My head hurts a little and I have that feeling I get when I'm tweezing my eyebrows.  Do you know what I mean?  I sort of find myself holding my breath; I may feel a little nauseous.  Concentrating intently on very precise movement (such as the tweezing of brows) does that to me.  Really, I should just go to the salon and have them waxed.  One of my new goals is going to be to make it to the beauty shop more than twice a year.  I'm intrigued by moms who manage to have regular salon visits.  That's such a foreign concept to me.  I'm also intrigued by moms whose homes are spotless and who whose cars are always clean.  Based on this criteria, I'm pretty certain no one is intrigued by me!

So, goal #1 is go to the beauty shop.  Goal #2 (why in the world am I setting these new goals in mid-April?  This is generally something I do in January at the beginning of the calendar year or August, the beginning of the school year) is write.  Write.  Write a lot.  Write here; write privately; write reflectively; write some fiction.  To really solidify my commitment to this goal, I checked out  2011 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market from my local library.  Just perusing the contents of this book is inspiring.  See, the thing is, I have all these stories in my head.  I'll often just have ideas popping around in there that I know I should write down, but I don't.  I'm nervous about this goal to write more, to write differently than I've done in the past.  I'll have share more about the process I'm going through later, but over the past year, year and a half, I've received quite a lot of really meaningful encouragement in terms of the writing I do share with others -- be it here or just through Facebook statuses.  I'm blessed by sweet friends who send me encouraging messages that let me know they like what I have to say and how I say it.  I'm also grateful for many more things:

126.  The tongue and its super-fast, almost magical, ability to heal

127.  Sweet, sentimental, special texts from my man

128.  Irises in bloom -- in purple bearded glory -- and the legacy of my grandparents gardens

129.  Moth balls in the yard (to repel snakes)

130.  A pseudo-compliment from my 13 year old, "It looks better than it usually does." (referring to my hair)

131.  Laughter, laughter, laughter

132.  Staying up late, all by myself

133.  A good movie, all by myself

134.  Lunch with friends in a real restaraunt, on a real weekday, like people who have "real" jobs

135.  Sonic Happy Hour

136.  Grace, undeserved and freely given

137.  Bare feet on the sidewalk in spring

138.  My Japanese maple

139.  Libraries

140.  Extra strenth Tylenol (2, please)