Holy cow, how long has it been since I’ve written anything? That is not to say that nothing worth writing about has happened just that I guess I’ve been busy! Almost everyday last week I thought of a thing or 2 I’d like to write and had ever intention of getting it down but it never happened. I wish I had a reason that the days slip away from me but I can’t put my finger on where the time goes, why the days get shorter, the laundry piles get bigger, the dust gets thicker, the fridge gets emptier, and I get more and more tired!

Last week was my birthday. 28 years old. Thanks everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes, it was great to hear from everyone. 28 is not as great as 27. 28 is definitely approaching 30….but I don’t feel 28. I feel 25. Actually some days I feel 25 some days I feel 45. I guess that means that I am growing up. 28 was my ‘year’. You know the year where you say I’m going to Blank by age 28. And By 28, I will have done (insert I’m-getting-older-and-finally-mature goal). Among the things on my list are: Purchasing a house, starting a family, being established in my career, be involved in certain organizations, giving back to my community in XX means. I am not very close to many of those things but on track with a small few of them. Well now it’s here and I have to face those goals. I guess this is just the year that I’m going to have to re-evaluate how I measure the above items. I’ll have to settle for knowing that I am actively working towards all of these goals, for the first time in my life. The easiest and probably first to be assessed is the career establishment. In some ways I have established my career. I am more comfortable now that ever before. I feel secure, I feel valuable, I know what I want, how to get there and I feel that it is achievable. I guess that is a good place to be! I think this goal will be marked as “stay tuned”. As with all goals, it should be re assessed on a frequent basis. What happens when you achieve your goal only to determine that it is not what you thought it would be? The rest of the stuff will come with time. We can finally start thinking about some of the things that I wanted to have done already which may not be the actual accomplishment of the goal but it definitely better than nothing!

It doesn’t help that at the age of 27, our lives officially “began” when we picked up, moved across the country, and tried to acclimate in to this ‘world’. We have been fairly successful at acclimating but I still feel like we have a way to go in that area.

On the road to goal achievement: We bought a couch this weekend! In case anyone has ever wondered, I have commitment issues J It’s not so much that I can’t commit, I’m just afraid something better/cheaper/more perfect will come along. That is why when we found a chair/couch combo which was actually under my set price, I couldn’t buy it because it wasn’t in stock and I was afraid that when it got here I wouldn’t like it anymore!! So, now that I’ve made a huge step to adulthood, I can now think about cars again. If I wait long enough then the car that I really want might be in my price range because it will be old enough by then! Example of this problem: I’ve been eying these boots for, oh like, 5 months. They are beautiful and sometimes I would go to Nordstroms and just try them on and wear them around for a bit. Last week I broke down and bought them. I returned them 6 hours later. I don’t have that bone in me I guess to make decisions like that. Evan reminds me that if I have this much anxiety with a couch (shaky hands, pacing, biting nails, ect….) imagine what I’ll be like if/when be buy a house and/or car. I think it will be best if I just ‘forget’ about any $$ we have in savings so when we spend it, it doesn’t really feel like spending it.

That is about it for updates on this end. Tonight is our last agility class, to find out if we get ‘invited’ back for the next level. I’m not sure yet what I feel like. I do like the class, we are learning a lot and Casey will be really good at it but it’s kinda far away and it’s a pain for me to have to leave work at 5:15 to get there. I don’t like to be tied to a certain time I have to leave by. Also, Monday’s will no longer work because I’m taking a triathlon swim clinic on Monday evenings. I’ve already missed the first 3 and even though it’s a 12 week program, which will most likely continue through the summer, I don’t want to miss any more classes. I’ve had to get private lessons to keep ‘up to speed’ with the class, which really is just having her review my drills to make sure I’m on the right track and won’t be behind when I join again. I really like the instructor and I was frightened that I’d be too far beyond help to get much out of the class but turns out I’m right on with most of the other athletes. She said she can tell that I’ve done stroke work and I’ve got all of the basic concepts of a good stroke under control the next 4 weeks will focus on speed with stroke, then on strength, and then the final 4 weeks we get in the lake every week. I will most likely need a wet suit so I need to start keeping my eyes open for a cheap one. She said the only thing holding me back from being a stronger swimmer is my ‘runners kick’ which most runner have in the water, a kick that is more from the knees than the hip, and I need to be stronger and she introduced to the fitness director at the club who is supposed to help me with that. So while I had an encouraging week in the water this week, I had a very discouraging week in the Pilates studio. In st. Louis Shelley, Suzanne and I would take classes through the community college and we took a handful of “Pilates” classes but nothing taught by an actually certified instructor. So I took a mat pilates class last week thinking how hard can it be? WAY HARD! I had trouble holding or completing most of the poses. Of the 99, I only hit 74 completely. That’s a lot of improvement I need! I’m expecting on Wednesday for her to tell me that I can’t come back until I finish the intro course, which doesn’t start again for a few weeks but in all honesty, I need to take it so I can’t complain. I think it will be a great class for me over all once I get a little bit better and am not so self conscious.

We’ve got a few things up and coming to look forward to: I’m going to Phoenix in April, Evan will probably join me for the last half of the trip, and to DC in March, which Evan decided he had no interest in going to. Also any day now Baby Jacob Schtienberg will join the world so we are excited to meet him. OK now I must get back to my ‘high speed strategic planning’ workbook. Oh so much fun