Miscellaneous

It’s 2018!

Miscellaneous

It’s always fun to start the year off by looking back and seeing everything that I accomplished in the previous year and set new goals for the new year.

So how did last year stack up? Goal-wise, not so good. I don’t think I accomplished a single goal that I had set for myself. I started out the year with a lofty set of about 10 items on my goal sheet. In the beginning, it seemed very doable and not at all unreasonable. Since I had officially stepped down as a co-owner of Fight-in-a-Box and was only finishing up the project that I was in the middle of, I expected to have copious amounts of extra free time. As the year progressed, and all things work-related didn’t slow down, it started to look more unlikely that I would be able to accomplish everything. But being the stubborn person that I can sometimes be, I just reorganized and pressed on, reminding myself that the year wasn’t over yet, and I still had more time. Unfortunately, rather than focusing and getting one thing done at a time, I switched between each goal and ended up not completing any of them.

But, even though I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do, I don’t look at last year as a complete fail. For one thing, it made me look through this year’s list and be more reasonable about what I will have time for. Rather than having a lofty list of ten things this year, I have four. And if I complete everything, then I can add more to the list at a later point in time. (Thanks Nick! This has always been great advice, and I’m glad I am finally heeding it! Too bad I had to learn it the hard way…)

Last year also ended up being the year of focusing more on myself and trying to be the best that I can be. It’s a work in progress, but things are headed in the right direction, so that’s good!

So what were the highlights of the year? For one, being groupies for our friend, Mindy Mejia was really fun. Nick and I would show up at her local book tours to show her our support. We also gifted her book to friends and family in hopes that they would see how amazing her writing is and appreciate her talent as much as we do! (Unless everybody is lying to us, they agree!)

I got a new theme for my website and updated everything. I ran my half marathon in less than two hours, which was awesome! So awesome, that I’m taking next year off! (Well, not completely off…I just don’t have any plans, as of now, to run in any official races. I’m still going to keep running on my own.) I went to Toronto and had a fun ladies vacation. I started taking hula dance lessons. And as always, I spent time with great friends and family. (I even saw my brother for awhile this year, which is a rare treat!)

There were two highlights to this year that will continue in to next year…I joined an Improv group, which is super scary to me, but will be good for me to help put me outside of my comfort zone and force me to make a fool out of myself in front of strangers and friends. And who knows, maybe I’ll actually be funny!

And the best news…I got a new job! I’ll post more on that at a later point in time, after I officially start, but it should be awesome! I can’t wait! So far, 2018 is starting out great!

Toronto

Miscellaneous, Photography

Last week, some friends and I went to Toronto, Canada! One of my friends, Mindy Mejia, was going to a mystery writer’s conference, and her husband didn’t want to go with, so three of us friends tagged along. It was really fun! Toronto is like a cleaner, less smelly New York. We ate a lot of delicious food, drank a lot of delicious drinks, and saw a lot of cool things. My two favorite things to see were The Power Plant and the Toronto Islands. At The Power Plant, my favorite piece was Demonstration by Michael Landy. What a fun idea to make your art interactive and have others participate in it. And a lot of the signs were very powerful and funny.

Since I knew we would be walking around a lot, I decided to try using my phone for pictures, instead of carrying around my bulky, heavy camera bag. In some ways, I’m glad I did this, and in other ways, I’m not. It was challenging to take photos with my phone, since I couldn’t always see the display. Even though I had the option to adjust for exposure, I wasn’t sure if I was adjusting correctly. And then there’s that whole digital zoom thing…I completely forgot about it. So I was zooming in and starting to get comfortable with the camera, only to get home, download all the photos and realize that they are all horribly pixellated! So sad! But on the good side, my shoulder doesn’t hurt at all, I didn’t have to carefully maneuver around the places that were crowded, and now I know for the future! Plus, it will be fun to see how horrible these look in the future as technology gets better and better!

Forest Bathing

Miscellaneous, Photography

For August’s photo outing, Kristin and I combined a Forest Bathing class and photos! (Actually, we did Forest Bathing first and photos after that.) For those of you who might not know what Forest Bathing is (I had no clue until I read the description), it’s a form of Japanese meditation. The basic theory is that we don’t spend enough time outside in nature, so it’s taking the time to connect with nature, meditate, and just notice and be in the moment. The class was great, and I would definitely recommend it. It was offered at the Arboretum, through the University of Minnesota.

