2020 Plans, Goals, Etc--Part II

Didn't think it would take me this long to return to this topic.

Reading: Read 25 books. Last year I read 24, re-read The Handmaid's Tale and parts of Gone with the Wind.

So far this year, I've read three books: City of Endless Night, The Money Drunk, and The Obsidian Chamber. 

I also read three poetry books: Art & Text, Woman-Words by Marylou Kelly Streznewski, and Inverse Origami by Mar Walker. The first is the companion to this exhibit; the second is by an author I met at the International Women's Writing Guild summer conference in 1998; the third is by a poet I met at a reading by another poet I knew from another writer's conference. I haven't decided on a set number of poetry books to read this year. I'll just play it by ear.

Job Search: At some point in the last two years, I abandoned my job search. I was busy with my mother's care and later her estate. I still get daily emails about job openings which I read occasionally, but will just work on my current part-time job.

Health: I've already written about working out. I also want to sleep better/get more sleep. I've been good about getting into bed earlier and not stressing too much about sleep or the lack thereof. I'm not sure I need a full eight hours of sleep; I seem to do fine on 7-7.5.

This year, I'm going to get a physical, shots such as a shingles vaccine, just take care of many things I've neglected. Already in January, I've been to the gynecologist and eye doctor, and had a mammogram and bone density test.

Finance/Legal: I need to get both fiances and legal matters in order.

Creativity: I want to do more "arty" things. This is a vague goal. I went to some artist receptions and open houses in the fall, and want to do more. I'd like to hear live music--never seem to do that anymore. I want to work on art journals. I recently read an issue of Art Journal which was inspiring, but I can't seem to give myself permission to work on a journal. It will just add to the mess that I need to clean and organize.

That leads me to Cleaning/Organizing goals: boring I know. The worst thing about cleaning is that it never ends. Everything gets dirty or in disarray again. But I want to try to stay on top of it more/better. I've been going through and getting rid of things I don't use/want. That has to be helping, right?

Finally (though I reserve the right to add or edit goals and plans) trips to plan. Jeff and I are planning to move somewhere south of here in the next few years. We need to explore some areas. I want to go on New Hope (Bucks County) Pennsylvania. I remember New Hope fondly--going there for plays on high school trips--and seeing some cute shopping areas. The area has beer, wine, and ice cream trails. Intriguing. I also have an invitation to visit Baltimore. Research!

Jeopardy: Another Try

Tonight I took the Jeopardy Test to be a show contestant. I think I did pretty well. Since the first time I took the test back in 2013, I discovered The Jeopardy Fan. It looks like I got 42/50 correct.

I don't know how many I got right in 2013 when I was contacted for an audition. Last year I think I got about 33 correct and heard nothing. So 42 sounds good.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

2020 Plans, Goals, Hopes, and Dreams--Part 1

A bit more than resolutions.

I've been thinking about my plans for this year for some time--especially over the last month. Jeff and I have had many changes in our lives over the past few years. I'm at a crossroads age. Oh, have to think of a more elegant way to say that.

I realized that I didn't list any goals for 2019. I looked on this blog, in a file on my pc, and in journal from last January. I guess I just recycled 2018 goals.

Here are the 2018 goals for reference:

• Stop drinking for about six weeks until Valentine's Day
• Go to the gym 150 times
• Write 255 blog posts
• Write 500 words two days a week
• Read 20 books
• Do job search activities for 10 hours each week
• Turn off TV at least two nights a week
• Write one letter/long email each week
• Sleep eight hours each night

Some of these are still my goals for 2020.

• Stop drinking for about six weeks until Valentine's Day--we're halfway through this today.
• Go to the gym 150 times--I haven't come close to this goal, and I've had it for at least three years. I still say it's doable--about three visits a week. Since I've made going to the gym a priority in October, I've been 37 times through December (and was away a week at Christmas.) In 2020, I've already gone 14 times. I just need to keep it up. 
• I want to resurrect an older goal as well: exercise at least a half hour each day. I know I didn't exercise on New Year's Day, but I think I've managed a half hour on days I didn't get to the gym. It's not that hard to do some light stretching or balance poses.
• Blogging: I had picked 255 posts because it's roughly five posts a week and I did write 253 posts in 2013. (Last year's total was 135.) I've rethought this goal. In November, my goal was to write a post every day. I decided it was too arbitrary; that may also be true of 255 posts. Plus I want to make sure I have time for other writing. How about 200 blog posts?
• Speaking of other writing: I want to keep the goal: write 500 words two days a week. I only maintained it for two days, so I have a lot of work to do here.
• More on writing: I'm going to write poetry. I'm going back to the poetry group, and I'm going to read more poetry.

More to follow.

