather wise. the granddad half looked to be an opportunity to redeem ourselves, but injury held us back. and i didn’t do any other races. and i have REALLY been slacking since the beginning of october when i had a cold. time to kick it into gear.
   
6. just keep looking for opportunities. resolutions are bunk, as are to-do lists. (hold-up: lists aren’t bunk.) keep your eyes open and see what’s out there.
   
   to-do lists are NOT bunk. but really, just see what’s up and what you can do to make it better and keep on keepin on.

wow the end of the year crept up on me really quick! a mere three hours left of 2022 and i haven’t even gone over my yearly to-do list (which i like a lot better than a resolutions list).

the years just sort of haze into each other at this point, so i always wonder what year it is, what am i doing, and how did i get here anyway. there was good stuff that happened and interesting stuff, but at this point, was that 2022? 2022? 2021? what is time, anyway? but, we’ll do a little recap and see what’s going on!

first, a review of what my list of things to do:

1. oh what the heck. take more pics. i’ve been sliding these past few years and have to figure out how to get the inspiration back.
2. i have no trips planned for this year, so i have to figure out how to somewhere, whether it’s a few state parks or getting out of state. i do have a work conference in march, but that’s for work and just to denver (haha just to denver).
3. i am already signed up for two races! i’ve got the earth day half on my calendar and ragnar trail is in september. i don’t know if i should try for two half marathons this year or what, or maybe a 10-mile race somewhere. we’ll see how training for the half goes: my feet have been really good lately but my knees have been buggered and i have to get that checked out. my form is probably awful.
4. i want to replace my floors this year. slowly this house is coming out of the 90s and into at least the mid-2000s. i’ve replaced almost all the major appliances and the cupboards are painted. the floor is really just the grossest now, and it’s time to get something looking good in here.
5. yoga: by the end of 2022, i should have my yoga teacher training under my belt! that will be a good accomplishment and i’m excited to see what i do with it (i have no idea LOL). i will also continue to strive toward daily practice!
6. do something interesting with nate! that guy never takes time off and it’s time he does. hopefully we can combine it with #2 above!
7. eat more cheese. (i mean, this one should be an easy goal.)
8. continue to strive toward less plastic use. and less carbon use. and you know what else? i have to stop using amazon. jeff bezos could fix climate change today if he wanted to with all the money he’s hoarding but he doesn’t. ugh.
9. support the great resignation. one thing we’ve learned during this pandemic is that the economy is more important than people. surprise! i want to do some more research on this and write a blog post on it. stay tuned.

1. not check. i did not take more pics. i did take phone pics, but i bet i pulled out my hefty cam maybe 5 times this year. i am slipping!

2. check! ooh, trips! well, let’s take a look. i did in fact go to denver, where i graduated from a leadership institute. then i went to the lake for a week in june. and in november, nate and i went to tuscon! that was sort of a last-minute (ish)decision as nate and i hadn’t been on a vacation since 2018 and i decided it was time to go somewhere.

3. check! i did TWO half marathons over the course of three weeks in late april and early may. the weather was ATROCIOUS for the april one – 26º with 15mph winds. ridiculous! the may one was better, weatherwise, but i can’t say that it was any easier. then ragnar in september, which may be our last ragnar. the experience has just gone downhill 🙁 and i have been slacking on the running front since i’ve had to come indoors for treadmill time. i suppose some february i’ll pick it up because it’ll be time to start training for the april half i already signed up for again!

4. CHECK!! NEW FLOORS!!! THEY’RE GORGEOUS!!!

5. check! i completed all my classes for yoga teacher training and am just waiting for my certificate so i can get certifed by the yoga alliance. i’ve already got some yoga sessions planned at work and will see where this takes me! i do not do a daily practice, but i bet i do yoga, on average, 4-5 days a week. it’s always something to work toward.

6. check! we went to tucson and nate had a good time. i don’t think i need to visit tucson again though. i’d much rather visit the grand canyon again or go to the pacific northwest or CA.

7. check. i mean, who can resist some cheese.

8. ugh, sort of check? every time i unwrap something encased in plastic i inwardly groan. i have been actively trying NOT to use amazon though. there are still some things i use the evil empire for, but if an item is available somewhere else, i try to get it somewhere else.

9. i totally did not do a blog post on the great resignation. i still support it though, and i think more people are realizing that this isn’t a matter of “no oNe wANts tO WoRK aNYmOrE” and more of a “hey there aren’t enough stinking workers”. doesn’t help that there are 400 of one franchise in a metro area. how many starbucks do we need? also, inflation sucks and pay your workers more.

items of note:

1. i got a promotion at work! i am now director of marketing and communications.

