Sunday, May 5, 2013

Changes

In looking over my list a while back, I realized that there were a few items that I either would not be able to do at all or that would be very difficult to do.  So I decided to make a few changes.

First up, I have tried three times to donate blood (#1), and all three times they were unable to get a good stick meaning no donation.  It finally came to a point that I would be unable to donate six times even if they could get a good stick, just because you have to wait a certain amount of time between donations.  So after a talk with Mashelda, I have decided to mark this off.  I made a good effort, but it just didn't happen.  Now I do want to say that I had some blood drawn at work one day (they needed volunteer blood to calibrate some new lab machines, and I just happened to walk into the ICU at the wrong time!), and the phlebotomist had no trouble getting a good stick.  She said she I had good veins, but that she used a vein that they don't commonly use.  So I'm not going to give up on donating blood for good, but I am going to try to find some different locations where they might have a better group of nurses/phlebotomists.

Next is having the kids over to spend the night (#32).  I'm not going to get into why that will never happen, but suffice it to say that it won't.  So I decided to replace it with going to the roller derby!  It's something I was considering putting on my next 101 list, so I used it as a replacement item here.  And I ended up going back in February when a friend mentioned it completely out of the blue and asked if I wanted to go!  Talk about fortuitous timing!  We had a blast!  I was really surprised at how many people attended (we ended up having to sit on the floor) and at the variety of people.  There were all age groups, kids to grandparents, and everything from tattooed rockers to the couple in front of us in semi-dressy date-type clothes.  They had a Star Wars theme going that night, so there were lots of people in costumes which made for some interesting people-watching.  Even though we didn't fully understand the rules in the beginning, it was fun getting swept up by the cheering crowds, and it didn't hurt that the home team won!  I definitely want to go back.

I was supposed to stop drinking pop for a month three times (#46), which I did actually accomplish once.  I had no idea how difficult this would be.  And I feel like a bit of a wuss for deciding to change this, but the idea was to help break an unhealthy habit.  Unfortunately, every time I stop drinking pop, I start drinking a lot of other sugary drinks (lemonade, fruit juice, etc.) or start eating a bunch of candy!  This was definitely not the goal.  So, after starting and failing several times, I have decided to change this to limiting myself to two pops per week for a month.  I will still need to do it two more months to make it to my original goal, but I think this will make it manageable without creating more problems than I was trying to solve.

I was also supposed to flossing my teeth every day for a total of three months (#57) (again, what was I thinking when I said I would do all these things so many times?!?).  I actually did start on this several times, but I always stopped after no more than a week because it was just so painful.  So I finally decided that this was ridiculous and I needed to stop.  I wanted to change this to something else along the same lines, and after some thought I realized that I have gotten out of the habit of always brushing my teeth before I go to bed.  I always brush in the morning, but not always (in fact lately it's pretty much never... I admit it) at night.  So I have already started this one, but it will be to brush my teeth both morning and night every day for a month x3 (I am keeping the x3 since it was part of the original task.

Okay, the last task I am changing is riding a roller coaster (#85).  I hadn't intentionally been putting this off, but I would have to travel to get to a roller coaster so it wasn't something I had gotten to yet.  So this winter I started researching some of the theme parks that are within a decent driving distance, and I discovered that the weight restrictions for these roller coasters are much lower than I ever expected.  I didn't look into it before I put it on my original list, but I had expected that it might mean a little weight loss or at least having a slightly limited choice in which coasters I could ride.  Now I have lost some weight since I decided to change this item, but being able to ride any of the coasters anywhere near here would still require about a 50 pound weight loss, and I am just not in the right mental place to try to lose that much weight before the September deadline.  I will probably put this on a future 101 list, but in the meantime I am replacing this task with having my hair professionally colored.  It's another one that I had in mind to put on my next 101 list, so I just moved it up to this one.  And I have now already completed this!  It felt like a splurge, especially since I have been getting my hair done at an Aveda salon and having my hair colored also included an aromatherapy hand massage.  The color was great, I have to admit, but really and truly, I don't think it looked that much better than when I do it myself, and it cost about $80 more!  It was lovely to not have to worry about the color dripping all over the place and whether or not I had applied it evenly, but I've gotten pretty good at it over the years and I really don't think I can justify the extra expense.  So it's back to the box for me!

I want to say that while I am still not caught up on my blog posts, I have kept all of the lists current.  So you can check my progress on the 101 list, movies, and books by going to those pages.  I will keep plowing ahead with the blog posts, and hopefully will get caught up on those before too long.

3 comments:

  1. It is nice to finally see a post. I understand why you are making the changes you are making. I thought I would see the shooting a gun in that list. The roller derby thing is interesting. I've never ever considered it before perhaps because I've only ever seen it on TV and no mention in real life at all.

    I have already changed two things in my list but now you have inspired me to make a few more changes.

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  2. It's funny, but I never even considered taking the gun thing out of the list. It's something I'm completely capable of doing, and I'm curious to see if I have the same reaction again. Actually, I found out that a friend has a gun license, so she's going to come with me and help out on that one.

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  3. I'm glad that you have someone that can go with you

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