My Half Year Resolutions

Well, well, long time, no type. 

Well, some type. I have a lot of drafts saved but they’re whiny and wintery and BLAH. As suspected, the first full quarantine winter was rough, but a few trips to the ER (pets and people), twelve entire weeks of working out, and a month of warm days later, my battery is recharged and I’m ready to make my “triumphant” return to the blogosphere. 

Since I skipped a bunch of my usual content, I decided I’d come back with some resolutions. Hilariously, I have a lengthy draft about having no resolutions (damn, winter is tough on the emotions), but it turns out all I needed was a little bit of sunshine to remind me that I do, in fact, have some goals and healthy habits to tackle! Never mind that the year is 1/2 over. 

1. I’m going to learn to play the ukulele, damnit. This goal may seem, and is, a bit random for me, but you’ll get the picture in my next favorites post. Fun fact about me, I’m a little bit musical.  What do I mean by a little bit musical? Well, I played the clarinet very well for several years. Playing the clarinet in my free time was never a real passion of mine, but it did evolve into other musical dabblings. And while I’ve never been formally trained on well, anything, I’m reserving a little bit of my ever-dwindling confidence to say that I will be able to play the ukulele if I set my mind to it. But first, I need to purchase a ukulele… (Hi, I wrote this post two months ago, lol. Self esteem is such a bitch, but anyway, I did get a ukulele and I can play some tunes now!!)
2. I’m going to move my body. I started out quarantine strong with a very regimented fitness schedule. I would say this time last year, I was the strongest physically I have ever been. As the weather warmed up, I ditched my weightlifting workouts and swapped them out for walking/running outside, and I kept that up well into the fall, when it ultimately got too cold and wet to keep up with. Then, as the holiday season ramped up, I just became a slug. This is kind of normal, yes? Anyway, at the beginning of April, Kyle and I were sick of feeling sorry for ourselves, so we started scheduled cardio and weightlifting again, and I am now in pursuit of hot healthy girl summer. Hoping to carry these habits through 2021 and onward, my friends! 
3. Country roads, take me home! In depressing news, I have only seen my parents for fifteen minutes each, outside in the freezing cold, since December of 2019, ugh! At long last, my family and I are all at least halfway vaccinated, and come two weeks after my last shot, I am headed to West Virginia for a little while! Obviously, real life still has to go on, and I’m beyond bummed that safe family time also has to coincide with back-to-the-office time, but I’m going to make it work! I’m going to hug my parents, sleep in my own room, get waved at in traffic, smell the rain, and I cannot wait! If nothing else, the past 18 months have been a sobering reminder to stop taking people and places for granted! Don’t let the long work week or the daunting notion of packing keep you from going to see the people you love, even if it’s just for a whirlwind 48 hours. (Me again, have since gotten that second dose of the vaccine, and spent some time with my parents!)
4. I’m going to share my art with others. I’m not totally sure what this means yet. If you’re following me over on instagram (@laughingatleighann, shameless plug), you’ll have seen a couple of painting/process updates over the last year or so, and I’m finally feeling my post-college dread lift enough to share those passions, in some capacity, with others. I originally saw that panning out into an Etsy shop, and it definitely still could, but I feel a lot of fear and pressure associated with that for some reason. I don’t want that fear to rule out sharing this part of me altogether, so if it’s just more consistently posting art on instagram for now, then so be it!
5. I’m striving for a better work/life balance. Please tell me if you’ve been lucky enough to work from home for the past 15 months and can relate to what I’m about to say… At some point, the free time I gained in losing a work commute actually became consumed with thinking about work stuff and literally working through lunch. Something about work being so readily accessible at all times and in my home has really blurred the line between my work life and my real life. I’m even guilty of answering emails and working on projects on nights and weekends, and fam, I’m not getting paid for that. Even more problematic? That mindset is 100% my own doing. I read something around the holidays that really resonated with me and the gist was this: in the workplace, the most respected person in the room isn’t the person who drops everything to do anything, it’s the person who works their ass off 40 hours a week and has the assertion to say no when a project isn’t adding value or shouldn’t take priority over other tasks at hand. Work hard and lounge hard, capeesh? 

I realize it’s probably a weird time to ask if any of you have any resolutions you’d like to share, but I’m asking anyway: what are some of your 2021 goals? 

I hope this long overdue post finds you healthy and happy!

xoxo Leigh Ann