A Visit to Sherwood Island

On Monday, Jeff, Lola, and I headed to Sherwood Island. I-95 North was packed with slow-moving cars, so we bagged that idea and went to Taylor Farm.

Yesterday Lola and I made it. Sherwood Island is one of my favorite places to go after a snowstorm. Its roads are always plowed and walkways clear of snow. That's not as much of a problem after the few inches of snow we had last week, but it's tough after a big snowstorm.

At one point, Lola stopped on a sheet of ice. I thought she was nervous and tried to help her get across the ice to where I was standing. No, she just wanted to go in the other direction; the ice didn't faze her. As we walked along, I noticed a deer to the left of us. It ran off with a second deer. Then I realized there were another three deer to the right of us. I think they were all female deer--I didn't see any antlers. They seemed cool with us though eventually moved away.

Sherwood Island is a state park of 235 acres. There are lots of new areas for us to explore. Lola and I continued down a side road until we reached an area that wasn't open to the public. I would have liked to go further but obeyed the signs. I saw a building that could have been a garage and then maybe a house. We walked by what looked like a graveyard for Christmas trees. They smelled wonderful.

For the most part, I'm enjoying our walks even this winter. We just have to stay bundled up against the cold and especially the wind. Recently heard on the radio that winter is one-third over. I notice the days getting longer. Hoping for an early spring.

Another Photo Post

Last year I posted about some painted stones I found on Schenck's Island.  I saw several more this week. The Jesus, Mary, and cross stones here are similar to some I saw last year.

When I first saw Mary, I thought of Anne Boleyn. I imagined myself painting rocks with Anne's image and strewing them around the park. 

The next day on the NRVT, Lola saw this. She sniffed and then kept going. She didn't seem pleased when I stopped to take a photo.

Finally one more picture. I found this on my phone: I had forgotten about it.

I grew up in the Philadelphia area--land of Tastykake. My favorites were peanut butter Tandy Takes (the original name that I will always remember.) Tandy Takes consist of a vanilla cake with a layer of peanut butter encased in chocolate.

On the ride home from North Carolina for Christmas, we stopped at a deli in New Jersey and bought a pack. I wish I had gotten more.

Book Three: City of Endless Night by Preston and Child

This is more like it: a diabolical murderer who didn't come back from the dead and isn't a monster. The first victim is the wild daughter of a high-tech millionaire. Her body is found in an abandoned warehouse, but her head is nowhere to be seen.

More decapitations follow: a mob lawyer, a Russian arms dealer, a couple whose finance company specialized in ripping off veterans, and a Nobel Peace Price winner. What could be the connection between the victims? Even Special Agent Pendergast is at a loss to explain this killer. Until he does. 

Author Speak with Bette Bono

Today I went to a talk by Bette Bono, author of the 23rd book I read in 2019 The Better Angels.

Bette explained how discussions with her middle school classes gave her the idea for the book.  After discussing such characters as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, her students asked her what kind of superpower she would like to have.

She read page two from the book, which was the set-up--Aggie May is forced into retirement. She had no children, no grandchildren, no bucket list. What will she do as she comes of a new age?

Finally Bette shared some historic and modern photographs of locations that appear in her book.

I enjoyed her book and was happy to support her and hear that she is working on a sequel.

Books One and Two The Obsidian Chamber and The Money Drunk

I'm off to good start reading in 2020.

First up: The Obsidian Chamber by Preston and Child

The prologue in this book was the same as the epilogue in Crimson Shore. Pendergast is gone, presumed dead. Grief-stricken, Constance decides to retreat to her chambers beneath the family mansion. Then Proctor, Pendergast's bodyguard and chauffeur, is attacked and drugged. Proctor recovers in time to see Diogenes Pendergast kidnapping Constance. The chase is on.

As I mentioned in my Crimson Shore post, the reappearance of Diogenes was a bit much for me. I was predisposed to be critical of this book. It's still good: the story is complex and kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next.


Book Two: The Money Drunk 90 Days to Financial Freedom by Mark Bryan and Julia Cameron (1992)
Now called Money Drunk/Money Sober 90 Days to Financial Freedom (1999)

I bought this book about 20 years ago when I took a week-long Artist's Way program with the authors at Omega Institute. I'm not sure why.

Obviously I wasn't burning to read it; it sat on my bookshelf for those 20 years. On Monday, I was reading an online thread about New Year's resolutions. Many involved saving or budgeting money, so I finally read the book.

The first part of the book defines the money drunk problem as another addiction. The second delineates the various types of money drunks, and the third describes a 12-step 90 day solution.

While I have some issues with money, I'm glad to report that I'm not a money drunk and don't need the program. It was interesting how many of the steps for the various types were similar to those in Cameron's The Artist's Way.