2. my poor nissan got hit by a deer 🙁 BOOOOOOO. but now i have a new car i guess. it’s super fancy

3. i THINK my student loan has been forgiven for public service – 10 years of consistent payments and working for the state government and POOF there goes $22k. i THINK. i HOPE. omg wouldn’t that just be the bees(‘?) knees.

4. i got a little bit more of my arm tattooed – some raspberries over my elbow area. next time her books open up, i’m going to request we figure out the rest of my arm!

5. i also got two more ear piercings in my upper ear. i think they’re cute!

let’s check out how my 2021 “resolutions” went this year. i’m not convinced i did much because 2021 was just meh and a continuation of 2020. burnt out, annoyed with covid, and more annoyed with people who think the economy is more important than people. but let’s check it out.

1. my first item has been photo related for all the time i’ve been making this list, and i think it should remain photo related. let’s take more pics. but what of…
    i don’t think i took more pics. big loser on this one. i’m not feeling inspired for photos lately 🙁
2. i’m going to figure out what i’m going to do this year to help the anti-racist movement. i don’t know what that is, yet. maybe my camera will be involved. sharing non-propagandaed news is one step. confronting racism with those you know is another step. but what else? i’m not sure yet.
   i didn’t go to any events, but what i did do was read more books, both fiction and non-fiction, about and by non-white peeps.
3. this will, of course, make me angry. so therefore, i definitely will continue yoga every day. i did yoga every day in 2019, and in 2020, i did yoga most days (maybe every 10th day i took a day off). although she’s gone physically, fightmaster yoga lives on through her youtube channel, and i will tell everyone i know to keep doing her yoga. it will help you out physically, mentally, and maybe spiritually if that’s the route you want to take yoga. the light in me recognizes and honors the light in you! let your little light shine.
   i did yoga! check.
4. i will keep travel on my list, because i’m already planning a trip to new england in may, and i would like to get out to the black hills in the fall if the virus has calmed down. i would also guess that if there are protests or sit-ins or other items that need documenting, that would involve traveling. my mom also wants to see the milky way this summer, and that means another trip to the north shore! i’m not going to be mad about that. especially the rustic inn where i can get a slice of pie.
   STOOPID COVID. well, we went to new england and that was a blast! and then in august, liz and fam, my mom, and i went to the black hills. so yes, i traveled! no north shore, no milky way. but yes to travel, even though pandemic.
5. RUN A RACE. i don’t care what the length is! i don’t care if we start in waves. i don’t care if it’s ragnar trail and it’s -30º and glare ice the entire trail. i don’t care if i have to roll out of bed at 4 a.m. so i can be ready to run at 5 a.m. – I AM RUNNING A RACE WITH OTHER PEOPLE THIS YEAR.
   I RAN A RACE!!!! we did ragnar trail in september! and no injuries!!
6. convince nate to get a new job. i swear, 99% of his problems would be solved if he would get a job that’s got normal hours. and if 99% of his problems are solved, then i’d venture to say 49.5% of mine are. the other 1% of his problems would be solved if he weren’t allergic to cats. that said, i don’t know if this resolution is doable. i’ll put it down. but don’t be surprised if this has no results.
   yep, no results.
7. welp, some excellent news we learned this year is that recycling plastic was just a big marketing campaign and doesn’t really help. so that’s just great. we still need to help out the earth. we’ve seen what happens when we pause our polluting ways. and like i’ve said before, is it wrong to want a clean earth, even if it DOESN’T stop climate change? how do we stop this plastic inundation? maybe i will start writing campaigns. use my twitter account and all 87 followers to campaign for less plastic in consumables. i have no plan for this, but the farther down the path of climate change we get, the harder it’s going to be to turn around. i’m no global leader, and i’m not a CEO of a giant corporation. i just want this on my list because it’s going to be a top-of-mind item for me this year, and i’ll figure out what to do. (i never said this was a definitive list of 100% goals… they’re more like guidelines.)
   so, climate change is still a thing. let’s keep on keepin on with that one. oh, watch “don’t look up” on netflix.
8. can we be happy, collectively, as a people? i think once the maniac is out of the white house, that will help us breathe a sigh of relief. once the vaccine is more widely accessible, that will help. collectively, i think we’ll be happy again. but i have no doubt i will be able to be happy in 2021 amidst my crusades, because while i am definitely a cynic, i’m optimistic. smiling at little things helps: a smooth lake, a well-crafted sentence, the smell of fall, my stupid cats snoozing in one giant fuzzpuddle, tulips pushing through the dirt, the silence of a snowfall, fireworks, laughing with others.
   so when i went to the doc for my annual physical, i talked to my doc about my anxiety. work had been just a beast – i was the only one after my coworker left, and it was taking its toll. she gave me some meds, mentioning that it would work with depression too. because usually anxiety and depression go hand in hand. to which i thought, i don’t really have depression. generally i am happy; i’m just feeling anxious about stuff! but hopefully that’ll get better. though i have to say, not worrying about WWIII starting with a tweet is nice.

well, turns out i did more than i remembered! the travel checkbox certainly hit the ticket.

