Year in review, year in preview: 2017/2018
10 goals from 2017 (cf original list: LJ | DW):
- Read Torah at CBI. Did this roughly every 6 weeks or so, plus Haftarah on occasion. Enough, in the end, to count as forming a new routine.
- Keep my job, please please please. So far yes. First I survived the massive February layoffs when our company was acquired. And then in June they actually fired my boss (the longtime Director of Creative) and promoted me to a manager position, complete with 20%-ish raise, not a moment too soon.
- Get a PCP for each of us and have ALL the overdue routine medical appointments. Basically nothing accomplished here, except that etrace did get an eye exam in June and some new bifocals as a result. (They're not working out that great, but it's a start.) Back on the list for next year.
- Start Aria in a Montessori program. I put her on the waiting list in early August, at which time they said "oh we'll probably move some kids up in mid-September and have some spaces open up". In mid-October they said "early December". In mid-December they said "2nd week of January for almost certain". Hoping THAT one finally pans out. In the meantime, though, I did enroll her in the synagogue Hebrew school (preschool class, Sunday mornings only), and that's been good so far.
- Invest in at least one modest house improvement (insulated garage door, energy-efficient refrigerator). LOL, well, we ended up acquiring responsibility for the entire house instead, so all the money that we might have put into optional improvements has gone to the mortgage.
- Start decrufting all the outgrown baby stuff. I did take the very first box of baby shoes to the consignment shop in December finally. It seems pretty clear that our family is now the size it's going to be, and that's OK.
- Visit California. This we did, in April for my mom's birthday. The visit itself was good (apart from my being deathly ill the whole time); the traveling part made Etrace, always an anxious flyer, swear off ever flying there again. "Can't we drive? YOU can fly and I'LL drive and meet you there." Well, we'll see. (I am told there are advantages to taking long roadtrips while the child is still in diapers, rather than having to make potty stops every 90 minutes.)
- Write 12 posts (not counting the 2 I still intend to backdate to Nov and Dec 2016) in the pro blog, and 12 non-baby posts in my own LJ/DW. I made a sad total of 5 pro-blog posts from January to September 2017; like last year, I have plans for 1 or 2 more posts that I would still like to backdate to November or so, but that's still not 12! But I count ~28 LJ/DW posts, of which only ~8 are baby progress reports (since I am woefully behind on those), so taken all together, that's still over quota.
- Have social time with my own actual friends an average of once a month (12 times). Not even counting as social outings the times I went to shul without Aria, which I sort of do. There were a couple of trips into Chicago in February and March; the March "donor appreciation event" we went to at the Federation (featuring onsite child care); the 5 or 6 times cycon came over (2 of them beach outings); the 3 times we got a babysitter (a lunch date, a band gig, and The Last Jedi); the time my cousin T and her family came and took us all out for pizza; and the time I got to go (solo) to my friend Kim's Christmas cookie party! There was also the holiday dinner party we hosted in December for Etrace's bandmates, which wasn't exactly my own actual friends, but still fun and social.
- Do whatever I can to support the Resistance. Never enough. But I am selling buttons and yard signs, and keeping up my donations as best I can. My mom and her sisters are ardent Trumpists; my dad is getting more and more fringey, suspicious, and generally politically whacked-out in his old age; but at least my brother is staunchly blue and we can commiserate.
More things that happened in 2017:
- Out of chronological order, but the most important: We lost MomTrace suddenly and unexpectedly in early April. She was 83. Please, please, never take tomorrow for granted.
- I produced an Arisia Friday night siddur on behalf of crewgrrl and mbarr. PSA: the 2018 Friday night service at Arisia will take place in Paine(2W) at 5:30pm TONIGHT. :-)
- mabfan interviewed me for an article in Boston's Jewish Advocate newspaper. Hilariously, they ran it in print with a 2004 headshot they snagged off my website, but I'll take it.
- My mom visited for a week in July for Aria's 2nd birthday (festivities included a trip to the Porter County Fair in the morning to see the farm animals).
- I successfully led the Shacharit service at CBI for Rosh Hashanah (day 1) and Yom Kippur. In fact, my friend MH the shul (soon-to-be-ex-)president offered to cut me a deal: free Hebrew school tuition for Aria as long as I'm helping lead High Holiday services (in addition to the free dues we are already getting for my leading the monthly Friday night service). She had an agreement formally written up and everything, and she and I both signed it. It was her parting gift to me before stepping down from the presidency (her 3-year term having stretched to 4 years this month).
