2025 Fantasies

I want to revisit my annual list of fantasies from a year ago, and see if any came true, and make a new list for this year. I like “fantasies” instead of New Year’s Resolutions because there is less pressure if it’s only a fantasy of mine. And yes, it is indeed March, and I’m late, but whatever. Remember! I said LESS PRESSURE. ha ha

• First thing on the list was to answer all the questions that Marcel Proust liked, that supposedly help a person know themselves. I did it! I finished every single one of them in a handwirtten journal by the end of the year.
• I wanted to make solid, unselfish decisions about Racecar during her end of life. With help from friends and Pedro, I am convinced we did the best we could and she died quietly at home, very loved and looked after.
• Clean out the greenhouse – nope. It is still being used as storage.
• Learn our sprinkler and drip system and configure it for our use. That’s a half a point for me. I learned all I could and learned that the zones can’t be reconfigured without laying new pipe. That will be a future landscaping project. But I did change the schedule and repair some leaks which helped bring some of our more neglected plants back to life.
• Repair and fertilize the Sundial raised garden beds. We did this, and learned so much! We got some great crops and some were fails, but that’s a typical garden.
• Go on at least one multi-day backpacking trip with Pedro. I did not do this. Sigh. My therapist suggested that I go by myself, since that’s what I did before I met Pedro. I think I would LOVE that. So it’s my plan for 2025.
• Hike on at least three new trails. Yes!! We found a fabulous new set of trails at Cooper Mountain near our house that is a new favourite (just hiked there Friday and yesterday as a matter of fact), and I hiked a second brand new one near the house. Plus I hiked multiple trails in Arizona, Pedro and I hiked a new one on the coast, and we hiked a couple trails in New Zealand. I counted eight new trails in 2024.
• Write a “significant amount” on my Post Office book. Yes!! I wrote thousands of words in early spring, then I stopped completely. But I did write. So I will begin again.
• Cut and remove the wisteria. Oh yes! Another victory.
• Go through every single box in storage, also find my LOTR movies. Half a point. I went through all the boxes that are ours, cleaned and reorganized. Never found the movies and realized I probably accidentally donated them to a library during the move because I am missing half my home movies and the online library lists those as available to check out. But all the boxes from my dad and my mom and Kellen are still untouched. Dennis’s and Sabine’s were mostly ruined in the rain, and I threw much of it away but they still need to be examined and re-packed. And….why are we storing things from so many people?!!
• Remove the tin shed. As you learned with the wisteria story: the shed is gone.
• Go on a camping road trip by myself. Nope. This and the backpacking are things I will try to do. It is good for my mental health.
• Finish the Italy and Slovenia photo book. Finally, I finished that thing. What a procrastinator I was.

That is a more successful response to the fantasies list than I expected. It’s a long list and I don’t know how I got to so much of it, but I guess they were reasonable expectations. My new list for 2025 is shorter, and will recycle:

• Go on a multi-day backpacking trip alone or with anyone.
• Go on a multi-day camping road trip alone or with anyone.
• Write thousands more words in my Post Office book.
• Finish the Mexico and New Zealand photo books before October so that I can take advantage of the Photobook Premium account I paid for.
• Disassemble and rebuild my Sundial garden boxes with new dirt.
• Build simple frames to fit around my Greenhouse garden to keep the dirt in place when it is watered or rained on.
• Move into my new office, and make a schedule for myself to use it, and then commit to that schedule. Include Pedro in plans for the schedule, so he will support me too. That, combined with trips into the wilderness, I think will do wonders for my mental health.