Random Bits & Pieces

Happy Birthday

I am now officially involved in counting down to my 50th birthday. I’ve got a list of activities I’m going to shoot for enjoying in the next 12 months, all culminating in the biggest birthday celebration I’ve had to date.

Activities appear in no set order; those with specific dates are in bold:

• Kayaking off the coast of Savannah, GA
• Tubing in Helen, GA
• White water rafting somewhere in GA
• Lose 10% body fat (I still owe $40 to the winner of last bday’s Biggest Loser challenge I issued, lol)
• Attend a motorcycle riding class, get my riding license
• Attend a gun safety class, get my permit to carry
• Four day weekend in a cabin in the woods – no demons, ghosts, or other evil entities allowed *NOTE – limited to six additional attendees unless other folks get their own cabin.
• Four day weekend to attend Caribana in Toronto, Canada (end of July, 2017) *NOTE – four paying persons to a room
• Four day weekend to attend the Notting Hill Caribbean Festival in London, England (end of August, 2017)
• Boat rental / day on the lake at Lake Blueridge, GA
• Four day weekend at Lake Lanier
• Attend Savannah Book Festival – rent booth, sell books, meet & greet (Feb. 2017) *NOTE – we can split the cost and share a booth
• Conduct week long writer’s event, Denver CO. (2017) *NOTE – road trip! lol…maybe.  LOL
• Conduct week long young writer’s event, Marietta Community School summer camp (summer 2017)
• Writer’s retreat – writing friends together for a weekend someplace NICE where we write, talk, drink wine
• A BIG FREAKIN PARTY some place fun, with good music, and a dance floor big enough to accommodate my groove thang – June 30, 2017.

• Quality time with friends, family at least once a month

Now, I’m not known for throwing good parties so I’ve pretty much given up on making the attempts. This year’s bday celebration was ridiculously low key – I sent out a general email to friends and family, told ’em to meet me for happy hour at the local bar and that was that. Four people showed up. That’s about par for the course when it comes to me inviting people places. I don’t take it personal because I am notorious for not making it to social functions myself. My own version of introversion and social anxiety tends to keep me from showing up to parties. Typically, if someone wants me to show up to their function, they have to come get me before hand and make it difficult for me to leave. It’s not a flattering aspect of my personality but I’m learning to live with it.

Anyway, because I know this about myself, I’ve attempted to take the pressure off my friends and family this go round by setting up a private group where I’ll post the details of each event / adventure. If folks want to come, then they’ll just show up. No pressure. No expectations. I think it’ll make it easier on all of us. Drop a comment if you’d like to join the group. We’ll make arrangements. 🙂

Camp NaNo – July

Yeah, I’m doing it. This go round, I’m finishing my 2nd release for this year, Eat Prey Blood – My Year as a Vampire. I’m looking forward to seeing how the story turns out. Based on a short story I wrote a couple years back, on the advice of a fellow writer, I’m expanding the story and giving the lead character her time in the spotlight.

Fitness / Life Challenge(s)

I’ve gotten completely turned around as to where I am with which challenge, lol. In order to streamline things, I’ve established a second BuJo (more on all of that in a minute) to track my fitness / health journey as I’m living it through the Nerd Fitness Academy. Small bit of an endorsement here – if you’re looking for a reality based way to improve your overall health and fitness, I highly recommend you start with Nerd Fitness. *ahem* Back to the post.

The Nerd Fitness Academy is the detailed program that offers up the step-by-step way to incorporate fitness and healthier eating into your every day. It is slow going so I’m not able to report any dramatic weight loss, but I can point out that since joining (June 10th), I’m making better food choices, I’ve gone back to drinking just water, and I finally have some sense of optimism about finally being able to get back down to my “fighting” weight.  We’ll see how it all turns out, eh?

Life as a BuJo Junkie

It’s official – I’m addicted to my Bullet Journal. I’ve watched I don’t know how many videos on YouTube of other Bullet Journalers who have elevated the basic concept and design of the bullet journal to artistic levels of museum quality. Mine isn’t nearly that decorative, as far as I’m concerned, but man do I love looking at it, writing in it, and planning out the next month’s layouts. I started my journal in May in a small spiral bound notebook then quickly graduated to a Moleskine.  LOVE IT!!  I now have a pencil case stuffed with colored pens, post-it tabs, etc. I have a slightly bigger baggie that I use to carry my straight edge, my Washi tape, my White Out pens (best way to correct things I’ve found), as well as a few other little decorating tools that didn’t fit into my pencil case.

I was going to do a video, but…uh, yeah. That’s not my forte, lol. Eventually I’ll put together a collage of my pictures, because you know, I’ve snapped a few pics of my obsession. You’ve read it here before, but again, I’d like to thank Ellie over at Quotidiandose here on WordPress for introducing me to this wonderful organizational tool. I’ve got to refine my daily layouts though, and work harder at making efficient plans versus just random to-do lists. But I’m sure all of that will come as I continue to learn the best ways to use my Journal.

Wrapping Up

So that’s it. That’s life as we head into the middle of summer. I’m sure I’ll be back with more news, because, well, there’s more coming up now isn’t there? ;-).

Hope you’re heading into a wonderful 4th of July (in the USA) celebratory weekend.

Love you!

Dana