2021 items of note:

1. i was the only one in my department at work for 8 months. that was not good and part of the reason my anxiety was overwhelming. we failed the first search and the person we extended an offer to on the second needed more time than usual to get moved. my new coworker started right after thanksgiving and so far so good!
2. i found some reasonable yoga teacher training! it had been niggling on my mind for a while, but was always cost prohibitive. but i just stumbled across YTT at st paul college, where i will get free tuition! so i’m registered for two classes this spring and will do the rest fall semester.
3. i’m also in the middle of a leadership program, which started in june and will conclude in march.

2022 goals to come!

so it’s time for my year in review, which is actually really fun to do most years, but this year is doubly fun because WOW 2020.

first, let’s take a peek at what i wanted to see happen in 2020:

1. so first on my list for years and years is take more photos. maybe instead of that as a goal, the goal should be to do something with the pics i take. like last year, an unexpected thing that happened was taking some wedding pics, but i don’t want to do that every year, yeesh. hmm. might have to think about this one.
2. sit on my new couch. i’m sitting on it now. it’s glorious. this one will be easy.
3. continue yoga every day. of all the things that i did in 2019, i think yoga every day was the best thing. i’ve got arm muscles, i look forward to spending at least 10 minutes on the mat, and it’s a great way to slow down, if even for 10 minutes. i highly recommend fightmaster yoga. lucky for you, she does a 30-day program at the first of the year every year, and this one is hatha yoga. check it out.
4. travel! this has gotten easier, whether due to just more expendable cash or me just saying “olé losers” and going. luckily, my boss is super good about pushing professional development, so there’s a trip to florida in march for work. it might also be a black hills year, and i do want to go up the north shore again. it might also be a bwca year with my aunt rae and uncle greg!
5. running goals? hmmm. earth day half is already registered for. i have a feeling we’re going to do ragnar again. and liz and i are already planning a DESTINATION RACE. destination races intrigue me to no end, so i finally sat down and looked at what destinations i would want to race at (no ultras or mountains for me, thanks). we settled on big sur in monterrey california (well, i settled on that – liz seemed to agree). the 2020 race was sold out by the time we checked it out, but we’re going to watch for registration for the 2021 11-miler, which should open in october. also, a sub-11-minute-mile 5k would be nice to hit this summer.
6. do something interesting with nate! i actually like this one because something interesting with nate could be just a quick trip to the cities or it could be an excursion to who knows where. any time i get him out of the house means an interesting time with nate hahaha
7. help out the earth. or rather, help out us humans who are seemingly hell bent on destructing our time on earth. like i’ve said before, is it wrong to want a clean earth, even if it DOESN’T stop climate change? seriously. so my goal this year is to really, diligently try to reduce my plastic use. that includes plastic bottles that are recyclable (plastic is a degradable recyclable, meaning it recycles into a lesser form of plastic, unlike glass or aluminum). (unfortunately, nate buys tons of drinks in plastic bottles; i don’t know if i should even try to get him to reduce his usage.) if i fail at reducing plastic, i will also try to reduce the amount of new items i buy (try to fix or buy used).
8. perhaps in conjunction with #7, i will add on “write more” in #8. one of the things that helped me really get on the devils syrup bandwagon was to do research on it. if i research stuff about plastic use and a bunch of other keep a clean earth stuff, it would probably push me to do something about it. and while the whole “blog every day” resolution is nice, it just never works out like that. so i think just write is a better thing.
9. be happy! i felt good about 40, and life is doing ok. let’s continue that trend!

well, it’s hard to realize your goals when there’s a global pandemic, a civil rights and justice resurgence, and a contentious, anxiety-inducing election. but rather than dive into those items, let’s review:

