Tag Archives: New Years

Weekly Check-In

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! It is that time in the week that I do my weekly check-in. I know it has been a few weeks since I have done a weekly check-in and I hope you can forgive me for not doing one. I do not have an excuse for not doing one and I am not using the holidays as an excuse.

As all of you know this past week we had New Years Day. I watched the drone and firework show that was held at the Space Needle. I stayed home and watched on television so I didn’t have to be out in the cold with a bunch of strangers. I was at home in my pajamas with my cat, Billie bringing in the New Year watching an awesome firework and drone show that was at the Space Needle. I enjoyed it and I am grateful that I was at home with my cat, Billie.

New Years is also a time when people reflect on their lives and how they can change in a positive way. I do this throughout the year and New Years is just a good reminder to do that reflections are a good thing to improve myself.

One of the ways I am wanting to improve myself is to continue to go to therapy. In fact I went on Thursday for an appointment with my therapist. We discussed how I can deal with some uncomfortable emotions like anxiety and anger. We discussed how writing down my feelings can be helpful which reminded me to show her the journal I bought myself for Christmas. She liked the fact that I already had the idea of writing down my emotions as well as thinking that my journal is pretty. She also thinks that writing down my feelings especially my anger is a form of harm reduction. She thinks this due to the fact that I tend to stuff my anger and then emotionally explode by screaming and yelling when I’ve had the last straw when something makes me angry. So my therapist thinks writing when I am angry is a good thing and she suggested that afterwards to reach out to a trusted natural support person. I really like the idea of reaching out to a friend after writing about my anger.

I do not have anything else to discuss or write about in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader continuing to read my blog, I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Daily Prompt; How Do You Plan Your Goals?

Posted on by Gertie
Daily writing prompt
How do you plan your goals?
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For me planning my goals is something I continuously evaluate and reevaluate as sometimes your goals need to change. Also, goals can be accomplished and for me when this happens, I tend to add another goal or two. I also use SMART goals. SMART goals are Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-based. So for me goals are forever changing as well as being accomplished if done correctly.

Daily Prompt; What’s Your Favorite Month Of The Year? Why?

Posted on by Gertie
Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite month of the year? Why?
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If I have to pick a favorite month of the year, I would say it would be January. The reason, I say January is because it is a reminder for me and many others that you can start over. I know you don’t have to start over in January but it is a good reminder on what you want to focus on for your life. I reevaluate multiple times a year on how I want my life to be. Sometimes I completely change my goals while other times I barely tweak my goals.

Goodbye 2024 & Hello 2025

Posted on by Gertie

Happy New Year, World!!! I am so happy to say goodbye to 2024 and hello to 2025. We are just over an hour and a half into the New Year here in Seattle and so far 2025 has been a good year. Granted it only has been an hour and half and I can only hope this year continues to be a good year.

I watched the firework and drone show that was put on at the Seattle Space Needle here at home in my pajamas with my cat, Billie in my lap snoring as he slept. I loved the drone and firework show that was done at the Space Needle and I am extremely impressed by it.

I am extremely hopeful for this year and what it has to bring. I am hoping that I will be able to get a job this year as I had quit my last job in early January of last year (2024). I had to quit for various reasons and the main reason was due to the fact that my mental health was starting to decline and I needed to focus on my mental health. For me I need to practice what I preach when I work as a peer specialist which means if I need to not work to focus on my mental health then that is what I need to do as my recovery is one of the most important things in my life.

One of the things I am looking forward to is that I will be starting the process with being a volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium. I will be doing an online orientation then an interview. I signed up to be a volunteer summer of last year (2024) but sadly the three volunteer positions I applied for were full. Now I will be doing orientation for two of the positions as well as an interview for two of them. Sadly, the third volunteer position is full and I am on the wait-list but I am okay with that.

