This week last year I posted 3 goals for age 25. I turned 26 on Monday and I have to report that I only completed one of them. I may have set the bar a little high with the combination of them. Waaaahh, waaaahh, wahh, I know. Whiney, excuses. Whatevs. Goals for year 25 were as follows:

1. Have an agent for my book
2. Buy a house or condo
3. Slalom ski on my left leg--sounds minor to the other 2 but it's been a goal for a long time and I suck. My dear aunt Karla suggested we cut off my right leg and then I'll have no choice. I maybe should add a goal 4 of still having both legs at age 26.

1. I did not find an agent for my book. I did, however, finish my Masters of Fine Arts degree at Antioch University Los Angeles. My last year of my Masters included a 25 page research paper on the way JK Rowling's Harry Potter series has helped Generation Y become a more tolerant and accepting people than past generations, over 150 pages of fiction written of my second novel, a complete revision of my first novel, 40 books read and annotated, and a developed online creative writing class that I will teach for my University in October.
Goal one for age 26: Finish and revise my second novel. Find agent. Now that school is over, there's nothing to get in the way. 

2. I bought a house. I nailed this goal. The first year of homeownership may have also gotten in the way of goal 1. My 4 bedroom, 2 bath house is fully painted, decorated, and unpacked. One bedroom has been turned into a walk-in closet and all of my old crappy wood furniture has been painted and distressed to look super coolio and vintage. I have a garden with more tomatoes than I can eat. I planted a tree and it's still alive. I'm a real person with things. 
Goal two for age 26: Get myself a sweetie dog. This is may be cheating because this goal is already in the works. Well, maybe no, because last year buying a house was already in the works when I set that goal. More to come on my addition to the family. Please don't fear for my dog because of the prior tree comment. 

3. I didn't even try to slalom on my left leg. I did get to go home and ski plenty this summer. I'm so happy this boy I found myself is in to going to the lake. He learned how to slalom ski by dropping one ski. I'm so proud. Any whosies, each time we skied I had friends home too and didn't want to take time from them (and John) learning because I would have surely face planted several times trying to get up on my left leg and taken up valuable lake time. Maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to give it a whirl. 
On a side note, with John's help, I completed a life goal last week. It's been a dream of mine to ride  my bike from Omaha (where I live now) to Norfolk (where I'm from). It's about 110 miles. John just got his bike in January. I told him my dream and that all I wanted for my 26th birthday was to tackle this goal. There's restaurant we've been wanting to eat at a few miles Norfolk and we decided to stop there and have our wonderful, lifesaving friend, Kim, pick us up there so we didn't go the full 110 miles. It was 100 degrees. It was windy. It was hilly. We got to the restaurant and it was closed. We walked 4 doors down to the bar, where the bartender  told us no other restaurants in the small town were open for lunch. She then made us frozen pizza. We did it. We rode all that way in the heat and wind and hills and that was the best dang frozen pizza I have ever scarfed down. 

The start. Look smiles. 

We stopped in Tekamah and had snacks

Not sure what the locals having breakfast
thought about us. 

And doughnuts in West Point
No longer smiling, but the doughnut
helped, as did John yelling Cumeeeeiing!
when we reach Cuming County. 

The end. Shell shocked. Summer Shandy revival.

I also took several Cat Selfies. Not a life goal, but I feel they need to be shared with the world.

 

 

On my 26th birthday, instead of going to the DMV and renewing my license (and risking paying a fee or having to take the test again), I decided to bake cookies. I then proceeded to eat cookie dough for lunch. The next day I made it in and out of the DMV with no fee or test in less than 20 minutes. I hope this is a sign of good things to come for year 26. 

1. Novel
2. Big Sweetie Dog
3. This year I did my first half Ironman, in 2 weeks I'll do my first ultra marathon--a 50 mile trail run in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Goal 3 of age 26 is to not hate myself for signing up for this race. I'd like to think I have a goal of finishing it as well. 

Dream big, friends.