I haven’t been so good about posting non-Thursday entries for a while now. Some of it’s been event-related stress, much of which is now past or, at least, de-escalated. Some of it’s been tiredness and malaise and depression. But generally it’s been all-encompassing, not just here on the blog.

This week, though, maybe things are a little lighter. I read a couple of books. I called a friend. I started thinking about where I want my life to go next from here and how I might find myself there. And I’ve knit a bit. So I thought I might also write a little something here.

I don’t have any answers yet. And maybe there are no answers. Maybe there’s just putting one foot in front of the other and moving in one direction or another. Maybe any direction is just as good as the rest, as long as you’re moving. Treading water may be fine if you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean, but just staying afloat is no way to live a life if at the end of it you’re not going to be filled with regrets. And if making no moves is going to lead to that, then it’s the same as actively choosing disappointment.

I reject that choice.

So instead I choose motion. I opt to creep — slowly if need be — away from stasis. I will crawl, walk, hop, scramble my way from would-haves and should-haves. And if I encounter a dead end, which I will most certainly do at some point, I will inch, skip, run, twirl in some other direction.

I am done waiting. Life, I’m on the move.

One of the things on this weekend’s to-do list was to paint my nails, partly in recognition of the impending warming weather. I knew I’d want to wear sandals, and an incident earlier this year of wearing too-small shoes had left my toes contused and uglier than I’d like for revealing footwear.

So a cover-up was in order:

(Yes, my new flip flops do have cherry blossoms on them.)

And while I was at it, I wanted to try a new top coat I picked up after returning from Salt Lake:

As you can see, precision usually doesn’t worry me.

Here are some of the things I’m hoping to do this weekend:

• Complete my shift at the garden clean-up day. Possibly also assess our plot. Consider turning over soil.
• Shop at the farmers market. Hopefully find ramps and maybe spring mushrooms.
• Do taxes. Or, at the very least, assemble paperwork necessary to doing them.
• Make something with apples in fridge.
• Finish reading my novel & return overdue books to library.
• View cherry blossoms. This will probably require rising at a ridiculously early hour to avoid tourists. Conversely, battle tourists. (As I think there may be fireworks tomorrow night, maybe I’ll brave the crowds as it gets toward dusk.)
• Read a chapter in a novel-in-progress that I’m behind in offering thoughts on.
• Find yarn for my grandmother’s shawl.
• Paint fingernails.
• Sit outside and knit and read.

How about you? What’s on your weekend to-do list?

So February’s and March’s goals were all pretty much a bust. The other ice rink closed for the season the weekend before I tried going. I invited people for an evening gathering, but opted to make it less stressful by holding it elsewhere. I did sign up for my spring volleyball league, which was then cancelled last week due to lack of interest. (I thought about taking this as a sign from the heavens to give up on an activity that I only semi-enjoy, but instead I signed up to play at a new, closer venue. Hopefully playing there will be people who don’t care if we win or not, but I haven’t found that those people tend to pay to play sports.)

Since they didn’t work out, let’s try three new goals for April, shall we?

1. Send a postcard to a little person or two. This last trip to Salt Lake was, I believe, the first trip I’ve taken as an adult where I sent no postcards at all. Since I’d meant to send cards to my favorite kids (as well as to some of my favorite adults), I’ll instead ship off a couple of D.C.-based cards to them. They’re small, and I hope from their perspective, the cards of animals from the National Zoo are just as good as cards of animals located in Utah.
2. Make homemade pasta. Last year my folks gave me a pasta maker and a ravioli pan. I haven’t yet used them, but would like to give them a shot. Plus, think how awesome it would be if I could achieve a decent pasta in time to put under our homemade sauce.
3. Weed through my bookshelves. I have a really hard time getting rid of books, but I know there are things taking up space on my shelves that I didn’t care enough for to read a second time, and it would be good to clear them out.

How are your goals (of the New Year, birthday, or randomly set date variety) going?

I should probably have recognized that my goals for February were too extensive when I came up with them nearly halfway through the month.

March will also be challenging, given I’ll be in Salt Lake for a good portion of it. So here’s my thinking:

First, I’m going to give myself an extension on February’s goals, which were:

1. Ice skate at the two new rinks in D.C. I’ve been to one and need to get across town to the other sometime in the next two weeks.
2. Mend all my clothing that needs it. I only got as far as gathering some of the clothing together. No actual repairing has occurred as of yet.
3. Begin a 100 push-up program. I keep putting this off — partly because I’m lazy and partly because I know that our upcoming trip will throw this off.

We’ll consider them a success if I accomplish them by the end of March.

And I’ll give myself three smaller goals for March that also seem manageable:

1. Sign up for a spring volleyball team. I took both the fall and the winter off and that was probably a mistake. I’d like to get back into this, at least for a few months.
2. Go to a yoga class. Either here in Dupont or at a studio in Salt Lake while I’m there.
3. Invite people over for an evening gathering. An incentive to tidy! An incentive to bake! An incentive to hang out with our elusive friends!

It was a three-day weekend, which means I have 50% more weekend to report:

• Dinner at our friends’ house. Lots of delicious food, concluding with homemade cherry turnovers.
• Breakfast with Rudi before his ride.
• Laundry.
• Beginning The Woman Who Died a Lot.
• The usual February letdown begins, but a little later than normal … and perhaps a little less severely, at least so far.
• New reverse lights for the car — and proving that there was a screwdriver in it to access the panels.
• Snacks and shopping at Union Market followed by additional shopping in Virginia (where I had to go to return a library book).
• Three episodes of Doctor Who.
• A cold wind means my homemade sweater joins my turtleneck and handknit woolen accessories.
• The farmers market brings produce, breakfast, and a bouquet of tulips, ranunculus, and anemone.
• Chai and muffins for brunch.
• Duckpin bowling. Rudi wins two out of three, but I don’t care.
• The documentary Kings of Pastry.
• Finishing a pair of socks for Rudi — the first in probably 9 months. (Photos to come later this week.)
• Sleeping ridiculously, luxuriously late.
• Getting dressed into workout clothes, but never actually working out. (It’s not really the thought that counts.)
• The beginnings of a deep clean.
• A fresh tablecloth.
• Colorful fairy lights restrung around the periphery of the living room.
• Tuna sandwiches.
• Good Neighbors.
• Disappearing into the bedroom with my book and a cat during intense tv.
• Savoring the first few pages of Kindred over a cup of tea. (This is not a zine to be read quickly.)

How about you? How was your weekend?