- In an effort to stabilize my sleep schedule, I gave up doing the NYT crossword every day... only to take up another silly game app called Design Home, in which you spend fictional and/or real money to buy fictional furnishings in order to complete daily interior design "challenges". Facebook was pitching it to me for months before I finally broke down and tried it out. And it's strangely addictive, not least (I'm sure) because my day job involves marketing home furnishings. I actually feel like it's teaching me some things about interior design -- for instance, how crucial scale and proportion are to a well-composed room.
- This deserves its own post, but: I got a phonecall in late October from a Judaica shop in Berkeley, CA, looking to order a couple of my prints to carry in the store! I then, um, proceeded to lose the voicemail until several weeks later when I was reviewing my saved messages (argh!), at which point I hurried to call him back, and he placed an order for 5 pieces. Bay Area friends, please consider stopping by Yves' Jewelry & Judaica on Solano Avenue in Berkeley, sometime after mid-January to check them out. :-D
- In late December, I happened to see the obituary online for our 88-year-old next-door neighbor, Gerda, who has lived there Etrace's entire life (AFAIK) and was still out doing her own yard work as recently as this fall. Between her and MomTrace, it's really the end of an era.
10 goals for 2018:
I would love to say things like "Get more exercise", "Drum up more freelance work" and "Rebuild my personal/professional website". But for now I don't feel I would prioritize those above doing more art, really. "Have a monthly date night", maybe that's something to strive for. :-)
N.B.: Cross-posted from Dreamwidth; click to view or comment on original post.
- Read Torah at CBI. Did this roughly every 6 weeks or so, plus Haftarah on occasion. Enough, in the end, to count as forming a new routine.
- Keep my job, please please please. So far yes. First I survived the massive February layoffs when our company was acquired. And then in June they actually fired my boss (the longtime Director of Creative) and promoted me to a manager position, complete with 20%-ish raise, not a moment too soon.
- Get a PCP for each of us and have ALL the overdue routine medical appointments. Basically nothing accomplished here, except that etrace did get an eye exam in June and some new bifocals as a result. (They're not working out that great, but it's a start.) Back on the list for next year.
- Start Aria in a Montessori program. I put her on the waiting list in early August, at which time they said "oh we'll probably move some kids up in mid-September and have some spaces open up". In mid-October they said "early December". In mid-December they said "2nd week of January for almost certain". Hoping THAT one finally pans out. In the meantime, though, I did enroll her in the synagogue Hebrew school (preschool class, Sunday mornings only), and that's been good so far.
- Invest in at least one modest house improvement (insulated garage door, energy-efficient refrigerator). LOL, well, we ended up acquiring responsibility for the entire house instead, so all the money that we might have put into optional improvements has gone to the mortgage.
- Start decrufting all the outgrown baby stuff. I did take the very first box of baby shoes to the consignment shop in December finally. It seems pretty clear that our family is now the size it's going to be, and that's OK.
- Visit California. This we did, in April for my mom's birthday. The visit itself was good (apart from my being deathly ill the whole time); the traveling part made Etrace, always an anxious flyer, swear off ever flying there again. "Can't we drive? YOU can fly and I'LL drive and meet you there." Well, we'll see. (I am told there are advantages to taking long roadtrips while the child is still in diapers, rather than having to make potty stops every 90 minutes.)
- Write 12 posts (not counting the 2 I still intend to backdate to Nov and Dec 2016) in the pro blog, and 12 non-baby posts in my own LJ/DW. I made a sad total of 5 pro-blog posts from January to September 2017; like last year, I have plans for 1 or 2 more posts that I would still like to backdate to November or so, but that's still not 12! But I count ~28 LJ/DW posts, of which only ~8 are baby progress reports (since I am woefully behind on those), so taken all together, that's still over quota.
- Have social time with my own actual friends an average of once a month (12 times). Not even counting as social outings the times I went to shul without Aria, which I sort of do. There were a couple of trips into Chicago in February and March; the March "donor appreciation event" we went to at the Federation (featuring onsite child care); the 5 or 6 times cycon came over (2 of them beach outings); the 3 times we got a babysitter (a lunch date, a band gig, and The Last Jedi); the time my cousin T and her family came and took us all out for pizza; and the time I got to go (solo) to my friend Kim's Christmas cookie party! There was also the holiday dinner party we hosted in December for Etrace's bandmates, which wasn't exactly my own actual friends, but still fun and social.