1. take more photos and do something with them. well….. this sort of happened? i definitely did not take more photos than the year i hit all the state parks. i did rent a macro lens, which was glorious, and i took an awesome few pics up in the dark skies of northern mn and got the full milky way. i sold a few canvasses of said milky way pics. i didn’t do any wedding pics because there weren’t supposed to be any big gatherings this year, but that’s ok. so we’ll give this one a point. why not.
2. i did, indeed, sit on my new couch. i am sitting on it now. point. on a related note, i am actually getting a replacement couch due to the fact that the fabric has a weird line going through it on the back. but, i am sitting on it. i like it.
3. yoga every day. i didn’t do yoga every day, but i did do yoga quite a bit. i would say 9/10 days, i did yoga. i even bought myself a nice, cushy, expensive yoga mat. there was some sad news on my yoga mat though. my yoga teacher, lesley fightmaster, died unexpectedly about a month ago. i never met her in person, but i did see her almost every day, and it’s still a shock. her yoga teachings live on, though.
4. travel? ha! LOL. 2020, wow. so the week before i was supposed to go to florida for my conference, the pandemic basically hit the US. i had plane tickets, hotel reservations, tickets for universal studios purchased, jane was set to come with, etc. etc. and then covid. #thankscovid #thankskim so there was no florida, no black hills. i did go to the boundary waters in august, which was super fun! went to the fake derry reunion at leech lake, and then camped at the state park in southeastern MN. other than that, there was no traveling to be had, other than visiting my parents a couple times. i haven’t even been out of state this year. #thanks2020
5. running goals were SQUASHED. SQUASHED. #thanks2020. i was signed up for the earth day half, and it was canceled. signed up for ragnar trail, and it was canceled. planned on signing up for big sur 2021 with liz, and that was already canceled back in may. i ran NO organized races this year, which is a bummer. sure, i RAN. that was no problem. but a race is something different; the energy of other people around just makes it an exciting run. so no point on this one. not for lack of trying.
6. the most interesting thing i did with nate this year was make him come to charlie’s 5-yr cheatin’ the reaper celebration. we stayed overnight in rochester and then headed to my parents’ house the next day. it wasn’t a fantastic adventure, but it was something different! i’ll take the point for this one.
7. if there was one good thing that came from a lockdown from the pandemic, it was to show people how the earth recovers from people. that was good news for the environment. on a personal front, because pandemic, i did not focus on my plastic use more than usual, which is something i still need to do. however, i drove less, contributing less CO2 to the air. instead of disposable masks, i use cloth ones. i baked a crapton of bread, reducing the plastic breadbags that i purchased (flour comes in recylable/compostable paper bags). so many weird byproducts of a pandemic.
8. i did not write more. i did not read more. you’d think with staying home and loafing around, i’d’ve found the time for that, but nope. i did do some research into environmental stuffs, but it was pretty minimal. i didn’t even manage to finish kablpomo, which was the first time i’d ever not finished it. sad. no point for me on this.
9. this was a tough year to be happy. there was a pandemic. there was a contentious election and elected officials who don’t want to do their jobs (mcconnell…). there were fires in australia and the US and there were protests against unnecessary killings and protests against wearing masks for the public good and protests against protests, and people who you thought you knew saying hateful things against groups of people who deserve no such hate, and hypocrisy of “just comply” except when it’s inconvenient for you and the bar you like to frequent, and people who lost their jobs, and people whose jobs didn’t pay enough for their essentialness, and people juggling a job and teaching their kids, and people losing their homes, and WWIII almost happening – twice, and people making insane amounts of money while others were making none, and through all this a virus spreading and people dying in hospitals alone and people on ventilators and people with long-lasting odd symptoms of a virus, and video chats/meetings cannot replace face-to-face interaction because we are a social species, and a year that just wouldn’t quit.happiness was hard to find in 2020.but there were some good things: dolly parton donated $1million to find a covid vaccine. clinics have finally embraced the video appointment. people spent a lot of time outdoors in the trees. we baked a boatload of sourdough bread. i got an awesome tattoo. we decided to not glorify parts of history that oppressed swathes of the populace (and instead put it in a museum, as is appropriate). as noted above, the earth showed what could happen if we pulled back on pollutant output. we found ways to celebrate. cities closed streets for people to dine outdoors. india planted 250 million trees. the internet didn’t crash on us when we needed it the most. a lot of us realized that we have a lot of work to do yet on racism. i painted my kitchen cabinets with help from liz. as a country, we managed to not run out of toilet paper. and i quit facebook.

there it is, year in review 2020. it has been, simultaneously, the longest and shortest year ever. not the worst year personally, but probably the worst collectively during my rememberable lifetime. the apocalypse came, and people couldn’t even be bothered to wear a mask. 2021 resolutions to come.

