Second Quarter Round-Up

In my excitement to post the first chapter of the story I'm working on I neglected to mention that we are now officially half-way through 2011!  Summertime's here!  I know, I know, I'm surprised to have lived this long as well.  Where's my hover board??

Anyway so let's see how we're doing for the year.  You may recall I made a list of resolutions at the beginning of the year (found HERE) and of course followed up with a 3 month summary (found HERE).  So how am I doing so far??  

1. Lose at least 10 pounds

I started this year at around 185 pounds and wanted to lose 10.  As of this morning I weigh 156 pounds.  Mission F'n' Accomplished!!!  I mean, I accomplished the 10 pound thing by March and still wanted another 10 gone.  Now I've lost 30 in the year.  I actually still wouldn't mind going for yet ANOTHER 10, but I think it may be a lost cause since I'm also determined to quit smoking before my 35th birthday (next January) and that may cause me to gain back 10 to 30 pounds if I succeed.  However it is nice to see both my waist and ribs again.  Hopefully this will be a lasting trend.  I'm not dieting, but I've changed my eating habits and my lifestyle in general so I think it shouldn't be too hard to keep it up.
 
2. Make a more significant effort to free myself of debt (minimum payments are not enough!)
 
Paid off another $2850.00 this quarter.  Not as much as I would like but I had some other expenses what with the new TV and the trip and stuff. All that stuff I talk about every week comes with a price tag!   I do hope to make up this deficiency with an extra $1000.00 this quarter as well as the minimum payments +1000 that I want to do regularly.  Regardless of how much gets paid at what time, I still believe I am on track to be debt free by Christmas, 2012.  We shall see....  

3. Write more (at least get 2 blogs a month in)

I`d say this is going rather swimmingly.  I`ve gotten at least 1 blog a week in all year, written a song or 3, and written 3000 words on a fiction piece (most of which I posted at the beginning of the month starting HERE). I anticipate that story continuing to at least around the 10,000 word mark if not further.  Chapter 2 is completely a flashback to 3 years earlier.  If I can keep the story alive in my head long enough to get it on paper, perhaps I`ll share more.

4. Learn some more difficult songs on guitar (sometimes 3 chords is NOT enough!)

I`ve picked up a few songs.  I still am not practising enough.  I`ve only been to the beach ONCE so far.  Must. Rectify. Situation!!!

5. Be more adventurous. (I'm going to NYC this September. With or without company.)

I think that I have been more adventurous.  I also think that I`ll postpone the NYC trip.  Again, finances deem it improbable.  I spent too much money on other things.  I may change my mind but we`ll see.  I have, however, done some pretty wacky things locally that I wouldn`t have dreamed of doing even a year ago.  This "be more adventurous" is such a subjective resolution that in a way I feel that I fail if I DON`T make it to NYC but in a lot of smaller ways I feel I`ve passed.  Well, there`s still another 6 months so we`ll see where the road takes us.

Do I have anything else to add?  I will say that I've been feeling a lot more upbeat about my situation in the last few months.  I've been pretty happy, all things considered.  My decision to forget about even bothering to date has actually made me super happy with my life the way it is.  I walk around smugly and laugh at those of my acquaintances that have to snap to it when the girlfriend calls.   Of course if someone comes along and sweeps me off my feet then they'll have the last laugh...but somehow I don't see that happening.  At least not any time soon.


The biggest change coming up for third quarter is that one of my best friends is moving out of the province.  She says it'll only be for a few months.  I've heard that before...

 Good luck darlin'!  Like the man says....have a good life.