Sweet November

"November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring."

- Clyde Watson

November. The first of the month rolls around and I do all my manditory first of the month chores: pay the rent, check the battery in the smoke detector, switch the page on the calender, change my contacts, and review my goals for the month. It just comes as a shock to look at that calender and see the number 11 on the top! The year is almost over.

Soooo....October goals:

1) Decluttering the place, one item at a time. Big success! Though I now see that de-cluttering is a goal that will never be completely REACHED, more like a continuous process, there is significantly less stuff in the place to declutter. I can see what I have better, I can think more clearly, and I feel like I can more easily make decisions about the stuff I have left.

2) Go through the box of inspirational CD's and actually listen to them. Ok. I didn't actually do that. At all. I think I'm gonna give myself one more month to attack this goal. And thanks to my work on goal 1, I can feel good about saying that if I DON'T listen to the CD's by the end of November, I can give them away to somebody who will. (that's how I got them in the first place)

3) Read "Three Cups of Tea". I got the book. I read the introduction. I have it sitting on my nightstand. I haven't exactly finished it. I have seen that there is a book club for the AMC featuring the same book. So I really do have to read it this month so I don't miss out on all the fun.

4) Went on a girl's weeked to Montreal. Great weekend. Done!

5) Bought some new sunglasses. Three, actually. One pair for my car, one pair for home, and one pair left in my work locker.

6) Had the Halloween party. And then went to another. More on those later.

7) Went on two organized rides this month. Fun to be had at every turn!

8) I DID lose the 3 pounds. Strangely, I don't really consider that a victory of any sort. Cause even though I lost three pounds, my waist is bigger, my pants are tighter, and I'm is worse shape than at the beginning of the month. So my focus next month is more on fitness and training than weight.

I love October. Sorry to see it go.

But November beckons:

1) The decluttering was so successful last month that I decided to take the next logical step. After paring down, I could see my unfinished projects more clearly. In November, every day, I will spend 15 minutes on an unfinished project of some sort. And I'll see how many of those project can become finished. And how many of them are worth finishing.

2) One more shot at the CD's.

3) Reading...in addition to the Three Cups of Tea (which really isn't all that long, and looks very good. I'm not sure why I didn't read it) I am going to read three books from my bookshelf that have been sitting there unread for who-knows-how-long.

4) Going to start marathon training. Planning on doing Myrtle Beach again next year with my buddy, Gene.

5) Going to do a race with my Dad.

6) Going to go out to the movies once this month. I LOVE the movies. And I never go.

7) I'm going to buy new towels. My towels are old and ratty and they don't match. So I'm gonna get some new ones and give the old ones to the Goodwill.

8)I'm going to get a new certification for work. The test is in 2 weeks. (that may have to count as an unfinished project until its over)

9) Get used to my new work schedule that starts on Monday. (four ten hour days! Yee Haw!)

Time to jump headfirst into November.