Not surprisingly I want some fun adventures this year, and I want to do things I haven’t gotten around to doing. Things like:

A road trip where I’m the main driver
The furthest away I’ve driven is two hours or about 200 km away but my youngest brother mentioned going to the USA for shopping before September, so I suggested we make it a sibling thing and rent a car. I’ll never say no to outlet shopping so I’m looking forward to this.

Getting a hair cut and colour
I’ve gotten trims and very simple hair cuts before but this time I want a real cut, something sassy. I’ve never coloured my hair so that’ll be something. The cut I’m thinking of (which one of my friends was sporting when I ran into her this past weekend, funny enough) requires me to grow my hair a bit more so I’ll colour first.

Learning to run
So two years ago, I did a walk/run to raise money for a cause dear to my heart. My time was slower than I hoped, and I had grossly underestimated how far five kilometres is by foot. I haven’t run since.

But a crazy colleague has convinced me that a learn to run program is what we need in our lives and she simultaneously convinced me that it won’t kill us (me). We start in two weeks.

I decided to go out and try what we’ll be doing the first week: run for one minute, walk for two minutes, repeat a trillion (or maybe 6-8) times. The good news is I managed to run for a minute without stopping (yes, I am that out of shape); the bad news is I could only do four sets before I switched to walking alone. The worst news is today, the day after, I feel like I tried a new form of exercise that showed me who’s boss; either that or I was doing squats in my sleep. I feel it in my (fl)abs too.

Eating yogurt
I’m a very picky eater. I have never knowingly ingested salad dressing, dips, cottage cheese, sour cream and yogurt. My crazy colleague (yeah, the same one) made me try a dessert yogurt (120 calories, 3.5% milk fat) and it was pretty good! I wonder if I can try a non-dessert yogurt without gagging; I’ve bought some and I’ll let you know how that goes.

I want to end this with a challenge: can you think of something that you don’t think I’ve done that I really should do? All reasonable suggestions will be considered, and by “reasonable” I mean any suggestion that won’t bankrupt or embarrass me. I’m not looking for thrills so much as things that will shake my life up a bit and provide me with great memories.

Updated to add:

A trip to Europe in 2011 or 2012
This is another sibling plan. I don’t know where we’ll go, but England (well, London more than anything), France or Italy are sounding good so far.

But I didn’t sign up. Initially it was due to a glitch on the website but once that was cleared up I still dilly dallied and here we are, eight weeks before the race, me woefully out of shape and wondering what I should do.

If I sign up, I would want to beat my 2008 time (50 minutes, 4 seconds). However, I’m a few pounds heavier and I have not attempted to run for any reason in the past year, so I have my doubts. I would really be disappointed in myself if I didn’t do better this year and when you combine that with my charming habit of beating myself up, well, let’s just say “Jummy has issues” would not be something I’m unfamiliar with hearing.

I’m trying to figure out what to do. Do I sign up anyway because the training process (and the collection of money from sponsors) will force me to start walking/running regularly? Do I sign up for a later race for another cause and start training now anyway? Do I just get off my lazy butt, sign up for nothing and motivate myself to walk/run for 30 minutes each day?

The last answer would be best, and it’s abysmal how I can’t spare 30 measly minutes to do something that will improve my quality of life in the long term.

***
Next in “bad Jummy” news, I have to confess that this week has not been a good one on the eating front. Since Sunday, lemon cream-filled cookies, chocolate chip cookie-squares, swedish berries, skittles, moccaccino granola bars and a handful of ju jubes have passed through my lips. Over the past two weeks I ate a whole loaf of bread, made into garlic bread. I wish I could say I stuck to the recommended serving size for any of these items but I didn’t.

I still eat vegetables with my dinner and only drink water with every meal and drink my tea unsweetened, but these good habits are completely overpowered this week. I started weighing myself daily too. I wish I was one of those people who became depressed when reading the number on the scale, but I’m not. Maybe if the number drops significantly and then starts creeping up, I’ll feel a twinge of something.

At work today a colleague came to ask if I wanted to go running with her during lunch to prepare for my upcoming race. I explained to her my dilemma regarding not having enough time to train and she told me not to beat myself up. I ended up deciding then and there not to sign up for the race. If I want to do something to help, I can volunteer at the water station. I will be joining my coworker in spirit though by going for a 30 minute walk while she runs. We’ll make an effort to leave the office at the same time so that we can hold each other accountable. We’ll see how long that works.

