Erin's Writing Life: The Celebration of Halfway to 70

September 16, 2015

I don't know if this was a thing when anybody else turned 25, but it was the QC birthday - half way to 50, and it seemed like such a big deal. It still is. I don't remember feeling like it was old. In fact, I was in Korea at the time, and it was really such a new experience, and exciting time in my life, that I didn't care about my age at all.

I still don't care, but I don't feel quite as young as I did at 25. I also feel like I have so much to do. Life is sometimes short. I want to do as much as I can.

Birthdays are important to me no matter what. I love them. I enjoy looking back to see what I've done with my year and my life since my last birthday.

On September 11th I turned 35.

There are still things I haven't done in my life, so I guess this next year is going to have to be a big one.

Of course, I searched through my past posts for the one I wrote last year with my goals. \/the-last-day-of-my-33rd-year.html. I had to see what I've done. Here's what I said right before I was 34.

"For the things I haven't done:

I haven't figured out what's going to happen next with my book.
I'm pretty sure I haven't made it to my goal weight.
I didn't finish the Game of Thrones series
I didn't go to Shakespeare on the Sask... I ran out of money.
I didn't catch a fish. We tried.
I didn't write as many letters as I wanted.
I didn't get up and exercise every morning.

Here are some things I want to do in the next year.

I want to be more brave.
I want to eat healthy and exercise.
I want to write.
I want to continue being grateful for every little moment in my life.
I want to continue laughing with Clint every day.
I want to spend as much time with my family as I can.
I want to spend as much time with my friends as I can.
I want to be happy with my life. Not wanting more, but happy with what I've chosen."

I guess I didn't need to link it if I was going to just cut and paste. Looking at the goals I had for my 34th birthday, the only one I for sure did was catching a fish during summer in Saskatchewan (a week ago). I have caught fish in Mexico, and also while ice fishing in Saskatchewan. I'm pretty proud of myself:

However, I'm sadly at the same place with my novel. I had it evaluated, and that's basically all I've done with it since then. I did start on a new one, but I need to make changes to the first. I will finish Game of Thrones this year. (Serious.)

As for the goals, I did okay. I still have things to work on. Like exercising and bravery, but I think I do the rest, and am proud to continue them.

However, I do feel that I need to try harder, and I need to work harder to accomplish my goals. The only person stopping myself is me.

And one after I turned 34: \/a-post-from-34-year-old-me.html

"I do think I need to make a lot of changes in my life, and that's not to say that things aren't good. I just think they can be better. I think I can be better, and I can do better. I'm not really talking about healthy eating and exercise here. That's a tiny part. I just want to live life as much as I can. It will include everything I'm doing now (blogging, for example), but more. I want to get out more. I want to volunteer. I want to love my life. I want to do more things that I can be proud of."

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be better.

So my goals for my 35th year are below.

Accept my life as it is. If I don't have a baby or any wedding plans by the end of the year, it really is okay.
Edit and send away my novel again. Persist.
Participate in NanoWrimo.
Take courses, practice writing, and learn more about making my talent better.
Love with all my heart.
Be a better person. Whether I volunteer, donate, be nicer to people, judge less - just be a better person. It doesn't matter how good you are, you can always be better. I know I can.

Now for my birthday week. I gave myself a week. In fact, I took four days off to celebrate. (It was a holiday, so I already had Labour Day Monday off.)

We took the weekend to relax, and then Clint, Drogo, and I headed to a lake about four hours away.

Drogo is still dealing with the car sickness, but getting a lot better, and we are getting a lot better at reading the signs and getting him outside the vehicle when we need to.

We drove on a gloomy and rainy day, but were really impressed with the cabins and the lake once we arrived.

The trip there.

Nature

Drogo and our feet.

Our cabin for two nights.

Our temporary home.

View from the cabin. Trail leads straight to the lake.

Out for a walk.

My man keeping me warm.

Also, the gloomy day ended with a gorgeous sunset.

The next day we woke up to sunshine! So we went boating. (Although we would have either way.) This was the fishing trip.

He wasn't a fan of the life jacket.

Really easy to fish with my lapdog Rottie helping.

FIRST CATCH!

Beautiful Day.

Fishing AND relaxing

Twas cold.

He loves fishing.

Biggest fish OF THE DAY!

We went out in the morning, and came back around supper time. Drogo did REALLY well considering he gets carsick, but at the end of the day, he was hit with sea sickness for the first time, so we got him back home. Poor guy.

The sunset wasn't anything like the one from the day before, but still gorgeous.

We relaxed with some wine (in red solo cups) for the rest of the night.

We left the next morning, but still enjoyed the view before we got on the road.

It was sad leaving.

The next day, I had a birthday shopping trip with my mom and sister. AND my sister made me a polka dot cake. (yay!)

My actual birthday was wonderful. I met some work pals for lunch. I had the coolest drink ever, and then got my free birthday coffee.

I asked them to do this. With the "THE" and everything.

I love my birthday! Haha!

The night was a holiday themed birthday party. Why? Because I had frozen egg nog ready to drink. I had kept it in the freezer since after Christmas, and was ready to find out what the result was. So we had a Christmas dinner with holiday drinks, and holiday decorations. I loved it.

Also - Clint - did most of the cooking, AND baked me a cheesecake. I really have the most amazing person to share my life with.