- Do whatever I can to support the Resistance. Never enough. But I am selling buttons and yard signs, and keeping up my donations as best I can. My mom and her sisters are ardent Trumpists; my dad is getting more and more fringey, suspicious, and generally politically whacked-out in his old age; but at least my brother is staunchly blue and we can commiserate.
More things that happened in 2017:
- Out of chronological order, but the most important: We lost MomTrace suddenly and unexpectedly in early April. She was 83. Please, please, never take tomorrow for granted.
- I produced an Arisia Friday night siddur on behalf of crewgrrl and mbarr. PSA: the 2018 Friday night service at Arisia will take place in Paine(2W) at 5:30pm TONIGHT. :-)
- mabfan interviewed me for an article in Boston's Jewish Advocate newspaper. Hilariously, they ran it in print with a 2004 headshot they snagged off my website, but I'll take it.
- My mom visited for a week in July for Aria's 2nd birthday (festivities included a trip to the Porter County Fair in the morning to see the farm animals).
- I successfully led the Shacharit service at CBI for Rosh Hashanah (day 1) and Yom Kippur. In fact, my friend MH the shul (soon-to-be-ex-)president offered to cut me a deal: free Hebrew school tuition for Aria as long as I'm helping lead High Holiday services (in addition to the free dues we are already getting for my leading the monthly Friday night service). She had an agreement formally written up and everything, and she and I both signed it. It was her parting gift to me before stepping down from the presidency (her 3-year term having stretched to 4 years this month).
- In an effort to stabilize my sleep schedule, I gave up doing the NYT crossword every day... only to take up another silly game app called Design Home, in which you spend fictional and/or real money to buy fictional furnishings in order to complete daily interior design "challenges". Facebook was pitching it to me for months before I finally broke down and tried it out. And it's strangely addictive, not least (I'm sure) because my day job involves marketing home furnishings. I actually feel like it's teaching me some things about interior design -- for instance, how crucial scale and proportion are to a well-composed room.
- This deserves its own post, but: I got a phonecall in late October from a Judaica shop in Berkeley, CA, looking to order a couple of my prints to carry in the store! I then, um, proceeded to lose the voicemail until several weeks later when I was reviewing my saved messages (argh!), at which point I hurried to call him back, and he placed an order for 5 pieces. Bay Area friends, please consider stopping by Yves' Jewelry & Judaica on Solano Avenue in Berkeley, sometime after mid-January to check them out. :-D
- In late December, I happened to see the obituary online for our 88-year-old next-door neighbor, Gerda, who has lived there Etrace's entire life (AFAIK) and was still out doing her own yard work as recently as this fall. Between her and MomTrace, it's really the end of an era.
10 goals for 2018:
- Stay gainfully employed.
- Keep both cars on the road another year. No reason they shouldn't make it, in theory; mine's under 86k miles and his under 78k. I would love to get Etrace a newer/upgraded Focus but at this point I'd be happier putting it off to 2019 if we can. Mine's been acting weird in a ton of little ways, enough to be an irritation, but nothing unmanageable so far.
- Resolve all remaining paperwork issues with the house/mortgage (e.g., we need to change over the taxes and insurance to be in our names).
- Establish a new primary care doctor and have a general physical, plus mammogram, dermatologist skin check, and eye exam.
- Transition Aria out of diapers (mostly, anyway). This milestone seems so very far away, but I'm betting we get there.
- Close out the storage unit and move everything back to the house once nephew J finally finds somewhere to move to that isn't the back of our garage.
- Conversely: De-cruft the garage (said cruft includes a quantity of baby goods and clothes, so it's all of a piece, really).
- Put up a sukkah.
- Carve out more time to both create and sell my Judaica artwork.
This actually makes for several subgoals:
- Let's say 6 new design projects (I have at least this many ideas sitting in my backlog)
- 6 new blog posts spotlighting the finished projects
- 6 new Etsy shop listings
- Finish the Facebook business page I started building several months ago
- Apply for the juried art show at the biennial Greater Chicago Jewish Festival: Sunday, June 10, 2018, at the Cook County Forest Preserve just west of Skokie. - Invest half an hour a day in doing something actually productive, instead of wasting 45+ baby-free minutes (before and after sleep) dicking around on Facebook &c.
In general:
I would love to say things like "Get more exercise", "Drum up more freelance work" and "Rebuild my personal/professional website". But for now I don't feel I would prioritize those above doing more art, really. "Have a monthly date night", maybe that's something to strive for. :-)
N.B.: Cross-posted from Dreamwidth; click to view or comment on original post.