New Year's Resolutions

I guess everyone's entitled to one holiday/event that they go completely crazy over. For me it's not Christmas, Easter, Halloween or even New Years'. It's kinda Thanksgiving - but probably only because it always falls on my birthday week! Yes, I am one of the birthday people! I start thinking about my birthday and how I want to celebrate months, sometimes even years in advance. I need people to remember the day and come bearing gifts whenever possible. I take a lot of time to think up goals leading up to my birthday. I do whatever I feel I must to get geared up for this new year of my life.

This year has been surprisingly chill though...not entirely sure what that's about. Could it be maturity? Nah! Could it be that I already had a year of great trips and exciting oppurtunities - well, yes. But that never stopped me from acting a complete fool at birthday time, before. Hhhmmm.... Well, I will enjoy these mellow birthday emotions, since I'm not sure another birthday like this will come around soon.

As is my custom, I came up with a list of some Birthday/New Year of My Life goals...

In no particular order...

• Grow closer to, and in my knowledge of, God
• Become a certified yoga and/or pilates instructor
• pH balance my diet
• Develop a stronger, leaner body (without fixating on what I weigh. No one is carrying me anywhere anyway)
• Learn to drive a manual car
• Get married
• Work full-time as a TV reporter/Journalist/Filmmaker

Yes, that read “get married” just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

• The real desire would be to meet and begin dating ‘the one’ marrying him within the year is a stretch. I’m a big believer in ‘seeing him through the seasons’ before marrying him or letting him marry you. (Even though I am following two great blogs by two Mormon girls and one of them met her beau in August - the day she broke up with another guy - and was married to the new guy by Christmas after a 3 day engagement – yikes!) I'm not lying, see for yourself:

http://www.reachelandrew.com/pages/meetcouple/bios.html#DatingTimeline

• Blog, Blog, Blog
• Live in a new city – will settle for a new house or apartment in the same city - if I must
• Go to Oz (Melbourne and Sydney)
• Resume Spanish lessons
• Learn to swim
• Finish shooting and editing my documentary
• Have my lump removed, hernia fixed and sort out my acid reflux…I am waaaaaaaaaay too young for this!

Tentatively:

• Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with a group of close friends, this time next year for my b-day.

Is that’s a lot to squeeze into a year? I’m a lot of things - lacking in ambition is apparently not one of them. Yes, this list is open for editing and rewriting. I’m sure I’m forgetting over half the list mostly because I:
a. Worked on this when I should have been working and
b. Wrote this is one sitting instead of dedicating my usual month (and then some) to this rigorous planning/dreaming process

I don't have cancer.

So what am I going to do with this opposite-of-a-death-sentence?

Wait, just so I'm clear, I don't want cancer. I just lived through a couple of weeks when I thought an unusually shaped and sizable lump I found in my breast could be cancer. Five days ago, after a series of exams, a mammogram an ultrasound and biopsy, I got the great news; my lump is benign. Did I mention, my birthday is in two days. Yes, a week before my birthday, I was waiting to find out whether I had cancer. Now, I always get all weird and introspective around my birthday anyway, but this year, I had the C word to contend with. I also attended a colleague's mother's funeral today. So my desire to live is more heightened than usual...what better thing to do than start a blog?!

All of a sudden I have Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" playing in my head. Excuse me while I sing it to myself and type it for you:

It's my life

It's now or never

I ain't gonna live forever

I just gotta live while I'm alive...It's my life!

My heart is like an open highway

Like Frankie said I did it my way!

I just gotta live while I'm alive

It's - My - Life!

At least you didn't have to hear me sing it. I wouldn't complain too much if I were you.

So on that note (of course the pun was intended). This will hopefully be a dialogue between me and you -  as we all navigate this wondering, scary, amazing, confusing, exhilarating, depressing, intense, confusing, awe-inspiring...thing called life of which we each only get one! No pressure at all :o)

You can expect me to share about:

• Work:  My attempt to get paid for my passion. I think people should be able to make a successful living out of things they'd do for free anyway.  
  
• Love:  My hope to find and be found by the Mr., and other attempts to understand anyone with a Y chromosome.
  
• Friends and Family
  
• Movies:  I love them, I want to make them. (In other news my sister wants to be in them.)
  
• Health and Fitness:  My married friends are trying to lose their baby weight, I'm trying to get back to my "hey baby" weight!  Kinda Kiddin'.  I am REALLY interested in getting healthier.  A few people I know have recently turned vegetarian, adopted gluten-free diets, organic diets or are pH-balancing their diets.  I tried the veggie thing for a month and didn't like it. But I hear red meat causes cancer and I'll like to drop a few lbs. So we will see what I come up with...
• Travel - I am a restless and adventurous soul. Earlier this year, I went on a road trip from Lagos, Nigeria to London UK across the Sahara Desert making a documentary about desertification. It's the biggest global warming threat to Africa and the neighbouring (English spelling) parts of Europe.
• Relocating - While I'm a restless soul, I have somehow managed to live in the same city for the past 15 years! I know, lame (only because I claim to be restless).
• Anything I want to, that's a part of me living this 'new life' of mine. It's my blog, I can blog whatever I want to!  You would blog too if it happened to you... da da da da da! (I promise much less of this type o' cheesy chatter)

Here's to a great ride!