Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts

Roadmap for 2017 + My 24th Year

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me!!! 
Today, I am 24. I am taking the day off from work, sleeping in a bit, making myself a delicious breakfast, going to the gym, getting a massage, and teaching a dance class. Woo!

Since my birthday is so close to NYE, I'm going to combine my goals/bucket list/resolutions for the new year with my ambitions for my 24th year of life. All smashed together into one big shmorgasborg of a shit ton of things I want to get done in 2017.

2016 was a failed year. I hate to be dramatic, but it feels that way in retrospect. I did accomplish some things, try out some new stuff, and see some new places. But all in all, I felt unbelievable stagnant. I like to keep things positive, but it is what it is.



ON TO THE NEXT ONE. 

The mottos: 


The poetic approach:
The same time will go by and where will you be?
yearning for more or finally free...


Here is a list all the non-time-sensitive things I want to accomplish, try, fail at, see, do, experience, and test out in the next 365 days of approaching closer and closer to my quarter life crisis. I may write these down on a giant poster board and hang them in my room, but there's no precise time table for getting these done, I just want to eventually (this year!)

1. Do a polar plunge.
2. Participate in a Whole 30 eating plan.
3. Attend a gay pride event. 
4. Train for and complete a 10k.
5. Have someone perform Reiki on me. 
6. Take a professional dance class. 
7. Go hiking in Vermont. 
8. Take an aerial Yoga class.
9. Distribute hot cocoa and coffee to crossing guards in the winter. 
10. Go to an outdoor concert (I didn't go to a single one in 2017!)


YEAR LONG, ON-GOING GOALS: 

  • Take a short video every day of the year, to create a 365 second long 1SE video.
  • Dance once a week and record myself improvising to all of my favorite songs. Compile the video. Witness the growth. 
  • Get out of cc debt (or as close as possible). 
  • Stretching and yoga, to me, is the truest form of self-care. Implement as often as possible. 
  • Eat clean clean and cleaner still. You can do it, biotch. 
  • Take deeper freakin' breaths. Pause before speaking. Radiate the light you know is inside of you, daily. 


GOALS SPECIFIC TO MONTHS: 

January - apply to freakin' grad school. 

February - surprise L with a Valentine's Day homemade meal or sappy present because I am a weak, weak person. 

March - go to a St. Paddy's Day parade, visit Aunt Natalie in Atlanta and take a day trip to Savannah, GA!

April - start training for a 10K, hopefully decide where I am going to grad school!!! 

May - start process of apartment hunting. 

June - complete a 10K.

July - go to a super fun 4th of July event, with fireworks and sparklers! 

August - decide where I am going to be living for the next indeterminate number of years, move there, either travel internationally or compete an intensive 2-week yoga teacher training course in Costa Rica or somewhere equally unbelievable. 

September - start grad school (!!!!)

October - celebrate Halloween either Boston-style or Pumpkin Fest-style in Keene, NH. All depends on where I decide for grad school. 

November - Go home for Thanksgiving and write down at least one thing I'm grateful for each day for the whole month. 

December - Bake 1,000 Christmas cookies, volunteer my time at a shelter of some kind, see the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular.

This is 100x more intense year planning than what I did in 2016 so I'm hoping and praying that this year goes according to plan. Of course, with a little wiggle room for spontaneity :)

Cheers to a new year, new beginnings, new chances, and 365 opportunities to make it count. 

Winter Birthday Probz

Having a birthday in the winter is literally the worst. All my peoples born November through March, raise your hands if you agree.

My birthday inconveniently falls on December 20th, yupp five days before Christmas. At the risk of sounding like a brat, I've been getting gypped for 23 years. Friends have always been busy with family functions around my birthday time, no one is in the mood to spend any money after dropping it all on Christmas presents. Like c'mon you guys, I know Christmas is important, but IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. *stomps feet, pouts, and whines*


In all seriousness...
I haven't done anything actually fun on my birthday in many years. For year 22, some friends and I tried to go to the casino but I was suffering from a broken heart and was, in laymens terms, a fucking disaster. Crying, refusing to have a drink, trying to text my ex, the whole 9 yards. Not fun for anyone.

Last year was lowkey and we went to Margaritas and I got one margarita and a cheese quesadilla and went home and went to sleep. Definitely an improvement over year 22, but... I think I can do better.

I have these two options in my head that I can't get out, so I need a little bit of help from the blog world (if you're out there!) deciding what it is exactly that I want to do, keeping in mind that my friends oh so kindly expressed to me that they weren't born into royalty so they can't go blowing all their money just for my special, only comes once a year, day. So here are the options.


Option #1: Isolated Cozy Overnighter 
Split an Air Bnb up in Vermont with 4-6 of my close friends for a two day getaway. Highly preferably a log cabin. We can drive up by carpooling together in L's dad's minivan, saving money by splitting on gas.

I'm envisioning:
- cozy blankets and a roaring stone fireplace
- hot chocolate spiked with Bailey's
- a DIY wine and cheese platter
- a movie marathon (Harry Potter, because it's my freakin' birthday)
- board games and card games a la Cards Against Humanity
- a snowball fight outside if we're feeling frisky

It's cozy, it's personal, it's quite possibly the definition of hygge. Which brings me to option #2, which is the completely opposite vibe...


Option #2: NYC Winter Wonderland 
Take a train from New Haven to NYC to experience the Great Apple in all of it's
Christmas-ified glory (which I've never done!!!). Possibly a day trip, possibly stay one night depending on if I can find a reasonably priced hotel on Groupon.

I would love to:
- see the giant Christmas tree all lit up
- go ice skating at Rockefeller Center
- walk through Chelsea Market
- see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular (I've never seen it!!!)
- go to a bar one of my coworkers told me about that is 100% decorated in all Christmas everything
- ride a horse drawn carriage through Central Park if I'm feeling like a really over the top birthday bitch

It looks magical, something that would celebrate my birthday AND get me deep into the Christmas spirit. But it could also be crowded, stressful, and freezing cold. Which L and my friends haven't failed to point out to me.

What do you think? What would you do? 

I'm trying to plan this super in advance so that I can actually DO SOMETHING for year 24, be it cozy and warm or slushy yet marvelous. Help a sister out?