April Review (Month 4 of Quests)

April 2016 Questing Report

Quests Completed

Quest # 15: House Work - Boss Battle 1
We finished the renovations to the upstairs bathroom! It's so clean, bright, and beautiful now! It just needs a little decorating, and it's absolutely adorable.

Quests-in-Progress

Quest # 1: Biographies

April was The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, which was about love, sexuality, expression, motherhood, and thoughts on gender, as Maggie contemplates parts of her life as if talking to her spouse. Nelson was very intelligent, philosophical, and really helped me think of this topic from a different viewpoint. Because I don't generally read much anymore - let alone read academic level writing - I'd like to read this book again. I'm not sure I understood everything she was trying to convey. It would make an interesting book club read, as long as you had a group of people willing to talk deeply about sex, sexuality, and gender.

Quest # 2: Finances

Commission is going pretty well so far... mostly because I've had so much work coming through that I've been spending the night at the office and coming in on weekends trying to get the reports done on time. My cash amount in the bank is now back up to what it was my first year of living in Korea. My debt is still exponentially higher. But, if I can keep up this pace, perhaps I'll have made a decent dent in things by the end of the summer.

Quest # 3: Tithing
Spacy McSpacerson. I had planned to donate to the non-profit my friend works for, Rebuilding Together. So... that'll be added to my May tithing. Along with, again, making up for a lack of volunteering.


Quest #5: Performance
I went to see Felicia Day at her book signing! (Yes, I'm totally counting this as a performance. She was on a stage, answering questions). This month has been so celebrity-filled: I got to meet Felicia Day, and I got to see Sam Heughan (Jamie Frasier in the Outlander series). Felicia Day was so brave, cool, funny, thoughtful, and positive. I kept thinking (for both actors, really, just change the pronoun) "She's real?! She's a real human?! Look, she has a real human body! Not just a moving picture you see on a screen all the time! She's 3D and everything?! I totally fangirled.

Quest # 11: Photography
Got some portrait experience in during the Tea Party! Yay! A place where people are totally ok (or mostly ok) with me sticking a lens in their faces (sometimes literally).

Help! I've grown too big for my tea!

Quest #12: Utilize Pinterest
Basically, the entire Tea Party was based on Pinterest ideas we wanted to try. "Planning the tea party," was basically code for laying around the living room sharing what was on our Pinterest boards, and then quietly Pinteresting together the rest of the evening, occasionally perking up with a "How about something like this...?"

Quest # 13: Garden

I now have a little two-plant herb garden on my deck (sage and mint), and a fairly healthy tomato plant (small but mighty!), and some pea vines curling up the cage I stuck in there with them. It may be little...but it's staying healthy (for now?). I'll be so happy and grateful if they last the summer).

Quest # 16: Job Work

Another month faster, yet remaining sloppy. I did do one report very well apparently... but then the next one... I was so sleep deprived I accidentally sent the bank the rough draft of the report, not the final draft. Whoops! I got lucky and had a super kind reviewer though. I think she just thought I didn't have a diligent boss, since she took a teachery approach to showing me what needed to be fixed (most of which my boss had actually corrected already in the final draft).

Our office manager brings me flowers. Them and my Funko Pop characters keep me from raging. Keep the beastie docile...

My cot...so I may work 'til I drop and get started all the earlier the next day.

Quest # 18: Exercise

What is this "ex-er-size" you speak of?? I have a race this next week, the first week of May. Haven't. Done. A. Damn. Thing. To. Prepare.
At least my knee should make it. It's just a 5k though, right? That's like, the one everyone can run..... ... right? I know I need to make time to exercise, but right now I really need All of The Time to get my reports done.

Quest # 20: Meal Plan

::musical interlude:: I dream a dream of meals gone byyyyyyy....

Quest # 24: Floss

The one constant on this list. If there is but one healthy thing I shall succeed in...

Quest # 26: Friends

New Yooooooork! My friend and boss from my life in Korea came to New York City,  and it was fantastic to see her again. We had a mini-reunion for us East Coast friends. Being in a big city like that again, it really felt like we could have been Anywhere, World. I
t was heavenly. I was floating on Cloud 9, grinning pretty much non-stop. We stayed in Harlem, went bouldering at a club in Brooklyn, saw men(and women) parading in kilts in Midtown/Manhattan (Sam Heughan, my Jamie!), drank expensive bottles of sake, danced our hearts out at a jazz club until it closed for the night, ate some shawarma (why did I put the crazy hot sauce on it?? You're the one crying, not me... T-T), and ended the night in a swanky back room of a bar that distilled their own vodka for their lemon-vodka martinis.

Hello NYC!

There appears to be a Whovian in Brooklyn..

What do you do when your friend comes in from Korea?? Japanese food?! T-T Good times.

Beautiful Spring flowers!

Sam Heughan! What a trooper, cheering the Scottish pipe and drum bands on through 40-degree, raining weather.

Quest #27: Family

How was this not on my list before? Maybe for lack of concrete actions to take... I have a lot of quests already on my list that don't have concrete goals. I'll try to add goals for this one... This first one has been to help plan and host a tea party at my brother and his wife's house. It was a blast! This is our second year for it, so we had a few more people, and bit more decorations. Got to practice some photography skills during it too, which was great.

Coming up next:

Quest # 1: Biographies

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day. For a bonus, "Amazing Fantastic Incredible, A Marvelous Memoir" by Stan Lee (it's in comic book form. Yasssss).

Quest # 13: Garden
Don't let the garden die!

Quest # 15: House Work - deck remodel.
I think Tim and I will be able to finish the deck this month... As long as the weather and our schedules allow for it.

Quest #19: Live Active
I'm participating in a race on Free Comic Book Day (May 7th)! It's a 5k, and I'm not quite prepared. Everyone is running in costumes, so, I also need to finish preparing for that. My sister-in-law is going as Wonder Woman, and I have part of a costume (so far) to be the Tardis (Dr. Who).


and... continue with the above Quests-in-Progress!

KJets