…which is, of course true for every day. However today IS special. This day next year I will be getting married (for the second time) to the mate of my heart and soul (for the first time). We’ve been a couple for seven years now (engaged for one), and he still makes me sigh…and not always with exasperation either.

My future sister-in-law emailed me today to ask my permission if she could host a shower for me next spring or summer. What?! Oh my goddess, that’s right – I am a bride-to-be. At first I thought: Wow, that’s nice! She remembered it is 1 year to the wedding today! Then I thought: Oh, wait. A wedding shower – for someone this old and on her second round? I don’t know…it feels weird. Do people do that?

And then I remembered my mom having a wedding shower thrown for her when she married again after my dad passed away, when SHE WAS 63 YEARS OLD. Hey, I guess people DO do that sort of thing – I guess I can too. And SIL-to-be loves throwing a “do” and she’s very good at it too, so I am kinda looking forward to this.

There’s a lot I want to get done this next year. Some of it I should be doing anyway – and getting married is a lovely impetus, is it not? I am thinking, naturally, of losing weight and getting in shape. Been talkin‘ about losing 30-40 pounds now for about 4-5 years and been giving it a half-hearted effort, with the subsequent half-hearted results. I lose 5-10 pounds, then life gets in the way (don’t it always?) and I lose focus and back they come on again.

I have very valid health reasons to do so, not just to look good in that special dress (which I haven’t picked out yet). Heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and stroke have already affected my younger sisters. I seem to have won the genetic lottery (in my family) so far, but my doc and cardiologist are in wait-n-see mode. So, I believe it’s in me, and I also believe I can avoid or delay it coming out by lifestyle modifications.

Other goals:

Belly Dance – I want to become a better belly dancer this year. This means I am taking the route to Carnegie Hall….practice, practice, practice. In fact today I was practicing my 3/4 shimmy at work while waiting for a timer to go off during a DNA extraction procedure. Thankfully no one entered the lab at the time and thus I avoided hideously embarrassing myself.

Running – I had a goal of running a full-marathon during my 50th year however, since I haven’t lost the weight yet, that goal is looking not so good. I have run a couple of half-marathons, disgustingly slow due to injury or inadequate training (see Life Gets in the Way, Lack of Focus, above) and vowed not to do the full unless in much better/lighter shape. So I think I need to re-evaluate my running goals for this year. More on that later.

De-Clutter – Part of the upcoming co-mingling involves moving from my abode to his. Also renovations and such, but that may be part of The Next Year of My Life: the Post-Wedding Year. I’ve been in this place now for 9 years and that, my friends, means I have accumulated a pile of unnecessary crap. So I plan a room-by-room, show-no-mercy assault on the house. Should be a heck of a garage sale this spring if all goes according to plan.

I think I’ll stop here. I have a tendency to over-reach, become too scattered, too diluted, take on too many projects etc. End result: Lack of focus, thus no goals met. I am by nature a “dabbler”, not a “digger” (thanks Dr. Eydt – I still remember you telling me this and it’s still true today), which means I am not programmed to pursue something single-mindedly for any huge length of time. I also remember my esteemed prof telling me not to despair, for “though the diggers get the Nobel Prizes, the dabblers have all the fun”.

So – this is one dabbler who is determined to have a fun year leading up to her nuptials, AND meet her goals at the same time.