Poem #1: Phenomenal Woman

I am woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman

That's me.

~Maya Angelou

This seemed to be an appropriate start to my poem-memorization since it is about being a phenomenal woman, exactly the way we are.

I haven't memorized anything in...well, let's see...I don't remember when! Unless you count my new address & phone number here in NC. It is surprisingly easy...although the passing drivers on my street might wonder at my acting out the lines on my way to get the mail ("the reach of my arms, the span of my hips").

Two stanzas down, two to go before the 31st. I feel more phenomenal already! And I think I have my first woman to investigate for my Heroes list.

Weighing in...

Week 1: 3 pounds lost (YAY!)

Week 2: 1.8 pounds lost (More YAY!)

Week 3: 1.4 pounds lost (Hip~Hip~Hurray!!!)

Now off to spend the weekend with my girlfriends in sunny Florida...(gulp!)

The Master Cupcake Plan: Year 2

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." ~Aristotle

Well, since the last year sped by, practically without my noticing it was going, I decided that if there was ANY hope of my completing this list I had better create a timeline for the items that need to get done. Exhibit "A": see left.

I determined how many cranes I needed to make per week to complete #33. Make 1000 origami cranes (that would be 20); how many movies I needed to watch per month to get in #4 (Audrey), #16 (GWTW) and #23 (Al Gore). I calculated how often I needed to write a letter of gratitude (#20), how often I needed to have a poem memorized (#39), as well as how frequently I should work on #37. Practice stopping to smell the roses. I also decided, since I am motivated by such minor things as checklists, that in order to floss, stretch and get my reading in (remember those 54 books?), I better create a system to reward myself with a big pink "X" for getting those things done on a daily basis.

In order to become proficient at gun-slinging (#10) and pie-making (#13), I decided I needed to add those tasks in monthly, as well as #26. Perform 24 breast self-exams. And in order to work on some of the more miscellaneous items, I am adding one in per month to accomplish.

All sounds good, right? (A little OCD, perhaps, but good?) Ironically, I am already falling behind! It is harder than it looks to get these little things done daily and schedule in the more time-consuming ones...in order to check off those boxes, but I think I'm on to something with my plan (as much as it pains me to give Jerry Seinfeld credit for this variation of a theme). I want to get to the end of THIS year and be planning the best 40th birthday celebration ever...in honor of all my accomplishments.

Now let me go get out my pink Sharpie....

The Cupcake Yogini

"A finished person is a boring person." ~Anna Quindlen

The Major asked me last night what I was planning on 'doing' with my yoga teacher certificate (#32) (or more specifically, a reflexology certification that I'm lobbying to attend this fall). He really is a wonderful husband, because even when my answer is "I'm not sure, exactly...how about knowledge for knowledge's sake", he just nods and laughs. I know that he is an extremely rational and logical man (and these are a few of the reasons I love him, since we all can't be quirky like myself) and he has a need to see the USE of such adventures (especially when they have to come out of the budget..ha!) But I'm not making any promises.

I simply enjoy the learning process. And since I am very easily entertained, luckily most of what I am curious to learn about does not hurt the pocketbook as much as yoga teacher training will. For example, I am currently watching a borrowed series of lectures on the Classics of British Literature...48 lectures in all. They are really interesting, beginning with the origins of the English language, and frankly, they make my brain pedal in a way it has not been forced to do in a while! (This company has lecture series on practically anything that could strike your fancy, from wine to physics~check it out!)

Ironically, this curious desire to continually explore stuff means I'm already creating my NEXT Cupcake List! Even after the forty items on this list are complete, there are loads of ideas tumbling around in my head for the following years to come.

Anyway, back to the Major and yoga teacher training. I don't know what will come of it, only that I have wanted to attend this particular yoga program at Discovery Yoga in St. Augustine for about the last ten years since I first discovered it, and since they have cashed my deposit check, I am going to go out on a limb and believe I am signed up for five weeks in Feb/March of 2011!

After that, well, I think I would be a good yoga teacher, but my brain can't see that far into the future. For now, I'm content with knowing that (the Lord willing, as my dad would say) in the spring I will be there, learning all I can, thanks to my wonderful, supportive husband who is willing to pay for me to go, just because it makes me happy.

29. Lose the Weight...finally.

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." ~Amelia Earhart

It's one thing to think that you might need to lose 20 pounds...~ish. It's another thing entirely to look yourself squarely in the mirror and tell that girl in there that it's time to stop Mickey-Mousing around and admit that you are going to have to buy a larger size pants...again. And that shopping for clothes has almost completely lost it's enjoyment for you, which is totally unacceptable. It is therefore time to make a change. Immediately. Because if I can't enjoy shopping, life may have lost a significant part of its luster.

