Remember this post? It was my Summer goals post, where I laid out some objectives for the 2011 Summer. Let’s see how I did in meeting those goals, and see what additional things I accomplished. As an aside, I think that this shows that I’m not a goal oriented person; simply goal aware. Notice the number of things that I had planned on that didn’t happen. And notice the number of things that I had not planned on that did happen.

Primary

• Camping trip in YNP. DONE! Oh hell yeah we did this. We did this epicly. I ended up doing two weeks in Montana; one week with my Dad hanging out, the other camping in YNP. Granted, YNP didn’t go as planned. 250% snowpack obliterated our original plans, Stirling got sick, and we ended up doing last second camping trips. But it was great and we can’t wait for next summer’s adventure.  Also, Stirling hiked 10 miles in a day, with an overly full pack, while puking. I limped the same thing, and this it is pretty amazing that she did not quit.
• Go hiking as often as possible. DONE! Did a lot of good hiking, including Pawnee pass and all over Estes Park.
• Go camping several times. DONE! Went camping a few times, including YNP, Grand Junction, and with Deela & The Brats.

Secondary

• Do more kayaking. DONE! I now own three kayaks. After initial attempts with the kayak Deela got me, I found a kayak on Craigs LIst that was more suited to my needs. I went kayaking several times, and enjoyed the hell out of it. I am looking forwarding to kayaking more in the future.
  
• Learn to fish. Not Yet.This became an issue of to much effort, not enough interest. In order to make it worthwhile I need to get the equipment, figure out how to take it camping, learn to fish, and learn to clean and cook the fish
  
• Go biking. Not Yet. Bike needs some TLC from the bike shop. I decided it wasn’t worth the cost. As an alternative, I did get an account with B-Cycle for biking around town. Now, if I was using it I could call this In Progress.
  
• Learn camp cooking. In Progress. Pancackes, etc. Need more practice.
• Have fun with photography. In Progress. In Montana I took a bunch of pictures and tried out one of my Dad’s cameras. I liked it, and would like to use it more. Sadly, at this time my primary point and shoot is broken.

Well shit, if I have time

• Finish cleaning the garage and basement.  In Progress. I cleaned the garage a little bit. Did a decent bit of cleaning in the house. Also, I finally fixed the roof.
  
• Get a motorcycle license. Not Yet. This is still being planned. Just been busy and haven’t gotten around to it yet.
• Learn Archery. Not Yet.
• Finish touching up the paint in the house. Not Yet.
• Decorate the walls. Not Yet. I am collecting stuff to put on the walls; this is getting moved to the winter list
• Gather my memorabilia and find ways to display it. Not Yet. I really need to do this, especially the part where I put it all in the same place
• Collect my old pictures and convert them to electronic format. Not Yet. Winter list

Character Growth

• Continue writing everything down. Continuing! OK, a small caveat; I haven’t been working on my writing. You can look at the activity of the blog to see that. But I’m not relying on my memory any more. If I need to know something more than a few minutes later, I’m writing it down.
• Try to get my life more organized. Continuing! Holy cow this has made a difference. I’ve put a focus on using my calender for everything, and it has changed my life. What happens is that when I learn of a future event or activity, I am able to /at that moment/ make the call if I can attend or not. I don’t have to say “Sounds great, latter I will check and then make the commitment”. The downside, is that this impacts my ability to be spontaneous; on the upside to means I know what the consequences of my spontaneity will be before I decide to chase the shiney. Additionally I’ve been putting greater focus on tracking my obligations, which means that I’ve been able to fulfill them (or at least be less surprised by the consequences when I blow them off). I don’t have a system for this, it is just a mental thing.
• Think more, react less. Continuing! This is very much a good thing. It is especially important in conversations; where someones flippant remark can cause me to jump down their throat. A friend uses “RASA: Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask”. I’m going to try to use it more to understand what other people are really saying.
• Develop my character growth section. Not Yet. As introspective as I try to be, I’m really blind about myself. I need to find a different approach to this.

Stuff that wasn’t on the list, but I did anyways

Life isn’t planned, and it shouldn’t be. Sure, we should make plans, and back up plans, and maintain our options; but a predictable life is a boring life.

• Enforcer at PAX:Prime! Holy FUCK! This is Awesome! Sure, in previous years I’ve talked about signing up, but when I sent in my application I knew the odds were against me. People have applied every year and never been accepted, but I got in on my first try. And I think I blew it out of the water. I knew I was blown out of the water. And Seattle has a lot of water. This only took up 5 days of my summer, but it was easily the most amazing 5 days of the summer.
• Trip to GJ It was for Daniel & Jessa’s wedding, but it involved a Road Trip with Cami, camping with Jude and Stirling in the amazing National Monument Colorado State Park, and taking the train from GJ back to Denver.  Oh, and the geek themed wedding was pretty cool too, even if Daniel didn’t wear a celery. This weekend is up there with YNP and PAX as the most epic and amazing events of the summer.
• Saw Les Misrables This has been on my wish list for years as this story has always been really important to me. But I would forget, or get distracted, or not be able to afford the tickets, or have schedule conflicts; but by the power of being organized I was able to finally do this. It was amazing.
• Derby! I won’t get into details, cause you don’t need details; but it is sufficent to say that I am still coordinating volunteers for the High City Derby Divas. As the league grows the position and responsibilities change, and I’m doing a damn good job and handling it. I really wish I could be more involved, but the 1hr drive is a PITA.
• Dating Just… blah. This isn’t working. I should probably do a write up of my attempts over the summer and analyze what’s been going on; but for now I’m shelving the dating project. Perhaps I’ll spend some time trying to figure out what it is, exactly, that I’m looking for in a relationship. The fact is that my friendships are often on the level that most people want in a seriously committed relationship, so perhaps I just need to be content with the epic that I have. Not bloody likely to happen XD
• Fighting the fat, one dance routine at a time! With Spencer’s no-longer-fat ass goading me on, and Cami going to the gym with me, I’ve been getting to the gym about once a week, usually for Zumba!. I’m feeling more energetic and am very happy with it. As a bonus I think Zumba is helping with my grace and body movement, which has always been a weak spot.
• Various volunteering Still doing it. Lafayette Peach Festival and FRIENDS of Broomfield Talent show. The last one really makes me smile.
• Social Shtuff Wednesday Night dinner with Deela and the Brats is a fairly stable thing again, and I’ve been seeing Sophia & Richard once a month or so. Getting away from the computer games and spending time with real world humans has been a good thing.
• Urban Race Cami, Rachel, and I did the City Solve Urban Race and it was a blast. Rachel acted as support from her computer; plotting routes and solving clues while Cami and I ran our sexy little butts off around Denver. We will be doing this again in the future.
• Works stuff Work is still Epic and Amazing; and I’m competant at what I do. Nothing makes you realize how compentant you are at simple tasks like watching other people fail horribly at them. I am more organized that I was at the beginning of summer. I have a tighter grasp on several aspects of how the lab works. Most of the affidavits have been converted to form letter, grossly simplifying filling them out. And I’m using a standing desk.
• Misc other stuff Portal2 came out, I’ve actually gotten passably decent at League of Legends, I saw Patience when she came through town, saw LeVar Burton talk at Starfest, etc. etc. etc.