let’s go year in review! it’s always fun to go over what i wanted to do in the prior year, not only to see what i accomplished but also to see what i thought was important to accomplish (and what didn’t happen). so, 2019, how did we fare? let’s take a look at the good ol’ to-do list:

1. well, what would a new year’s to-do list be without “take more photos” as number 1? i mean, it’s almost expected at this point. so, take more photos.
2. visit the state parks i want to visit. after last year’s whirlwind visits, now i know which parks i want to go back to. i’ve got an itasca trip already planned. i’d like to head up to grand portage and actually spend time there. i also wouldn’t mind camping at blue mounds.
3. is this the summer i perhaps run TWO half marathons? maybe! we’ll see what happens. i’m already signed up for the earth day half, and training starts in 3 weeks for that. seeing training on the horizon gives me hope that winter will come to an end.
4. put in new floors in my house. i’ve got flooring for the entryway, which is my test subject. if that goes well, we’ll give the kitchen a go and see what happens from there. this also means i’ve got to paint my cabinets.
5. i signed up for a yoga program through fightmaster yoga and i hope it makes me more diligent in my yoga-ing. i do yoga pretty often, but it would be great to make it a daily thing.
6. speaking of a daily thing, remember when i blogged EVERY DAY for a year? i don’t know if i should try that again or if i should just think about it and dismiss it.
7. do something interesting with nate – i like that on my list because it makes me think about something interesting to do with him. 2018 was a good year for doing stuff; let’s make 2019 a good year too!
8. I GUESS I’M TURNING 40. i hope something happens for it.

this wasn’t a bad list! here’s what happened:

1. i don’t think i took more pics. i DID take photos at two weddings and for a large family this year, though. i guess that’s something! i take wedding pics about once every 4 years, and every time i remember why i don’t do it that often! the wedding pics were two weekends in a row, too, which was pretty insane. well, it happened, i did it, and now it’ll be another 4 years til another wedding.
2. i did visit a few state parks this year! we went to itasca in early june and it was really fun to spend some time there. jane and i went up the north shore over labor day and camped at jay cooke and judge cr magney; we also checked out grand portage and drove up to canada while we were at it. on the way back or to somewhere, guess what i did? i picked up another state park passport. so i’m not a less-intense mission to visit them all once again.
3. i did NOT run two half marathons. and that’s ok!
4. i also did NOT put new floors in the kitchen. and that’s ok!
5. i DID do yoga almost EVERY DAY this year. i bet there were maybe 20-30 days of non-yoga-ing due to vacations and other weird things, but overall i did a TON of yoga this year. you know what has benefited from this? MY ARMS. my arm muscles are glorious.
   
   
   (please ignore the goo on the mirror)
6. i did NOT blog every day. i had trouble doing kablpomo this year. i blogged twice – TWICE – in february. i don’t know if there’s just not enough interesting things I can think of that deserve a whole blog post or what, but i feel like it’s hard to sit down and put 400 words to posterity. i don’t know.
7. did i do something interesting with nate? we went up to duluth over new year’s 2019. he took a week off over thanksgiving and we drove to the cities and did some staycation stuff. we went to whole foods together (first and probably last time for both of us). we went to the state fair. is that interesting enough?
   1. on a side note, i did some traveling this year! while it wasn’t with nate, i feel like it should still be noted because looking back, i should have put it on my list. i went to san antonio for a conference in march, and in october, i went to mexico!
      1. on a side-side note, i GOT MY PASSPORT. i haven’t ever had a passport, and the last time i’d been out of the country had been in 1997. this past year i went to both canada and mexico, and now i can go to more countries! woo!
8. yep, turned 40. it happened!

the year i did stuff, indeed. somehow i actually completed quite a few of my 2018 resolutions. let’s review the resolution list, shall we?

1. oh what the heck, we’re throwing take more pics on the list again. i know i’ll be taking SOME photos, so we’ll see if i can up my game a little bit.

check and check. i DID ONE BETTER on this resolution. i not only took a lot of great pics this year, but i bought a NEW CAMERA. a camera that does great in low light and has a lot more bells and whistles than i know what to do with – a canon mark III. but i am really happy with it and it was a fantastic purchase. and i didn’t die at the hands of the craigslist killer when i picked it up.

as for the pics i took, i did more astrophotography, took vacation pics, and had some fun taking pics of the cats.

2. my officemate convinced me to bring over the “do something interesting with nate” item from last year since it really wasn’t accomplished. in 2018? i KNOW i’m going to do something interesting with nate. we’re going to arizona in february for my cousin’s wedding, then we’re taking a trip up to the grand canyon and over to mesa verde. 