Also this year marks five years since I started volunteering at PAWS Cat City. In fact my five year anniversary of my first shift at Cat City is Tuesday, January 7th. I really enjoy volunteering at Cat City and I am happy that I started the process when my last cat, Lil Gertie got a cancer diagnosis and continued the process when she crossed the rainbow bridge due to a mini stroke on Thanksgiving Day of 2019 along with the cancer. It was and still is one of the best decisions I have made in my life.

I do not have anything else to write about in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you the reader for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Happy New Year and Peace Out, World!!!

New Years Eve 2024

Posted on by Gertie

Happy New Years Eve, World!!! It is New Years Eve 2024 here in Seattle and I really hope 2025 will be better for me. It may still be 2024 here in Seattle but in places like Australia it is already 2025 and I hope they had fun bringing the New Year. As far as Seattle goes, the Seattle Space Needle will have fireworks as well as having a drone show. The drone show will be every thirty minutes starting at 10:00pm and the firework show will start about a minute before midnight to countdown to the New Year and last until 12:09am. The drone show is new this year. I have gone to the Space Needle in the past years but not in the last few years.

In fact, I will be bringing in the New Year at home with my cat, Billie as we watch the firework show from the Space Needle on television. Sometimes spending New Years at home with your pets at home in your pajamas is the best way to bring in the New Year. Or at least it is for me. There is nothing like spending quality time with my cat, Billie especially on special days like bringing in the New Year.

I don’t have much more to write about in this particular blog post. I want to thank you the reader for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader reading my blog, I would not continue to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Happy New Years, World!!!

A New Years Update

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! Happy New Year!!! It has been awhile since I last blogged. Some pretty major things have happened since I last blogged. Well, technically just one major thing has happened and surprisingly I am more relieved than I thought I would be. So, this past Thursday (January 4, 2024) was my last day at work. I would be lying if I said if I didn’t miss aspects of my job because I do. I miss the majority of my colleagues and all of my clients but I am so happy that I am no longer walking on eggshells around the direct supervisors on the team I worked on.

On that note, I had therapy yesterday and my therapist is just as thrilled as I am about my previous job. We not only discussed the job situation but my New Year’s goals for 2024 as well as my hopes for the year. We both agree that both hopes and goals will change or need some adjusting as the year goes on and will work on them throughout the year. We also discussed how challenging last year was despite a good start to last year.

Since it is the start of the New Year, I am hoping to restart blogging on a regular basis. This includes the Weekly Plans on Sunday mornings, Hump Day Updates on Wednesday evenings, Caturday with Billie (the Kat) featuring pictures of my cat on Saturday mornings and Weekly Check-In on Saturday evenings. Of course I will be doing other posts as well. I will be starting all this tomorrow (Sunday) with Weekly Plans.

I do not have much more to write about in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog as it is greatly appreciated that you read my blog. If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be writing my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Weekly Check-In

Posted on by Gertie

Hello, World!!! This week has been quite a week. This week started out with starting a New Year, so Happy 2023 everyone. I didn’t do much on New Years Day. I did watch the fireworks shooting off the Space Needle on television. They were okay but I’ve seen better.

On that note this has been quite busy. Mainly, due to starting a new job as a peer specialist (counselor) at a former employer this past Wednesday. I am happy to back at this employ. I am even more thrilled to be on a team that reaches out to the most vulnerable of the vulnerable in my community. My supervisor is awesome and very helpful. I really do think I am going enjoy my new job most days.

As for today, I volunteered at PAWS Cat City late this afternoon into early evening. I really enjoyed it. We only had two cats who are a bonded pair. So mainly my shift consisted of cleaning which I don’t mind doing. I also got to play with the kitties. In fact today is exactly three years since I did my first shift at PAWS Cat City which is why I signed up for a shift today. I do my regular shift tomorrow morning.