***
I just finished reading Believe It, Be It by Ali Vincent. She’s the first female to win the grand prize in the television show The Biggest Loser and although I’m no devotee of the show, I have seen bits and pieces of various seasons of it. I enjoyed the book. It was a quick read and nothing that she shared was new to me, but she really focused on the title of the book: believing in yourself and not allowing fear hold you back from doing what you want and becoming what you want to be. A lot of overweight people use fear to keep them from committing to the weight loss, and I am no exception. The book made me think about my fears and belief in myself, and whether I truly believe that I can lose the weight.

I can lose the weight. I believe that with few exceptions we can do anything we put our mind to. But I let the fact that it will be hard, it will be long, it will be grueling, it will hurt keep me inert, rather than focusing on the infamous and oft-mentioned baby steps as the way to make progress. This willingness to quit when the going gets tough developed after I did the opposite in university. University really affected my self confidence and instead of using my triumph over failure to spur me on to complete other challenges, I have somehow used it as a “I felt (and still feel) like crap about how the whole situation went down and I don’t ever want to feel that way again, even if the end result will be finally reaching my goal”. It’s interesting how that experience has had the opposite effect on me.

I C E D · T E A
I looked online briefly for instructions on how to make iced tea, and I was intrigued by one recipe that said you should leave the plastic container full of teabags and boiling water outside, in the sun, for 24 hours. Sadly I don’t have any direct sunlight coming into my house, and I wasn’t ready to be labeled as the “crazy lady who brings bottles of murky liquid to the front lawn as offerings to her alien ruler, we think”, so I used my own recipe (which I came up with as I went along, and which, I suspect you would have come up with too without any trouble):

• boil water
• add boiling water to teabags, sugar and lemon
• let steep for exactly ‘a while’
• remove tea bags
• chill tea in fridge

I made a video of the experience because I had nothing better to do and I wanted to try out the built in video camera. I’m clearly a natural since I only did one take (yes, that’s it).

The verdict:
Once chilled, it was a very refreshing drink, especially since this weekend was so hot and humid! There isn’t enough of the brewed tea flavour that I love so in my drink. More tea bags will be used in the future. It also wasn’t quite sweet enough, but this might be a good thing for me.

B A N A N A · B R E A D
I have made countless loaves of ‘nana bread because I don’t like eating mushy bananas and I love banana bread (no nuts or raisins in mine please)! My only complaint with the recipe I use (which is quite delicious!) is that the batter always seems to settle while baking so that the bottom half is a bit darker than the top. It certainly doesn’t affect the taste at all but you know how it is when you want something to be perfect.

I came across this recipe via the Pioneer Woman today, and you can see from this picture that her bread doesn’t seem to suffer from settling of any kind (except, perhaps settling in the tummies of banana bread lovers like me). I must try it.

A commenter suggested I freeze my ripening fruit and I think that will be the fate of the peaches…I’d like them in a smoothie more than in a crisp, I believe.

I am 50 pounds away from my 30 by 30 goal with respect to weightloss.

And despite what you may see should you happen to check that section of my site, I haven’t abandoned my 30 by 30 list. I have, however, realized that some of my goals aren’t really measurable in a way that makes sense. Because of that, I decided to look at the list with a more critical eye, with a goal to making some adjustments to it.

1. buy a house Accomplished technically on September 17, 2008 and finalized on September 28, 2008. Blogged here.
2. buy a car

This will definitely not be happening because, well, I bought a laptop and a camera in 2008 and I also paid for some upgrades for my new place. I do not have money to buy an automobile before I turn 30. The good news is I will live within walking distance of a grocery store and a pharmacy as well as some other places. In the summer, this will be delightful. In the winter, I will cry. But I think I’ll be ok.

3. host a dinner party

This is totally still on track to happen. I’d like to have my first dinner party chez moi, so I’ll have approximately two months to make this happen.

4. get my driver’s license Accomplished June 3, 2008—read about it here
5. quit my part time job

This is still on track to happen. It may even happen in the next month.

