New Year’s 2022: So, Nu?

Happy 2022! This year was another weird one. Despite everything, I still like making lists! And checking things off them! (Or not.) So, without further ado, here’s the update of last year’s list:

1. How to deadlift 200+ lb.

At the end of July, after weighing (no pun intended) my pandemic situation, I decided that I felt comfortable using the all-gender room at the gym. I was pleased to discover that I could indeed lift 200lb on my first deadlift day. I like feeling strong! (But I also like having good form for every set, so I reduced the weight I lift for reps by about 10-15lbs…)

2. How to squat 100+ lb.

The all-gender room has a squat rack too, and I did one set at 100lb my first day back. I felt like I’d been struggling to challenge myself with squat exercises throughout the pandemic, so I was happy to realize that I’d underestimated my growth.

I did learn quickly that, though I could do at least one rep of 100lb, trying to make it my regular weight for every set was an ego lift. I toned it way down until I could keep my form consistent.

3. How to do at least one chin-up and one wide-grip pull-up with full arm extension at the bottom.

When I was having trouble working out regularly before/during/after getting COVID (so yeah, that happened), I decided to take it bite-sized: one chin-up, one push-up, and one wide-grip pull-up each day.

To my surprise and delight, by June, I could do a chin-up from a dead hang.

My wide-grip pull-up has definitely improved over the year, and I’ve managed a couple at full extension at the gym with the pull-up bar that’s way taller than my reach, but I’m still not quite at dead-hang-every-time levels yet.

4. How to finish both novel MSs I was working on through 2020.

I finally finished the first draft of the really tough ah-hair-pulling-out one in early June. Then I went hard and finished the revision of the other that I’d been working on a couple weeks later. Woo hoo!

… Unfortunately, it turns out the second one was actually a novella, and I needed to cut about 10K words and completely revise with a different intended audience. So it goes!

5. How to keep driving places I need to go.

This is still tough, but I’ve been working on it. One weekend, Husband realized at the last minute that he didn’t feel up to getting the groceries, so, without my typical exhausting rounds of trepidation and mental preparation, I had to hop in the car and pick them up myself. Another weekend, I noticed that I wouldn’t have time to go get a clothing order from the mall over the week and that the weather’s effect on my asthma made it a bad idea to walk there, so I’d just have to drive there that morning.

I don’t feel good getting behind the wheel of a car, especially not when there are other drivers around, but I guess that’s why I made this goal about what I do and not what I feel. There are plenty of times when it would be more convenient for me and/or for Husband if I just drove myself places, but I don’t. So this isn’t something I feel right crossing off, exactly, but I’m still progressing.

6. Enough tae kwon do to (re-)earn my orange belt.

Did you know you can just, like, buy whatever belt you want from a martial-arts supply store?

j/k–I mean, I did buy belts myself, because that’s how online tae kwon do school works, but I earned them first. It took me longer than I anticipated, in part due to health challenges that kept popping up for weeks in a row, and in part because–well, I’m not sure if I remember tae kwon do being easier because I was more flexible as a kid, because my former instructors’ standard was lower, or both, but these online classes have a level of rigour that challenges me more than I expected (in a good way).

I passed my white belt test (in this school, you have to earn your white belt first) in April, and I finally recorded and submitted my yellow belt test at the very end of the year. Fingers crossed for good results!

I have yet to start the orange belt material, but I’m enjoying learning and ready to roll. Maybe I can even surpass my childhood self and go for green!

7. How to revise and submit the short story I already wrote.

To my surprise, I… actually still really liked this draft, despite scribbling it a few years ago and then ignoring it for the rest of time.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from procrastinating over it forever. I started sending it out in early August, though, so I can check this one off the list!

8. How to write at least one new short story.

Instead of working on this, for a while I just revised old short stories I’d written and wanted to take another crack at. Then/also concurrently, I revised a novella. Finally, with only a few days left at the end of the year, I realized that maybe it was time to actually give my new story ideas a try?

… And then I realized I needed to prioritize resting and recharging, and wanting to meet the arbitrary time limit I set myself last New Year’s wasn’t a good reason to ignore that. Go healthy limits!

Anyway, I’ve got several outline/ideas “on deck” for 2022.

9. Enough Spanish to pass an online level A1 test.

By the end of August, I was 1/22 questions away from passing the A1 test (80% is a passing grade), and I felt kind of annoyed because the questions I’d missed were equally simple stuff that my sequence of lessons decided to do later instead of other stuff they prioritized. In November, after completing the Duolingo lessons about gerunds, I re-took another online test and easily passed. So, hooray!

10. Enough German to understand most of what I hear on Tatort instead of just the general gist.

In January, Duolingo updated its German course with a whole ton of new lessons, which meant my precious completion trophy was obviously no longer valid. That, combined with the heavy winter semester workload, left me no choice but to focus on flashcard-style Duolingo content for the first half of the year. Obviously.

As you can see from #4, I finally slowed my roll on writing stuff by July, so I decided to take some of the extra time to… not go any further in depth in my German lessons. But by the Fall semester, I was watching one episode of Tatort over the course of a week. I do understand a lot of what I hear, but I’m not sure I would if not for the subtitles. I know my reading skills are stronger than my listening skills (… just generally, but also in German). Sometimes, I can understand well enough to know that the subtitles aren’t strictly accurate to what was said, but I’d be lying if I said I’d be able to follow as easily without them.

Here are some things I want to learn in 2022:

1. Enough German to understand most of what I hear on Tatort instead of just the general gist… without subtitles.

2. Enough Spanish to get at least 60% on an online level A2-ish test. I don’t think I can learn enough Spanish to pass in just a year when I’m more focussed on German. But I think I can do better next year than I did this year!

3. Enough Arabic to pass an online beginner-level Arabic test. A1? Something similar? I learned this year (see above re: Spanish) that online placement tests don’t always use the letter system, so I don’t want to limit myself. Basically, I know some letters from my start this year; I’d like to be able to sound out written words and use simple phrases.

4. Enough tae kwon do to (re-)earn my orange belt. For real this year!

5. What my next major writing project is. As I was putting together this list, I realized that after the draft of my new novella, I have… nothing in mind. I mean, part of my writing schedule depends on whether any of my work sells etc., but for the first time in a while, I don’t know what big project I want to work on next. In the meantime, I have plenty of smaller projects to set my mind to, and, hopefully by this time next year, I’ll have a better idea of what’s next!

6. Whether this blog is still right for me. The longer I run this blog, the more time I take between posts. I like writing journal entries and putting my thoughts together, but I’m not sure how much I enjoy doing it for a schedule or posting it publicly to the Internet anymore. I know that part of that is my shun-all-social-interaction instincts and not necessarily what would actually be best for me, but, on the other hand, quitting most social media made me a lot happier, and maybe so would figuring out a gentler, less-public way to write through my thoughts.

7. Whether I can write a short story per month. Or so, not counting months when I am working on a longer writing project and/or on vacation.

8. How to deadlift 225 lb. (aka two 45-lb plates on each side of the bar) (aka I am considering not the actual amount of weight and whether it’s a reasonable increase from my current max but how badass I will feel)

9. How to do 1 dip (at a dip station). Practice makes perfect.

10. How to carve/whittle something out of soapstone or wood. It seems like it could be fun! I’ve only cut my fingers, uh, a non-zero number of times over the past months doing normal everyday tasks–pssshhh, this won’t make it worse!