After much thought (and weeping and gnashing of teeth), I have decided that this is a project that I cannot accomplish on my own. Now I have the most supportive of all husbands, which I think I may have mentioned previously. He has done the South Beach Diet with me, which involved giving up his beloved Chips Ahoy for over six weeks, and would stand right by me whatever course I chose. But the Major is much to smart to stand between me and chocolate if I really want it. So I needed some outside accountability.

And so, on October 8th, I joined Weight Watchers. And plan to spend the next 365 days getting back to a reasonable weight (ie: perhaps the one I was at when the Major met me?) Getting married in 2008 was one of the most beautiful miracles of my entire life, and the Major and my two step-kids are a constant sweetness to me....and I have the constant fat on my ass to prove it! A husband who constantly works out and growing kids can basically eat what they want. Not so, yours truly. So it is time to woman-up and do something about it. A change here and a change there~a little at a time and I know I can do it! (I want to look as good as Jennifer Hudson! LOL)

Week One is over and I feel like I did great...this morning I go find out if the scale agrees (gulp!) Fingers & Toes crossed, please.

Happy Birthday, Cupcake!

Happy Birthday to me! In case anyone was wondering if the thrill of the birthday had left me during the last 365 days...the answer is NO! In fact, my birthday week was so lovely that I actually forgot to blog (bad birthday girl!) and am having to go back!

In honor of the big 3-9, I have been reviewing my Cupcake List and noticing that this past year has not produced quite the results I had hoped for. (sad birthday girl) I suppose I will cut myself some slack, despite my last blog, since in the last 12 months I have sold a house, which was a very stressful adventure in this economy; ferreted out another place to rent in another state; MOVED to that house and unpacked all my worldly goods without the Major (thanks to Moms); dealt with the stress of renting the house that fell out of Wonderland (can anyone say-no w/d hookups except in my bedroom? wth?); and last but not least, am still learning how to navigate my new life here in the wilds of North Carolina...So I have accomplished some significant things this year, even if they aren't all reflected on THE list.

But now, on to review THE list! First of all, we know that I did complete #1. Start my own blog. I vow to be more consistent this second year in posting my process. As for #2. Catch up on my reading, well, I made excellent progress on that one, and did in fact read a number of books that I would never have read otherwise (and posted about many of them), so I feel pretty good about it, although, to my disappointment, I did not finish all 40 books on the first reading list. I did, however, finish 26 of them. The remaining 14 will just have to roll over into year two, and I will have to pace myself accordingly! (More to follow on just how I plan to do that.) That will be 54 books in year two (the second list of 40 plus leftover 14 from year one). A bit ambitious, am I? (Am I crazy?...don't answer that, please. It is my birthday.)

Skipping down to #10. Learn to shoot a gun. Started on that one, and have now looked up a place nearby where I can go to continue working on that. It doesn't seem that a sharpshooter is made out of one episode of gun-slinging. So practice I will. Fortunately, when I added #11. Take a watercolor class, I didn't mention becoming proficient! I would like to continue to explore this form of creativity, but there is only so much of me to go around. I may have to wait to further explore watercolors until after my fortieth birthday comes and goes. #12. Whiten my teeth is another ongoing goal~I was thinking just today how glad I was that I had the trays made and how nice it is to be able to attend to that little issue without any hassle whatsoever (pretty birthday girl!).

#13. Learn to make my Mom's Black Bottom Pie is also one that I started but must continue if I plan to actually become a proficient. BIG step in the process, Moms gave me a mixer for my birthday! Now there is nothing holding me back! (ummmm....hungry birthday girl) I promised the Major one pie a month until I have achieved perfection. He was delighted. #26. Perform 24 breast self-check exams is a goner. Unless I perform 5 in one month, that is. Ha. But I have devised a way to make sure that I get all 12 in over the next year. (Again, more to follow on that bit of OCD planning.) I did Volunteer my time at Moms' house, #27, with positive results, so scratch that one off the list (thank goodness!).....AND.....there you go. Poor showing for year one, if I do say so myself.

HOWEVER! I have already poked at about THIRTEEN (yay, birthday girl!) of the other items on the list...just haven't gotten far enough to report or (more likely) just haven't blogged about them! So my new birthday resolution is that I will be more forthcoming with my efforts, since they are a huge part of the Countdown process! Now, must go...there is desert somewhere with my name on it!