6. switch to a high interest savings account (although once I knock the first four items off my list, I will have no savings to speak of!)

Canada introduced this Tax Free Savings Account this year so once I find out what the interest rate is for that, I may switch to it or to something else in the near future.

7. get my teeth whitened Done with lackluster results
8. buy a year’s supply of contact lenses and use them

For this to be a success, should I have bought the contacts immediately following this post? I didn’t, and I actually think my eyes have worsened, so I’m just waiting for my next eye appointment in a couple of months before committing to a year’s supply of contact lenses.

9. wear at least mascara and lipgloss each day of the workweek

This is yet another goal that doesn’t work well for this list. If I’ve skipped almost seven months, I’d say that means I’ve failed it.

10. wash face every evening (doing this five out of seven days will count as “every” for the purpose of this list)

I have not washed my face in the evening once, talk less regularly, unless I happened to take a shower in the evening.

11. brush and floss twice a day (again, brushing twice, flossing zero times will count as Jummy being a good girl)

Another fail (so far), but also another one that doesn’t work well for this sort of list in my opinion.

12. finish a 5K run/walk in 40 minutes or less

This was a lovely idea but with the next 5K a mere four months away and my body unused to walking, talk less running, I don’t know if I should bother signing up.

13. run a full 5K (I actually don’t think this is physically possible—marathon runners aren’t human—but it’s good to have challenges on the list, right?)

Impossible.

14. lose 50lbs (speaking of challenges…)

Possible, but probably not if I continue to eat things like a 226g bag of Mike and Ikes in one sitting.

15. pack lunch every work day for two consecutive weeks (and then keep going!)

Impossible.

16. eat a combination of 4 fruits and vegetables each day for 30 consecutive days (and then some!)

Possible but I haven’t given it a thought.

17. get 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least three times each week

I reactivated my gym membership but haven’t yet visited the gym this year.

18. take iron pills daily

I need to set up a reminder to do this. This is also not a good sort of goal because if I skip a day, do I fail?

19. take vitamins daily

See above.

20. maintain groomed eyebrows, even if this means visiting an esthetician every 6-8 weeks

I’ve tried; not there yet.

21. complete a scrapbook

This is so do-able!

22. complete a knitted object

Also do-able. I have so many started objects…when will I finish one?

23. create a blog design

Another do-able one!

24. launch goodnaijagirl.com I bought the domain on May 31, 2008 and switched over from the old location on July 1, 2008
25. volunteer at a homeless shelter

I should have signed up for this over Christmas, but with the bus strike I lost all will to spend any more time downtown than I had to…and I just wasn’t organized. There is no reason why I can’t get this goal in soon.

26. go on at least two dates (I’m not in full control of this; may have to do the asking out!)

I don’t see this happening at all…though I didn’t specify that these had to be dates with guys.

27. drive to TO

If only I had a car! If only I had put “drive to Montreal” instead then I’d have accomplished this one months ago!

28. go on a trip I went to Nigeria with my mom and sister for the last week of October and most of November, 2008. It was wonderful. I want to do it again soon.
29. learn to budget

This may be a hopeless case. I think I’m doing a good job; I just don’t like to record it.

30. get an article published

Since I was vague about this, I guess either an online or print publication would count, though my hope is to get something published in print.

I’m excited to see how well I do with accomplishing the list. The items that I think don’t fit the bill with respect of being a goal that is easily measured may be swapped for other things, to reflect changes in my own goals. I am feeling good about accomplishing these goals.

Luckily it only took one try: I am now fully licensed to drive! I had my final road test yesterday afternoon and after quietly freaking out and asking friends what to expect (if you recall, my friends were so awesome the first time around), I went for it. I had booked the appointment over a month ago but again I had my reasons for not wanting to share that.

My tester was a wonderful man, with his constant pleases and thank yous and conversation-making (even though it was on the weather), and I had already decided that if I failed the test I would thank him for being so nice. At first I didn’t know if I should even respond to his commentary, or if it was a ploy to trip me up. If you can’t tell, I don’t have a lot of faith in the drive test system. I think you can do a good job and still fail, and I suspect there’s a quota system to it, something along the lines that each tester has to fail at least one third of the people they test. And if you do fail and they tell you the reason, it’s your word against theirs that you didn’t make the mistake you’re accused of making and we all know who’d win that dispute. I guess I just don’t count on testers to be truly objective, and for the male testers not to pass the hot girls in their lowcut outfits over their hoody wearing counterparts (I know a few terrible drivers back in highschool who swore by the former method).