CHECK AGAIN. something interesting with nate! i absolutely did a few interesting things with nate! not only did we go to AZ, but we went the black hills in october and we went to a few other places as well. overall, i think nate and i did a lot of interesting things this year together.

3. this could also be a good way to check off a trip item on the list. in fact, there will be a few items on this list in 2018. i feel like this isn’t much of a list if i can’t work on them because they’re already planned. so i’m going to add something that is REALLY difficult…

GIANT CHECK. not only did i go on one trip, but i went on a LOT this year. this year was the year of travel for me. AZ, UT, CO, NM, then vegas for work, then the black hills and into wyoming this fall. and that’s just out of state. cuz i spent the majority of my traveling this year on minnesota…

4. …and possibly unattainable in 2018: visit all the MN state parks. in fact, i’m going to say right now that i’m probably going to need to push this out to 2019. but at least i’m thinking about it!

CHECK.

CHECK.

CHECK.

i visited 72 minnesota state parks and recreation areas. SEVENTY TWO. i camped at five parks, visited 18 parks over 3 days with lori, found some awesome parks to visit again, and already have a 5-day trip to itasca planned for 2019. this may have seemed unattainable when i first thought about it, but when i sat down and sketched out how it would work, visiting that many parks was definitely doable if you put your mind to it.

the best part? i saw so many parts of minnesota that even few minnesotans visit. this is a great state. get out and see it!

5. start thinking about either a BWCA trip or superior trail hike with liz. i think this will depend on her schedule. at this point i’ve got a pretty flexible schedule compared to her.

i guess i thought about this? a lot of this depends on liz at this point.

6. consider bees and chickens again. do i want that responsibility? i mean, i can’t even correctly grow brussels sprouts, and the only reason the cats get fed is because they meow in my ear.

i considered. i’m not sure if this is something that i want to do quite yet, although the bees make sense. i’ve got that field behind my house that they would quite like.

7. TURN 39 OMG WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE

well, that happened.

8. running? hmmm. ragnar is another possibility in 2018. possibly the granddad half relay with liz. one thing i wouldn’t mind doing that i’ve never done is volunteering at a race – being the water person or cheerer or something.

so! running! i did another half marathon this year and indeed ran the granddad half relay with liz (it sucked on my end). i have yet to volunteer at a race. i asked to volunteer at the lake wobegon marathon, but i guess they couldn’t use me. i did a lot of trail running out at st. john’s, starting as soon as i could in may. ragnar happened again, and while it wasn’t 90º with sweat pouring down my face, it was still miserable with trying to warm up in 40º. good grief! maybe next time it won’t be a weather extreme.

9. strive toward a more healthy lifestyle. ugh. this is so cliche with a new year. but i want to do more yoga, and i want to maybe up my speed with running. i’m not going to say “i’m going to lose 30 lbs and increase my run time by 1 minute/mile” but if i can accomplish something, that will work.

i don’t know if i did more yoga, but i do know that i ran my fastest-ever 5k this year. i think my speed sort of increased on the running front. i ended up doing two dietbets and lost 10 lbs or so total. right now i’m not feeling so healthy because i’ve been eating like a crazy person over the holidays, but i’m hoping to get back into some more reasonable eating patterns soon. AND, half marathon training starts at the end of january!

10. in conjunction with the healthy lifestyle thing is mindfulness. my anxiety levels have actually been pretty ok (i think due to work being less stressful). yoga is super good for mindfulness, and i got a great workbook from my mom that incorporates writing with mindfulness. i might also start using the headspace app again, which is a meditation app. there’s something about clearing your mind and focusing on the present. 

i did not do so well at this. while yoga is always good for mindfulness, i didn’t do so well when i wasn’t doing yoga. i’m not sure if this is something where i need to deliberately set down devices and do something else. i feel like my screen time is overwhelming.

11.continue being happy. even if the rest of this list isn’t touched, if my life is relatively happy, then i’ve accomplished all i need to accomplish for 2018. i’ll continue SUPping on lake sag, working on my garden, reading, writing occasionally, petting cats, and hanging out with nate and my fam. there’s not too much else a person can ask for out of life other than being happy. 

aw, nice job 2017 kate. i guess i can mark this as a check on my list!

