2009 Highlights

Liberty Mutual Commercial

On the way home from work today, as I was accusing myself of being too negative and trying to figure out a way to motivate myself til June, I witnessed something that turned my glass from half empty to half full. You know those Liberty Mutual Insurance commercials that show random acts of kindness that are supposed to look candid? Those get to me. Lump in my throat and stinging eyes every time. Movies and commercials get me every time... It's ridiculous, I know.

Anyway, today I saw a real life candid random act of kindness on my way home. It was so uplifting, I've been in a good mood ever since. When I came to a red light, there was a mess in the intersection. Negative Nancy (me) immediately groaned, thinking there was an accident that would double my travel time home. Instead of an accident, there was a stalled out junky van in the middle of the intersection with a totally freaked out young mom in drivers' seat. Just ahead of the intersection, 2 luxury vehicles had pulled over and their emergency lights were flashing. "What is going on?" I think. Then I see the 2 men. 2 potential strangers running to help yet another stranger in the middle of a busy intersection at 5:00pm. These 2 men, tag-teamed pushing the van and waiving directions to the driver to safely pull to the side of the road. Once the driver made it safely into a vacant parking lot, I watched as the 2 men in nice leather jackets turned to each other and high-fived. Then shook hands. Then ran back to their luxury sedans and drove off.

Job well done, guys. Now I must pay it forward.

Top 10 in 2010

So here it is... my top 10 list. Now, remember, that these are not "resolutions" but things I want to accommplish or do this year. They could be something to better myself or others, or they could be things I have just wanted to do. The list will hold me accountable because I know myself, and there is nothing I get more pleasure out of than crossing things off my to-do list.

1. Read a book start to finish
2. Run in a 10k (which may have to be 2 5k's because surprisingly, 10ks are not very common options in races. They seem to only be in relays)
3. Organize my finances
4. Clean out the storage closet in the garage
5. Grow a tomato plant in my Topsy Turvy
6. Send birthday cards out in time (I have your's Urs, just thought I'd see you this week!)
7. Bake an apple pie from start to finish
8. Lose at least 5 pounds (I started this list before the holidays, so now I have a few more to shed. Fabulous)
9. Pick one craft project that I have started to finish
10. Volunteer at least 2 times this year (feeding the homeless, some type of mentor program)


I had a very hard time deciding my 10 because there are quite a few things I would like to do. Here are some of my runners up, maybe a top 11 in 11?? Joke.

Runners Up:
- Find a type of fish I like to eat
- Plan a trip (I have already started doing that, so it doesn't count)
- Call 1 close friend once a week (not the same friend, justsomeone who doesn't live in the area who I miss. The stipulations started getting complicated so I nixed that one.)
- Go to church once a month

I told several people in my family about the top 10 in oh-1o (my brother hates that I call it 0-10 and not 2010...whatev) and they all have started one too. It was interesting how their personalities shone through in their lists. For instance, some of my brother's top 10's were to record 4 songs this year, read one non-text book, and write some type of nerdy engineer formula. Are we really from the same womb??

Wish my luck! Off to start my new adventure!