I now have no excuse to put off the car shopping!

My only accomplishment yesterday was to narrow my list down to 6 cars I’d like to test drive, based on the recommendations of the esteemed Consumer Reports (CR) magazine. I went this route because if left to me, I’d go to every dealership and test drive every car in my price range and then become frustrated that over 20 cars meet that criteria of Cheap Enough to Prevent Jummy from Having a Stroke. Then I’d try to come up with some sort of chart and scoring system for each car and conclude that they’re all great for different reasons and none of those reasons mean more to me above the other, leaving me with a 20-way tie. Then I’d give up on owning a car altogether and decide that the bus isn’t really that bad after all, and every few months I’ll moan on here about how I still haven’t picked a car. My future progeny will buy their own cars before me, as will their children.

So anyway, I’ve picked six autos (2 Hondas, 1 Mazda, 1 Hyundai, 1 Ford, 1 Toyota) and we’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping I’ll pick one of those and be done with it. If not, I’ll pick a few more and repeat. But really? I should know which one I want by the end of the month. A coworker bought a car over the weekend and her tip was to shop on a rainy day and near the end of the month because that worked for her—she got a fabulous deal. All of this to say that in a few short weeks I could be haggling over a car!

I can’t deny that I’d love to cross something off my list, which has now been finalized and is up there.

So far I have a tentative 30 by 30 list; most of the items on this list will be added to the 101 in 1001 list, depending on when I get around to completing that list. I’m hoping to finalize this list in the next week, so that the kick off can be in the next couple of weeks as I turn 29 in 20 days. The sooner I finalize the list, the sooner I can start crossing items off it and God knows I need a head start with these sorts of things…in fact, I should have written this list about 28 years ago. At any rate, by 30 I would like to:

1. buy a house
2. buy a car
3. buy an ipod (not crucial, probably shouldn’t even be on a list)
4. buy a Wii (not crucial, probably shouldn’t even be on a list)
5. host a dinner party
6. get my driver’s license
7. quit my part time job officially (though I haven’t been working there at all lately)
8. learn to swim (this might be better on the 101 list)
9. switch to a high interest savings account (although once I knock the first four items off my list, I will have no savings to speak of!)
10. get my teeth whitened
11. buy a year’s supply of contact lenses and use them
12. wear at least mascara and lipgloss each day of the workweek
13. wash face every evening (doing this five out of seven days will count as “every” for the purpose of this list)
14. brush and floss twice a day (again, brushing twice, flossing zero times will count as Jummy being a good girl)
15. finish a 5K run/walk in 40 minutes or less
16. run a full 5K (I actually don’t think this is physically possible—marathon runners aren’t human—but it’s good to have challenges on the list, right?)
17. lose 50lbs (speaking of challenges…)
18. pack lunch every work day for two consecutive weeks (and then keep going!)
19. eat a combination of 4 fruits and vegetables each day for 30 consecutive days (and then some!)
20. get 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least three times each week
21. take iron pills daily
22. take vitamins daily
23. keep eyebrows groomed, even if this means visiting an esthetician every 6-8 weeks
24. complete a scrapbook
25. complete a knitted object
26. create a blog design
27. make a set of greeting cards
28. launch GNG.com
29. launch another site
30. volunteer at a homeless shelter
31. go on at least two dates (I’m not in full control of this; may have to do the asking out!)
32. drive to TO
33. go on a trip
34. learn to budget
35. get an article published
36. meet an online friend in person
37. prepare 101 in 1001 list

The list needs some trimming and I may think of other things. Is there anything you think I should be planning to do in the next year that I haven’t considered?

One is going to be a list of 30 things that I want to accomplish by the time I’m 30 years of age (for the record: I am a year and 35 days away from this blessed day). I really hope to get out of my shell of inactivity and laziness and really start moving on things that I should have done years ago. I cannot enter my third decade of life and feel like nothing has changed, because, quite frankly, that might be the death of me.