One Year

My mother died a year ago today. It feels longer. I think that's because my mother had become a shell of the person she used to be. At the end, she rarely talked. She had no interest in anything, even her crossword puzzles.

It was time. She was ready; she told me herself. "I want to go," she said two days before she died of pneumonia. We had to let her go: no hospital, no extraordinary efforts to keep her alive.

It was time.

A Sighting at Oyster Shell

As Lola and I entered Oyster Shell Park today, I saw the hawk (yes, I assume it's the same one that I've seen previously) land on a nearby tree branch. I was closer to it than I have ever been, except when it had swooped down near Lola and me. I fumbled with my phone while Lola was pulling on her leash to go further into the park.

By the time I was ready to take a picture, the hawk was gone. I was disappointed to miss the chance for a photo, but hope to see the hawk again soon.

The rest of our walk was uneventful. At least we got almost an hour of sunshine.

Book 24 (2019) Crimson Shore by Preston and Child

Blue Labyrinth, 2019 Book 22, includes a preview of Crimson Shore. I was intrigued.

Agent Pendergast's investigation of the theft of a rare wine collection turns into something more when he discovers a bricked up niche behind the wine racks. He finds a part of an index finger bone. Someone had been chained and walled up alive and tried to claw his way out. Pendergast and his ward Constance Greene discover that the sleepy seaside town of Exmouth has some dark secrets.

I enjoyed the book--yes, there is a but coming.

It seems that Preston and Child had to keep upping the ante.

It wasn't enough to have a two-century old murder and two modern murders.

It wasn't enough to have a mentally and emotionally disadvantaged feral killer.

It wasn't enough to have a coven of town witches descended from the real witches who fled Salem in 1692.

It wasn't enough to have a coven-bred deformed humanoid monster killer with a tail who resembled one of the witches' gods.

Pendergast discovers something more: someone had cleverly tampered with the locks to the monster's cell door and shackles. It was the mysterious figure Pendergast and Constance had previously seen on the dunes, and he was someone they both knew.

It is revealed in the next book, The Obsidian Chamber, that the mysterious figure is Diogenes Pendergast, who everyone believed was killed in The Book of the Dead.

That development was a bit much for me. There have been fake-out deaths in the series before such as Pendergast, Helen (Pendergast's wife) Margo Green, and Corrie Swanson. I'm starting to compare these fake-outs to those in the classic daytime soap operas. Death doesn't mean anything when everyone and his brother can return from the death. There's only so much amnesia, lost at sea, and cunning plans for revenge that I can stand. Let's hope it stops here.

Burning Bowl Service

Jeff and I went to a church service on New Year's Eve. I honestly can't remember the last time I went to a church service.

The service consisted of prayer (including "for everything there is a season") and music. As we entered, we were given a pencil and a strip of paper. During the last hymn, we wrote a list of things we wanted to put behind us. As we left the church, we dropped our papers into a fire.

I loved the symbolism. How can you move ahead with new year's resolutions if you're burdened with things better left behind?

I hope I can make it work.

More on Our Cornelius Christmas

Jeff's illness put a damper on our Christmas vacation. He called in sick on Thursday, and once again slept most the day.  He did manage a visit to the dog park and a dinner with me and his mother. On Friday, he was back to work--remotely that is.

The other guys went golfing and the women went to Latta Plantation. Latta is not a Gone with the Wind style plantation. The homestead and other buildings show a way of life in 1800's North Carolina. The tour covered only the main Federal style house. The thing that struck me most was when the guide mentioned how the enslaved persons (he didn't use the word slaves) would stand in the doorway of the back parlor when it was being used as a dining room, ready to serve as needed. The tour guide mentioned that the floor of the doorway was more worn than the rest of the floor. I stood in that spot and tried to imagine the lives of others who stood before me.

We walked around the grounds and saw the outbuildings including a kitchen, slave cabin, smoke house, overseer cabin, and animals.

***

Latta Plantation is part of a 1500 acre nature preserve that includes the Carolina Raptor Center dedicated to environmental education and the rehabilitation of injured raptors. I was the only one really interested, but everyone agreed to walk the Raptor Trail. On the trail, two women showed us different types of hawk feathers. I talked with them about the hawk I had seen at Oyster Shell Park. 

When I saw them on the way back, they said they thought they had identified the hawk and showed me a picture of an Osprey. I told them I had considered the Osprey, but the head wasn't right. I remembered I had a picture on my phone. Despite the small image, they identified the bird as a Red-shouldered Hawk. I was psyched because that was one of the hawks that I had considered.

***

Friday was our last night in North Carolina, and we planned a family dinner at the Melting Pot. After dinner, we stopped at a local bar. I ordered an Irish whiskey, and the waiter asked if I wanted a Pickleback. I tried it and loved it. It made my evening.