August Resolutions

Become more comfortable running activities	Analyze wix data	Start Christmas presents for book club members	Make a superhero scrapbook for  Justin for Christmas	Make Friday’s  “weigh in” days
Attend a pool party	Designate a weekly laundry day	Get more participation for my activities	Remember why I took the job and don’t quit	Finish life questions journal
Enjoy sculptures and nature at my friend’s birthday party	Find a dress for my friend’s wedding	Free Space	Get new gel pens and get new ballpoint pens (assorted colors for both)	Don’t enter Michaels for the rest of the month
Hit three machines every gym day (when my shoulder recovers)	Make a scrapbook for the bride and groom	Look into taking a local class (academics, art and writing)	Do more satirical blog posts (how to be brave etc)	Write a series of posts called dictionary (gym edition, middle school edition, period edition etc)
Learn more about Website building	Organize a file for every resident	Get the rest of book club to fill out a survey	Fill out “Me Questionnaire”	Figure out what I want for my birthday (besides an epic party)

Summer is always dicey for me but we are halfway there (ohhh ohh living on a prayer). August is like July’s less neurotic cousin. Things seem to settle down into a nice summer lull. The kind of days you picture passing the hours in a hammock with a book.

To clarify my goals:

• Become more comfortable running activities. I run alot of activities at work (I’m an activities leader at an assisted living facility). Usually I am assigned word activities like acrostic poems or Mad Libs, or art activities like collaging or intellectual activities like book club and trivia. I approach these activities with varying degrees of nervousness depending on how many residents are participating and how confident I am in myself. Usually though I basically feel like I’m going to die.

• I have a pool party coming up. I feel summer is not summer without a pool party. I don’t mind swimming in lakes and oceans but I much prefer a pool especially if it’s sunny out and I can swim along the bottom, the water twinkling in the sunlight. Beautiful. Plus it’s going to be a big party with most of our friends. Plus I actually feel comfortable in a swimsuit.

• One of my best friends is having a birthday party at a sculpture garden. I might bring a journal along because my friends are into poetry and we all might take a break and write some poems. It’ll be a perfect blend of nature and friendship. And I’ve been there before so I know the walk isn’t too arduous.

• After I get my cardio done (I use the bike or the treadmill), I will go machine hunting and find a machine that I was either taught to use or surreptitiously watched a trainer show another  person how to use. Today I used two abdominal machines (my priority is my core right now although I won’t lie and say I don’t want to improve my booty) and a leg extension machine. Since I used to have very bad knee problems exercising my legs are important.

• I would like to spruce up my website. So far the only thing I really know about my website is how to blog. I want to sort my blog posts into categories to make it more accessible for people who are looking for specific types of posts (like ones about bipolar disorder or ones about sharks. And yes those are very different subjects). 

• Wix (the domain name that hosts my website) provides data at the end of every month like how many people viewed  each post, post views per time of day, reading time and engagement. I kind of want to take this information and make a huge spreadsheet so I can see what is most popular. 

• I have a bad habit of saving all my clothes for one big epic laundry party that takes all day, involves many trips up and down the steps, and usually hurts my back folding clothes. I’m going to declare Mondays to be my laundry days. If it’s in print I’m more likely not to procrastinate.

• I was talking with my mom yesterday about finding a dress to wear to the wedding and she said maybe I could just wear a skirt and a blouse to the wedding. I hate dresses. Well, dresses hate me. They clump around my boobs, they make me look fatter than I am and usually paint me like I have no ass. They emphasize my worst physical features and draw arrows pointing to them. Skirts and blouses are more forgiving for a topheavy girl. Be that as it may, I still gotta find one.

• I got all the supplies for the perfect scrapbook.I love making scrapbooks.

• I plan on building a relationship with the residents so I have started taking notes on them. What makes them happy, what they definitely do not like, what their personalities are like, what I might do to set them off. I also want to write about my work someday (obviously I will change names and certain traits) and I want to make sure I remember it.

• Okay, I figured out what I will do with these binders. I don’t know if I can top last year’s Christmas party (all my book club members plus their significant others) but these presents will definitely add to the festivities.

• This is similar to the first goal. I want people to be enthusiastic about my activities. I want them to wheel themselves into the parlour with a smile on their face. I want multiple answers when I ask a question. I hate the sound of crickets.  It is physically painful. It makes my heart race faster and I get increasingly worried I’ll get fired because I’m incompetent. Side note today I got homework from my psychiatrist. I told him I couldn’t do anything right and he told me to write down three accomplishments I do a day. 

• My parents have always offered me the opportunity to take a class of any kind. They know I used to really enjoy school. I looked forward to my classes, almost all of them.  I loved learning. I have self-taught myself post-college but sometimes I just want an instructor, classmates, a classroom atmosphere. So this month that is something I will explore.

• I have a book club survey that about half the book club has filled out. I am not pushy enough to get them to willingly fill it out but I wish they would because it is tied to the Christmas present.

• My boyfriend, Justin, loves superheroes. He also loves movies. So I’m creating a superhero scrapbook with his five favorite superheroes (which, in case you cared, are Spiderman, Superman, Batman, The Thing (the rock guy from Fantastic Four), and Wolverine)

• The thought of quitting has entered my mind. I really like working with the residents and seeing them smile, no matter what the activity. One of my favorite things is parking their wheelchairs at their dining room tables and telling them to have a good weekend and hear them wish me one in return. I feel like I have created significant bonds and I’ve only been there two months. I want to stay and make life easier for them in any way I can. On the other hand, I sometimes worry I’m not helping at all, that I’m boring and useless and unable to accomplish any thing. When those thoughts run through my mind it seems easier just to quit. But I’m not the type to give up like that. Even when I was at school I tried to return again and again until it was frankly impossible. I have to have that tenacity for this job.

• I did get new pens. Pleased with some (they are fountain pens which are my faves) and not pleased with some others (they smear. Like big time)

• I would like to play with my posts more. Less journal entries, more satirical posts or poetic posts. I feel like its a good brain exercise and could be amusing.

•  I got a “Me Questionnaire” which is as big as a bible and thick as a brick. But I feel really narcissistic spending too much time on it so it’ll take a few sessions.

• Fridays were already “weigh in” days in real life but now they will be weigh in days on the blog as well. Yes every Friday I am publicly going to discuss my weight and my progress. I figure if the internet holds me responsible I might eat a little healthier and little by little shed the pounds.

• I went to Michaels on Sunday (Michaels being the craft store) and then I went again yesterday and I think I have all the craft supplies I will need to get me through to September. I want to save some money (I don’t want my new salary to go to my head) and I can’t do that spending so extravagantly even though I know there is a little part of me that loves spending money.

• The dictionary posts idea are another way I can play with words and try to sharpen my sense of humor. I’m not promising it’ll be funny, but I promise you I’ll try.

• I love figuring out what I want for my birthday. And I love when people surprise me. Because when you come down to it, it’s the thought that counts (Sssp, my birthday is in September). 

Okay everybody. Go enjoy your August.