Then I’d like to expand the 30 by 30 list and take the 101 in 1001 challenge: 101 things in 1001 days. I think the hardest thing will be coming up with 101 things but once that hurdle is crossed, actually make these goals happen will be the next thing to trip me up. I’m just wondering if it’s cheating to put something that you’ve already planned to do on the list, you know, such as run/walk a 5K race.

I hope not because if it is then most of my other long term goals would not apply. I can’t wait to post my lists and share my adventures in accomplishing them!

On a morbid note: does anyone ever wonder if they dropped dead how their blog would be shut down or how news of your demise would be communicated? Would people just think you got bored of blogging and quit, like that? It seems sad that readers and friends you’ve made would never know what happened to you, especially if you blogged under a pseudonym.

(Um, yeah, sorry for that touch of morbidness.)

Hurray!

This is so wonderful and I’d like to thank everyone who donated from the blogging community, and those who don’t read this blog (and hopefully never find it!) who also contributed. I’ll put all the names up on the side there shortly. And those of you who have been sending encouraging comments in response to discouraged entries, thank you. I really appreciate it.

Of course, it’s not too late to donate to such a great cause, so please keep giving!

I went to an information session for those of us running the race in the city two days ago and people living with diabetes or who have lost loved ones to the disease were there to share their stories. As usual, it was hard to keep from crying and I was glad that we were seated in these bleachers and the lighting was very poor so no one could see me well. Another girl was crying after one particularly touching (and non-diabetes related, incidentally) story and that got me sniffling too. It’s great to see what organization like the CDA is able to do with the money raised. One of their projects is Camp Banting, a camp for kids with diabetes. One of my coworkers is diabetic and yesterday I was talking to her about the challenges of the disease and she said something so matter of factly that made me think of my mom: “It could be worse.”

And it always could be, couldn’t it? It’s easy to forget in the bustle of life how precious life is, even when things aren’t going your way, when you’re not 125lbs or when you don’t have a significant other or can’t afford to buy a house. It’s easy to get consumed with what you don’t have, what your life lacks, instead of focusing on what you’re so blessed with.

I know I’ll forget this lesson the next time a close friend shows up dressed in some sexy outfit that my thigh won’t fit into, or when another friend announces her engagement, but I also know that soon enough, I’ll remember that “it could be worse” and get my head screwed back on properly once again.

I’m thrilled that I’ve reached one part of the goal and now I can focus on training. And on May 24 I hope to make everyone proud.

So I went for my meeting at the bank and I’ll be able to buy something larger than a hovel! Hurray! Now I just have to find a house and then the fun can begin. The woman I met with was quite nice and down to earth. I’ve heard that bank folk aren’t always the nicest to deal with and I probably won’t end up going with the bank (so many people speak so highly of brokers). I like the idea that the broker will be trying to get me the best interest rate too, while the bank isn’t as inclined to do so.

Terrace homes are looking more and more like my home of choice. They allow me to have that “I own a house feeling” while living in a space that’s adequate, yet small enough to deal handle/manage. I’ve never lived in an apartment so I’m not sure if a condo will work for me, but I’ll check it out. And with a condo I’d have neighbours on all sides likely and above and below, whereas if I get an end unit terrace home I might only have to deal with the person on one side and below. We’ll see though.

I hope to check out some condos this weekend and see if I can actually see myself in one. I like the fact that a lot of the newer condos have gyms in the same building. and a party room (which would be so handy for my 30th birthday next year!) that you can use for ‘free’. It would be really hard to avoid working out in that situation (not to say I wouldn’t manage to avoid it as much as possible!). I suspect the condo fees for those sort of condos are pretty monstrous though. Terrace homes have condo fees too it appears, and that’s very poopy, but the amounts are quite manageable.

The bank lady went though all the fees that I’ll have to pay on top of the downpayment and since I had read that book, I was aware of most of them. I’ll have to start saving for that, and saving for a car, too, because if I stay in my preferred area, I may want to commute to the transit station by car before catching a bus that goes all the way downtown.

Finally, I was looking at the New Home and Condos site and taking note of new developments I would like to see. I’m a west end girl, but I’d almost consider moving to the east end if I would get to say that I live in Notting Hill, a new development there.