1. longstanding resolution: TAKE MORE PICS. i’m excited for my august photoshoot i’m a part of! it should be fantastic and fun!
2. another longstanding resolution: get a garden in! i’m torn on where to put it, and i think keeping the riffraff out (aka the deer and bunnies) will be a challenge, but it should be super duper fun.
3. get a compost pile going! like, a real one.
4. consider a chicken
5. consider bees
6. since my trip resolution worked out so well last year, i’d kind of like to put another trip resolution in her in case it makes it
7. i’m not sure what to do on the running front. maybe i can just say, resolve to run as much as i comfortably can and do a couple races. there’s a relay half marathon in la crosse in early may that might be a possibility liz and i decided to run the earth day half marathon here in st. cloud. bring it on (i guess).
8. do something interesting with nate. i don’t know if this is in conjunction with resolution 6, but i’d like to do an out-of-the-house activity with nate
9. i like last year’s be happy resolution. i think this year, i want to scale back on connectivity ALL. THE. TIME. i was just listening to npr this afternoon, and they were talking about “ambient news” – you know what’s happening all the time because you’re checking your social media all the time, and you’re getting blasted with everything, ALL.THE.TIME. it’s agitating, kind of nerve-wracking, and constant. i’ll be informed! i just won’t be immediately informed. and possibly fake informed. this would require some adjustments; i’d have to get a dumb phone. i’d keep my iphone, but i’d use it for running tracking mostly. and mobile bank deposits. i’d keep my extra sim card in it so i wouldn’t be tempted. so no more emojis and no more camera on me all the time. it’d be weird, but i think, ultimately, it’d be really good for mental health. now i just have to find a dumb phone. if anyone has one that works with at&t or tmobile, let me know.

1. FAIL EPIC FAIL. the photoshoot fell through. although… i did SEE the perfect shot. i didn’t have my camera, or even ability to get my dumb phone out to take the pic. i was mowing the lawn one late summer evening, and the sun was just setting over the field behind my house that’s in CRP. dust motes floating in the air, purple and yellow wildflowers abounding, the sun rays just reaching across the native grasses, …and a DEER stood in the middle of this, looking at me. and i’m chasing a lawn mower across the yard with sweaty fingers and a sweaty phone that i can’t get out of my pocket. 
2. epic win! i have a 36’x18′ plot in my yard, and i planted so much stuff. my pickle game this year was ON POINT. 
3. compost pile has been piled. not sure if it’s going to yield any good compost, but it’s there and i put food waste in it all last summer.
4.  considered it
5. considered it
6. trip? well yes, i did go on a trip! it was for work, but it was still some place that needed a plane ride to get to and it was a place i’d never been! i went to washington dc for a conference and checked out the sights while i was there. 
7. for someone who didn’t know what she was going to do on the running front, 2017 sure did provide some…interesting…running opportunities. liz and i completed the earth day half marathon, even though her training sucked majorly. i was able to train on the lake woebegone trail in march and april, which is possibly my favorite running trail. it’s so smooth and flat! one day i ran from avon to albany and back. (that was a 13-mile day.) our time during the half was kind of lacking compared the half we did in 2016, but we finished eventually. 
   ***********
   THEN. liz convinced me to do ragnar trail. i have such conflicting feelings about it. i trained really diligently for it, running on the trails in the st. john’s woods. in the dark. through mud. in the rain. in the cold. i bought trail shoes. i got a headlamp and hand lamps. I WAS READY. but nothing could prepare me for the HEAT. and the overall treacherousness that was that trail! omg. the heat beat me down on the four mile, which should’ve been my jam. then on the 8 mile, i fell within the first 5 minutes and ran the rest of the trail on a bum ankle, which put me out of running for two weeks after ragnar.  so, i guess i definitely ran in 2017.
8. i think the most interesting thing i did with nate in 2017 was eat at the new mexican restaurant in sartell. *eyeroll*
9. at the beginning of 2017, i got a motorola razr off ebay and used it for three months. i turned off the iphone so i didn’t have news at my fingertips. but i ended up using my laptop a lot more, and no one ever called or texted me, so i was like, what’s the point of the razr? then, after using the razr for a while, i lost service in my house. no bars. so that was the end of that. but i crafted my social feeds to not be constant news, and i think that after a while, a person just becomes immune to the insanity that is the government now. so i’m back to being just as connected, but i’m less angry now. i don’t know if that’s good or bad. 
   **********
   speaking to the happy part of this, know what made me happy? my paddleboard. i bought an inflatable SUP, and about once a week throughout the summer, i was out at st. john’s floating around the lake. how utterly wonderful. 

