Red Letter Year

It's a little late for a New Year's post, but I've been extra special busy this year.

Expect blog posts to be infrequent from now on. You know why? I don't have cancer anymore. It seems weird to continue to keep writing about it.

So, a few weeks back I noticed a lot of red around me. I have a beautiful set of mittens and a scarf in matching red that Jocelyn knit me. I also recently knit my first project - a red hat with red beads. My sister-in-law gave me a red handbag for Christmas that I absolutely love and use every day. And then there was the new Ani DiFranco CD I recently bought, Red Letter Year. I've decided that this will be my Red Letter Year.

Red is the new Pink. Pink is so last year. Red is an amped-up version of Pink. Pink is for breast cancer and Red is for not breast cancer. Pink will always be special to me, but I'm happy with Red.

When I was celebrating the New Year in Chicago this year, I also felt like I was celebrating my new year. It's my year. It's my year to be able to take control of my life and move past cancer. I no longer feel like a cancer patient. I just feel normal. Sure, I wish my hair was longer. I wish I had real boobs. I wish I could do a Chattarunga in yoga class (I can't because I should never lift my body weight with my arms... ever again). But these things will get easier over time, and there are so many other things I can do, that it really doesn't make sense to waste time thinking about what I can't.

So, what have I decided to do for my Red Letter Year? In no particular order, these are the things I want to accomplish:

- Get "real boobs". Well, real fake ones, at least.
- Use my passport for the first time. Rusty and I are planning to go to Jamaica in December.
- Lose my financial advisor poundage (and more), and wear a bikini for the first time in my life (in Jamaica). I'm half way there. I can see cheekbones for the first time in a looong time :-)
- Run the Chicago Marathon on October 11, 2009. Rusty and I are currently training for this.

These things are not New Years resolutions. You know... the things you say you're going to do in the first week of January but forget about by Groundhog Day. Aside from the boobs, these are things I always wanted to do. But I've come to realize that goals don't happen to you (cancer, on the other hand, happens to you). Goals never really meant much to me until recently, but now I get it. Goals are things that you have to really really believe in - something you are compelled to do. They have to be your own, or you won't be willing to put in the hard work and effort it takes to meet them.

Anyway, what are your goals? Is this your Red Letter Year?