I do not have much more to say in this particular blog post. I would like to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciative from my end of thing that you do read my blog. If it wasn’t for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be writing my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

New Years Goals for 2023

Posted on by Gertie

Happy New Years, World!!! I realize it has been a while since I last wrote on my blog. I apologize for not keeping you all up to date on things. It is surprising how fast 2022 flew by and how well my mental health did last year especially with how challenging some things were for me. I started last year with having Covid-19 which sucked. I also got laid off from a job I loved which also sucked. The suckiest part of last year was finding out that my mom has stage-3 lung cancer. On that note, I also had some successes. Successes so very small but added up to make 2023 an overall good year.

A good year that was helped by making New Years goals. Goals that get re-evaluated every two to three months. When I also re-evaluate goals I also add goals if I have completed. In fact, I am going to share with you my goals for this year. My goals for this year are

  1. Clean apartment and keep it clean.
  2. Read six books.
  3. Color six pictures and one poster.
  4. Paint two paint by numbers paintings.
  5. Start and complete two workbooks regarding my mental health recovery.
  6. Continue volunteering at PAWS Cat City.
  7. Blog an average of three times a week.

I have more goals than listed but some are a little bit personal to share on the internet. I am grateful to have goals and to work on myself and recovery.

I do not have much more to say in this particular blog post. I would like to thank you for reading my blog. If it wasn’t for you reading my blog, I would not be writing my blog. Again, thank you for reading my blog. Peace Out and Happy New Years, World!!!

The Holidays are Upon Us

Posted on by Gertie

Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate Hanukkah. To those who may not be aware, this evening (December 18th) starts the first night of Hanukkah. No, I am not Jewish but I do celebrate it with friends who ask me to. This year I am spending four nights celebrating with friends who have asked me to help with their tradition. The evening of today, December 18th starts Hanukkah and ends the evening of Monday, December 26th.

The Yule are celebrated by Pagans with very many types of traditions. I am not Pagan but this is the holiday I personally prefer to celebrate in my own way. This year Yule starts December 21st and ends January 1st.

The next holiday to be celebrated is Christmas Day which is December 25th. Some in the Christian faith also celebrate it the evening of December 24th. Yes, this is the Christian holiday.

The cool thing I am finding is all three religions will be celebrating the same day which is December 25th. Don’t you all think it is pretty awesome. I know I do. This has me curious so the next time this happens will be in 2024. In the year 2024 I plan to celebrate all three holidays with friends, family and myself.

As far as New Year’s I celebrate that as my own holiday. I spend it with my cat Billie, watching movies and sleeping all day.

I do not have much more to say except I hope there is no snow in Seattle I will tell you more in a later post. Peace Out, World and go celebrate your faith.

2022 Goals (Part 3)

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! It is 6:03am in the morning in my corner of the world here in Seattle. I have been coming up with some more goals I know that I can accomplish by the end of the year or hopefully make some small accomplishments with the goals.

One of the goals I want to focus on this year is self care. Self care can look differently to different people at different times. One of my self care goals is to get my hair cut and/or died twice this year. Getting a hair cut make me feel getter about myself.

Another self care goal which is also goal of my mine is to do my chores a on a more regular basis. Like actually get my apartment completely cleaned and declutter the stuff I do not need any more. I plan on having a schedule to do chores around my apartment at least three times a week. As far as the chores, I think cleaning my apartment will help with my depression.

As far as self help stuff, I plan on doing some self help workbooks to help with my healing and recovery. Workbooks tend to help me along with attending therapy session with my therapist. The more help I can get the more recovery I can gain to be able to help the people I help at work with.

I am also planning on attending a 12-step meeting that has the twelve step concepts in it as well as can have peer recovery language in it. It focus on the self and how to realize that you don’t need to fix the person with the problem that you just need to focuses on that you need to change yourself. It has pit of other 12step programs in it which makes it more center to being a better peer and had peer recovery language in the particular 12step program which is why I like it is so much. So far I still have more goals but wanted to let you know part three of my goals.

And of course taking care of my cat, Billie Dean will always be a goal. He is my baby and my life and I love him to death. I’m sure he loves me back. I love my cuddle but of a cat.

I don’t have much to say in the particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be writing my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!