a few things of note happened in 2017. my sisters and i started saving to buy a cabin in probably wisconsin northwoods. we figured it was about time we just set our minds to this and did it. we think in maybe three years, after liz is done paying for childcare, we should have enough for a decent downpayment.
my family also decided to not do christmas presents this year and are going to try a trip instead. we decided to go to wisconsin dells in late may or early june. 
oh! and i went with charlie to my first musical concert in close to 10 years! we went to see everclear, fastball, and vertical horizon while they were at treasure island. AND I SHOOK ART’S HAND. note: always wear the old-school band t-shirt, and don’t be afraid to be “that guy.” 
on sad news, nate and i had to put chasey down. she was not doing well: not eating, having trouble walking, etc. my poor chasey cat, who’d been with me for 15 years. 
but with sad news comes some happy cat news: a fluffy black blob showed up in my garage one day, and now we are back to three kitties. stan’s a pest, but his fluffy tail is worth keeping around. 
(note: i did not touch on much politically in this post, because i feel like it shouldn’t affect my personal life as much as it does, and it requires a block of text on its own. there was just SO MUCH, that at this point, nothing surprises me. although i do have my sign at the ready in case i need to protest again.)
2018 resolutions to come!

i’ve had some great years (hi, 2007!) and not-so-great years (howdy, 2009!). but never have i had such a bi-polar year as 2015. whew.
home improvements

• january/february: i painted my bedroom and made it nice and homey! my bedroom in st joe was so blah, so when nate and i were ready to buy a new mattress, i said screw it, let’s make our bedroom look halfway decent. 
• july: i made an entryway bench from scratch! go me!
• october: nate and charlie and i painted the garage white and put up shelving along the sides. for some reason, we still have a bunch of crap on the floor. 
• november: i also installed a ceiling fan! 

work/work-related

• may: i did event tweeting at commencement and it was a great time and successful! 
• october: i had an (unsuccessful) job interview at st. ben’s, but i got back up to central mn and hung out with lake sag for a bit and saw grandma. worth it.

garden

• spring/summer: i did a community garden through st. charles, and i had a LOT of garden space. it was amazing. a lot of work, but it was really fun. it was also a great year for gardening: it was wet when it needed to be and dry when it needed to be. i will be doing the garden space again and am already planning next year’s. 
• august: as such, i canned a ton of pickles!! awesome! also green beans and tomato sauce. 
• spring: i bought two trees for the yard and three lilac bushes for the side of the house. landscaping, here i come!

fangirl time

• may: wizardworld!!! it was super fun. karl urban, kevin sorbo, and brent spiner were all there. i would be stoked if next year bruce campbell showed up. or lucy lawless. even without the special guests, it’s a lot of fun. liz and i dressed up xena-esque, jane bought a pirate hat, and canada dave came down for the fun of it. 
• june: i got a random text from caitlin about a friend who needed a photographer…for a cosplay calendar!! i got to work with models and take photos and then design a calendar. SUPER SUPER fun. <3 it turned out great.
• october: jane and i went to nerdcon: stories and got really excited about writing and telling stories. it was over two days, and it was a great time. we are officially in love with pat rothfuss and want to stalk him. next year’s con will also be in the cities, so that’ll be nice and handy once again.

trips

• june: nate and i went to the BLACK HILLS on vacay. it was the first real vacay he and i have been on, just him and me. besides the fact that we both got sick, it was a fun time. nate’s talking about doing it again already, and he’s planning on taking emergenC three weeks in advance. i love the black hills. 
• july: LAKE TIME. liz and i went to tasha’s bachelorette party in spicer and spent some time in lake george, which was awesome because…
• july II: our derry reunion was really windy and annoying and we didn’t get to go swimming because of the wind. stupid wind. but still, we had a reunion this year, which is more to be said than last year! and i got to sit by a lake and look it it, which is more to be said than living in SE minnesota. -_-

self

• june: i got a tomato tattoo in honor of my uncle squire. it’s pretty. i love it. every time i see it i smile.

…………………………….
we were doing so well. and then 2015 took the nose-diviest nose dive ever. 
october 31, charlie was hit by a drunk driver and had brain damage. he was in a coma for a week, the rock-bottom bottom of the year. it was a week of waiting, hoping for his brain to come back to us, for him to come back to us. 
…………………………….
and he did. november was the longest month of my life, and even now at the end of the year, i wonder where exactly the month went. charlie’s back to us and has his skull placement schedule for mid-january, at which point he will ditch the helmet. after wondering if he would even live, charlie’s up and walking and being his same old self (with tongue issues and synapses not quite synapsing at the same speed yet). 2015 came back. 
…………………………….
my sister said she was having a huge NYE party to kick 2015 to the curb. i don’t know. 
2015 was pretty good up until october 31, and the week that we held our breath was just that – a week – though it felt like a lifetime. 
and the progress since that week has been phenomenal. i can’t discredit 2015.