It was 2.5 hours long, and we were introduced to an activity, given 15-20 minutes to partake in said activity, and then we talked about it as a group. I think we did about 5-6 different activities. The space that we were brought to for our nature connection, was really beautiful and peaceful. The instructor was great as well. Some of the activities were a little more “edgy” (his words), but he never made anyone participate or made them feel awkward for not participating. My least favorite part was going around in a circle and talking about the activities. I’m not a huge fan of talking in front of a group of people. It was reminiscent of the first day of school when you go around in a circle and tell everyone your name and something about yourself. (Does anyone really like doing that?)

After the class, I was definitely more relaxed. Honestly though, I can’t say for sure if it was because I was in nature and meditating or if it was because I blocked off a set of time for 2.5 hours and had nowhere to be and nothing to do except sit in nature. Either way, the end result was fantastic, and I’m glad I did it!

Kristin and I had a quick snack and then wandered the Arboretum taking photos. Yes, I took a lot of flower photos (I was definitely in the right place for that!), but there were a few non-flower photos that I really love. I’m not exactly sure what it is about them that draws me in, but they are so interesting, that I had to share them:

For this month’s poster, I didn’t do a poster. I wasn’t pleased with how it was turning out, and I realized that a postcard was much more interesting to me. So I did the postcard that I used as the featured image of this post, and the one below:

dead flower with text Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in lower-left corner

The featured post one is more traditional to me, so I think that’s why I like this one better, and I kept it to show you at the end. Surprise!

In the Wild

Miscellaneous

Recently, I was at Southdale Center in Edina. While passing by Games by James, I asked my friend if she would mind stopping to see if End of the Line was on the shelf there, and she obliged. I knew it was at the Mall of America store, but I wasn’t sure if it would also be at Southdale. And it was! Not only was it on the shelf, it was prominently displayed and at eye level. Good job Seppy! I think it really stood out among the other games on the shelf, but I’m also biased, and I was purposely looking for it. It’s so exciting to see something that you’ve worked on out in the wild!

Half-Marathon Run

Miscellaneous

For the third year in a row, my bestie, Sakura, and I ran in Grandma’s Half Marathon (It’s actually the Gary Bjorkland Half Marathon, but not many people are familiar with it by that name). I have been training more this year than in the past years, and I had hoped to get my time down to under 2 hours. And my official time for this year was 1:53:36! Goal Accomplished! And now I can retire…

I was thinking back to when I first started running, and how I struggled to run even one mile. I spent a lot of time alternating between running and walking, with more time spent on the walking side of things. When Sakura first suggested that I sign up for a 5k, I was excited by the idea, but not sure that I would be able to run for that long. Even in high school, I never ran that far. But I chose a 5k and started training. I would like to tell you that every run I did better and better, but it doesn’t work like that for me. Over time I got better, but some runs were amazing, and I felt like I could keep going, and some runs were horrible, and I couldn’t wait for them to be finished. And that’s still true for me today. This time around training, almost all of my runs over 8 miles were a struggle, and sadly, I ended up walking a lot more than I had wanted to. Oddly, my final two runs before the race were also extremely difficult. And they were both only around two miles!

What I’ve learned from running is that it’s mostly mental. It’s so easy to just give up, walk, and never do any actual running. But if you really want to run, you just have to stick with it and keep going, even when you really want to quit. Nick, my husband, is a great example of this. He HATES running…with a PASSION. (He’s not shy about telling people this when they ask him how his run went.) But he wants to stay fit, and he sees running as a good option for that end goal. While I do enjoy most of my runs, I think every one is painful for him. I think he tackles running like he would tackle a chore. It needs to get done, so he just does it. Some days when I really don’t want to get out of bed, I look to him for inspiration, suck it up, and go run!

I think almost anything in life can be tackled in that same way. Set up a schedule, stick to it, make it a habit, and then, eventually, it will just become something that you do. Now I just need to learn to rein myself in and limit that to about three things. I can’t do everything, but I want to!