Update on Quest's Progress: 1st Month

The road to Hell may or may not be paved with good intentions, but my Quest's path certainly is (hopefully it is leading me to a slightly better place--and one with a better climate since I'm not crazy about hot weather!).

I've made some progress on my three goals:

1. Cleaning my Office: I removed all paperwork and other obstacles from the floor (but some of it is still on my dining room table because I don't know what to do with it). The reason things make it to stacks in the office is because these things don't have a real home. A place for everything and everything in its place! I don't fulfill either of those two dictates. The office is better but some of it has simply migrated so this task can't be called complete yet.

2. Writing my Novel: Less progress to report here, mostly because I told myself that I'd do a bunch of house cleaning and organizing BEFORE writing. If this is my most important goal, I need to learn not to place obstacles in front of it.

3. Volunteer work: I did get a lot done for both of the nonprofits I volunteer with during this month. One of them had a big event in April which I did a lot of work on for them. I enjoyed myself and it was nice to have more time to devote to these tasks. I still have some paperwork and other planning for them which I need to organized so I didn't complete everything I wanted to, but my theme was about "Get Things Started" so I think this qualifies.

As for my list of 41 Things to Do Before I Am 42:

I can mark as completed--
32. Dress in a costume in public (I've done this before; I want to do again)

This was a bit of a cheat because I actually do this several times a year for historical reenacting. I knew I had events coming up. My intent when I wrote this was to have a new costume and do something a bit more than usual. Still, I did go out in costume (and people took pictures of me) and I had some new parts to my costume, so technically, this is completed.

The rest of my list isn't a cheat and will take a little longer to accomplish. I'm working on some of them soon (including making eggrolls--I bought the ingredients and plan on doing them this week).

Meanwhile, I think I can sort of claim victory on these:
30. Get a few readers on this blog (and have a few of them comment kindly)
31. Try a new hairstyle

I have had some readers stop by and two of you have left comments on some of my posts. Thank you for the feedback! That is very kind of you. This blog is such a personal quest, I wasn't sure anyone would find it worth reading or commenting on so I really appreciated your thoughts. It is weird to write into the ether like this and find strangers who are willing to be friends. :)

I also was given a pretty hair barrette (not in a style I usually wear) and I've worn it several times now. It isn't a drastic new hairstyle, by any means, but it was a small departure from my usual style, so it will count for now. I can decide if I want to pursue more drastic hairstyles or costume opportunities later.

For now, let's count 3 of my 41 things as complete!

I call this first month a (qualified) success. After all, I'm still here and trying to figure out my life. Better, I had a job interview for something I'd actually like to do so that is a hopeful sign that things might turn around for me.

Starting on April 28 (today), the second month of my quest begins. I've decided that my theme will be "Get to What Matters" and my goal will be to concentrate on the two or three things which matter the most to me: my goal to write a novel, my volunteer work, and applying for jobs. I will keep it simple--as much as possible--and figure that if I can keep up with my normal schedule of volunteer work, get some job applications in, and spend time every week writing my novel, this month is a success. Anything I manage to do on top of those things is bonus!

Photo from Koalazymonkey's Flikr Photostream