34. Make a habit out of writing in my diary

Every Tuesday and Thursday my phone reminds me to write in my diary.

I'm pretty good at doing it too.

I'm not good at it enough to though to remove it from my todo list.

Still, every week on Tuesday and Thursday, I right about Helen done with Ondrea, each of my kids, and maybe something else going on my life.

It's a good system, it keeps my thoughts in order, and I feel like I'm actually writing down my diary.

33. Wine country with Andrea

A long time ago, I dated a girl that wanted to see Ohio's wine country.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast and spent the weekend doing wine tours and other wine country stuff.

It was pretty cool and fun for two people that weren't really into wine.

My wife is really into wine so I thought it'd be something she'd really enjoy, plus it'd be something that would get her away from the kids for a weekend.

I have not started planning this. This probably would be a good thing for us to do this coming autumn, but I kind of stopped planning a lot of this stuff when cancer happened.

A little more about cancer.

This isn't about a goal; it's more about cancer stuff.

I did chemo this week. (Tuesday; two days ago.) 

Chemo wasn't bad right away. They told me to have a ride home, (which I did,) but I didn't need one. 

I was ok going home, and even grocery shopping. However, mid-grocery shopping, I started to feel ill. (Not like a Beastie Boy. That'd be some sweet chemo.)

I got home and laid down. I felt pretty nauseated, but not the worst. It kept getting worse, and eventually I took Compazine. (A drug that's supposed to stop you from throwing up.) 

It made me feel drunk. 

Not a little drunk. Super drunk. 

Everything was spinning until I closed my eyes, then I started falling. 

Chemo has gone through stages of being only a little bit nauseous, two full on heaving, to be totally fine, to back to throwing up again.

I only had to do one dose of this, and I know so many other cancer patients a gun so many more. I really feel like a wuss with what I'm going through.

If you know anyone is going through chemo, be aware that it sucks. 

***

Quick update.  It's not Saturday.  I've eaten something non-cracker-ish or Gatorade for the first time in three days.  

We went to Max & Erma's for lunch.  

I was really hungry.  

Now I'm nauseated again.  

Yesterday was supposed to be the worst of the nausea so I hope that's true.  

31. Read some Hemingway

More literary madness!

This one is a little different as I've read some stuff by him before.  When I was in high school, I read, A Farewell to Arms; and when I was in college, I read, Hills Like White Elephants.

That said, I'd always ready him under the ausipices of education.  I was always looking for meaning, foreshadowing, and theme.

I want to read it now just to read it.

However, I don't want to do it with Audible.  I actually want to read his book with my eyes, not Audible.  It's for that reason I haven't read it yet.  I'm still reading, Throne of the Cresent Moon, and that's going much slower than I'd like.

In the doctor's office:

It's February 9, I'm still a little sick, but I'm going to get chemo next week. It's one dose. It's a low dose. It's only for one day. 

Then it's done. 

I can put all of this behind me. 

30. Read some Kurt Vonnegut

Another literary one!

I'm not sure why I picked this one. I know I need to read more. I don't read nearly enough. I know not a lot of people read any more, but I thought this is good literature and I could knock it out in a day or two.

I read Cat's Cradle.

I chose that book because they talked about it in the movie, The Recruit. I never would have heard of it otherwise.

Also, I know everyone who reads Kurt Vonnegut reads, Slaughterhouse Five. I wanted to read something different.

However, because I'm lazy, I, "read," it on Audible.

It was pretty good. I think I have greater expectations for literature and I'm disappointed more often than not.

Reading the D&D books is easy and they're fun and rarely very heady. It's easy to be pleasantly surprised when they're good.

Walking into literature creates expectations that tend to get shot down quickly.

There might be a life lesson there.

29. Take Andrea to New England for the leaves

I grew up in New Jersey with a forest behind my house.  It was pretty cool.  My wife has never seen that.  She’s not much a a forestry person in general.

I thought it would be a good vacation for just the parents, but it could also turn into a cool thing to do with kids if they’re a part of it too.

I think the theme of this one, when I wrote it was, "parental getaway," but also ok if kids are a part of it too.

Tri-Fit challenge update

I had a doctor's appointment this week.  (This is actually being written on February 7.)  It was for my annual physical, not one that will update me on cancer stuff.

Still, my doctor told me not to sign up for any big races or events this year.  With getting chemotherapy in the next few weeks, this stuff is pretty much out until my body can get into a kind of shape it's not going to get into this year.  

He told me this right after I told him my idea to do the Tri-Fit challenge.  This also rules out Pelotonia.  

He did say I should keep exercising though; just not in a way that will really punish my body.  

I'm super unhappy.

