How much fun it was today when I browsed through archived versions of my blog and found this, posted January 10, 2008:
My fantasies for 2008?
1) I’ll finally get my very own cube and desk to sit at to do my work (can you BELIEVE they still don’t have a place to put any of us new hires?)
2) I’ll gain some confidence and become productive at work
3) We’ll get settled in to our new home
4) Tara will reconcile herself to the idea that she must change school districts in two years
5) Mark will gain some confidence and productivity in his job
6) I’ll plan out the perfect kitchen and maybe even begin creating it
7) I’ll make some headway in eliminating my debt
8 ) I’ll sell the house in Massachusetts and pay back my mother and grandmother the money I borrowed from them to buy the house in the first place.
I read the list out loud to my man, so we could together find out if my fantasies came true. And what a practical girl I am! I almost got everything I wanted.
1) I DID get my own desk to sit at, then the whole office was rearranged, and I got a new desk to sit at. But the point is, I have a place that is always available to me to sit at and do my work.
2) I DID gain confidence and became much more productive at work. According to our productivity tracking software, I went from zero weighted actions per day, to 2.25 weighted actions per day – awesome!
3) We ARE settled into our new home
4) Whoah! What a gigantic difference a year makes. Rather than working my girl into the future realization that soon she will live with my honey and I on the other side of town… she lives with us already, and her dad moved to California. Wow.
5) This one I’ll give a half point to, rather than a full point. He DID gain confidence and productivity. He single-handedly got a remediation system running out in Scio, Oregon, which had been broken for three years! He became a one-man get-things-done team for his boss, and began mentoring new staff. …and in June lost his job. He remains unemployed.
6) This is a “no.” The economy tanked on us, and I am thinking a kitchen remodel should be part of our 5-year plan.
7) I’m going to call this one neutral. Neither improved nor worsened the situation. Little did I know when I wrote my list above, I owed thousands of dollars in taxes. It’s now paid off. I have also dropped the balance one of my credit cards from $7544 to $1670. However, I increased the balance on a different credit card from zero to $10,000. My student loan balances are nearly the same this year as last year. I DID unload over $200 thousand in debt on the Massachusetts house when I sold it. But I owe the same on the new Portland house.
8) Um. Unfortunately I combined two biggies into one. I DID sell the house. I have NOT repaid my family the money I owe them. Another one half point.
So that’s pretty good, really. I score myself 5 points out of 8. Maybe 5.5 if I give myself an extra half for number 4).
January 10, 2008 was a good day. The day after my birthday, and the day “my boy” was born to Elisia and Kevin, out in Massachusetts. Now, I’m staring my first real 39th birthday in the face, and Tobin is a growing healthy, happy, boy.
I will try to remind myself on January 10, 2009 to make another list. If I am as equally blessed as last year, I will be able to say I did accomplish at least 5 out of 8 goals.
Conscious Engagement 
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