June Resolutions

Do a writing prompt a day	Finish my comfort book	Keep calm at work even if you don’t know what you’re doing	Learn everybody’s name at the senior center	Celebrate my parents birthdays
Troll Reddit for story ideas (note these stories are subject to copyright so I will have to significantly alter them)	Order more Archival and Distress ink supplies	Get a scrapbooking/ collaging program on the schedule at work	Learn more about women and gender studies	Write three new poems the day after the partner slam and the day after the open mic
Read weight loss books every day	Lose ten more pounds from today	Free Space	Dive deeper into essential oils, bath bombs and aromatherapy	Introduce dairy back into my diet (finally!).
Run a program on poetry at work	Edit the two new poems I plan to slam with in July	Post every day on Twitter, Threads and Facebook (blog posts count)	Turn blank book into a junk journal	Start taking classes at the gym again
Run a program on the books we read for the  month of April/May	Plan how I intend to celebrate my sobriety date	Share more on Reddit	Work on my romances	Go to Baltimore

To clarify some goals:

• For Christmas my cousin Mary-Kate (one of my favorite people in the world) got me a book of writing prompts. She said “I figure everyone gets you journals. Now you have something to fill them with” I was so happy because that is so true. I have a million journals but organic ideas aren’t as easy to come by as you think they are.

• I frequently go on Reddit and I love when Smosh reads the stories on their channel. I thought some of the posts would make good short stories but my boyfriend did some research and apparently there is a copyright on some of the stories so I will be altering some of the stories to the best of my ability

• I have gotten five weight loss books out of the library and I will read every last one. I’ll read through the science (I don’t usually like reading science) and the psychology and note every habit the books offer and which habit to avoid. I’m serious about losing weight. It seems to be fluctuating a lot but my mom is adamant that the scale is not broken.

• My poetry event is already scheduled for the end of June. I have a basic idea of what I want to do but truly its amazing how much freedom I have.

• Next Friday I’m leading a book club program. In April we picked two women (Ruth Badr Ginsburg and Michelle Obama) and everyone decided to read one of their autobiographies. Next week we will comparre and contrast the books and the women.

• My comfort book is basically a collection of things that make me smile. Photos, scenes from my favorite movies, pictures of my favorite book covers, my favorite song lyrics, stickers, Instagram posts that have made me laugh. My goal is to create an aesthically pleasing book that I can open when I’m upset and it will comfort me or calm me down. Unfortunately it’ll take alot of printer ink. 

• Archival Ink and Distress Ink are two art supplies that the store just doesn’t carry enough of.

• The June slam is a partner slam in which I am not competing. But I have a killer line up for my July slam. It has yet to be unveiled.

• My sobriety date isn’t until the Fourth of July (me and the country celebrate together). Every year I struggle to celebrate it in a way that feels personal and powerful to me. This year will be ten years. I will have been sober ten years. I’m hoping I can celebrate by going to dinner and then a hookah lounge..

• I know I am going to get overwhelmed at work. It’s inevitable. But I need to remember I’ve been in difficult situations before and gotten through them. There was one incident when I was working at the camp about ten years ago. I was assigned as a one to one to a mentally deficient girl who was about my age and also my size. I usually worked with the three and four year olds but sometimes I got moved around. Eventually my camper ran away from the camp, out of range of my walkie. At that point she had a seizure, fell and cut her head open on a rock. That was the point the maintenance man discovered us. So yeah I have had  my fair share of harrowing job moments.

• I want to be more active on certain kinds of social media. I don’t think I will ever have a Tik Tok unless I’m forced to to promote my books. I want to make more connections in the writing world or the mental health community. Basically to promote my own wellness and my career. Again I do not interact with any men one on one or women who are looking to pursue romance or sex. It’s a policy I carry out of respect for Justin. And I do not hesitate to block people.

• So many friendly residents call out to me “Hi Catherine” And I want to reply with certainty. For some reason I find it much easier to remember men’s names than women. I can think of five male residents off the top of my head but I struggle to do that with females. I envy my supervisor who walks with confidence and  knows the name of everybody there.

• I’m trying to educate myself about certain issues (such as weight loss for example). I don’t know much about women’s studies or gender studies. I already began reading a book that starts at the very beginning: miscarriages.

• I want to work on influencing my mood via smells. I have a diffuser , an aromatherapy bracelet with lava rocks (you dab on the oil), and Mary-Kate (who apparently gives really good presents) gave me a selection of  bath bombs that turn the bath a different color. I also want to treat myself at Bath and Body Works Again. It’s funny: one of the  products I want is under Energy, the other is under Sleep.

• I started a series of romance stories (not smut!) because that is a genre I very rarely explore and I thought it might be fun to.

• My parent’s birthdays are two days apart. We usually don’t do much for their birthdays. This  year I hope to have presents ready (sea animal Diamond Art coasters. My dad’s getting the sea horse. My mom’s getting the starfish).