However, I just found this video, which I might think about when I do start thinking about eating healthy and exercising again.  

28. Figure out your career

This one seems like a no brainer, except I'm not in a dead end job and I make decent money.  I'm not making buy a stranger a Tesla money, but I can afford my house, cars, kids, and whatnot.

That said, I feel like I should be doing something more.

The problem is, I don't know what.

It's a tough goal because I don't really have an image in my mind of how I want it to end.  (Aside from the ability to buy strangers a Tesla.)

Part of me wants to do education.  Part of me wants to do management.

None of me wants to get a masters.  I have the beginnings of one, and it may have just been my program, but a nursing masters isn't really worth the frustration.

27. Triathlon

This is one of those goals like the Tough Mudder or a marathon that's fitness related.  I'm getting older and my body is too.  I wanted to prove I could do this.  

One problem I have now is the cancer thing.  Ohio State has this thing, the TriFit Challenge.  It's a triathlon that's local.  

My biggest concern with this is being able to swim that distance.  Well, it was before stupid cancer.  

I was going to sign up for it this year, (I had planned to have signed up for it already,) but I need to find out what my test results are and what I may need to do with chemo.  

26. Start work on 60 things to do before I turn 60

I wrote this goal when I was running out of ideas for 40 things to do before I turned 40.  

Still, I have this list started.  It's mostly focusing on places to go.  It's also a little depressing as, with the cancer thing I have going, I might be dead before I turn 60.  

Still, here's the goals I have on this list so far.  

1.  See Petra

2.  Have a decent passive income

3.  Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

4.  Kenya with kids

5.  See the aurora borealis

6.  Go to New Zealand

7.  Go to Rome

8.  Go to Paris

9.  See Tuscany

10.  Go to India

I've been enamored with Petra since I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  

#2 is something I really want to accomplish before I turn 40.  I own a condo on Hilton Head Island, SC we rent out. If we rented at capacity, we could make $30,000 a year, after taxes.  We'll probably make about half that, but I'd like to save the money we make, and get a second condo.  If we get a new condo every seven years, we can have four on the island, and make more money than my wife and I make in our real jobs.  

I lived in Kenya for a few months a long time ago.  I want to do this and regret not doing it at the time.  

I want my kids to see Kenya too.  It's possibly where human life started, (or not very far from it.)  There's a ton of human history and culture that impossible to experience anywhere else.  Also, there's poverty Americans can't really understand.  My kids are growing up bratty and privileged and I want to do something to make them realize what they have.  '

The northern lights seem like such a cool thing and I've wanted to see them since I was a kid.  

New Zealand is like Australia, but not deadly.  Also, it's where they filmed Lord of the Rings.  It's super pretty.  

Rome, Paris, and Tuscany, I became excited about because of the Assassin's Creed games and a few podcasts I listen to.  Kind of silly, but they're amazing cities with tons of history that I really want to see.  

India is the home of the oldest civilization on Earth.  I've been told it dirty, and I know it's crowded, but I grew up in a mall in New Jersey so how bad could it be?  Also, I'm part Roma so I want to see where those, (us?) people started out. 

24. Plan a Disney vacation

I'm a dad to two kids.  I want to take my kids to Disney World.  We almost did that this year, but I got cancer and screwed it all up.  

Still, sometime in the next few years, I want to take my kids to Disney World.  

23. Become proficient in an instrument

When I was little, I saw how my brother could play piano and guitar, and being about a decade younger, I kind of worshipped him.

I begged my mom for years for them to let me take piano lessons.  

I stopped begging in middle school because I discovered videogames.  (You thought I was going to say, "girls."  Ha!  I was a nerd.)

Then, in eighth grade, my mom found me a piano teacher.  

I took piano, but wasn't as excited about it.  I learned to play a few songs, and got pretty good for someone only taking two years worth of lessons, but it wasn't really my thing.  

Now, for some reason, I got it in my head to want to learn to play piano again.  

Thanks to the internet, you can download sheet music for free.  (Just Google, "[song name] piano sheet music.")  There are tons of lessons you can read and YouTube videos you can watch.  

I bought a keyboard off Amazon, (it's only got like fifty-something keys, not eighty-eight, but it's good enough to practice one,) and have it set up in my basement.  

Every Tuesday and Thursday, (same as lock picking and diary writing,) my phone has a reminded and an alarm telling me to practice the piano.  

Sometimes I half ass it, and just run though a few scales, and I'm not throwing my whole weight behind it, but I do tend to practice about 15-20 minutes.  Granted, that's only 30 minutes a week, but it's enough where I'm slowly improving.  It's also an amount of time I can easily stop cleaning the basement for a minute, sit at the piano for a while, and not feel like I'm blowing off something important.