2018, by the numbers

Yet another one of these. I like them. :-) Not all of these may be totally accurate. But... hopefully at least in the ballpark

Traveling:
Miles driven in my car: 22,262
States lived in: 1
States lived in/been in (including airports): 3 
States lived in/been in (not including airports): 3 
Airports been in: 3
Countries visited/lived in: 1
Round-trip plane trips: 2
Amusement parks visited: 1
Nights away from home: 25 

Work: 
Jobs held: 1

States where I am an LCSW: 1
CEUs completed: 40.5

Personal:
First dates went on: 1 
Second dates: 0
Books read: 57
Places lived in: 1
Wards member of: 1
Roommates had: 0 (2 if you count my parents)
Cars driven: 4
Blogs posted: 4
Friends on Facebook: 379
Calligraphy classes taken: 1 
Wedding receptions attended: 4

Physical:
Massages received: 5 

Races run: 15
Run/walk miles logged in RunKeeper: 243.4
Difference in weight from highest to lowest: 22.6 pounds 
Haircuts: 3 

Entertainment:
Restaurants visited/ordered from: 142

Times went out/ordered/got food from restaurants: 206
Movies watched: 15 

Plays/musicals attended: 7 
Concerts attended: 6

Spiritual/church:
Callings held: 1
Blessings (including setting aparts) received: 6
Temples/temple grounds visited: 4
Live sealings attended: 2 

101 List:

101 list goals completed: 11

101 list goals in progress: 12

Year in Review- bulleted list

I’ve had a tradition of doing “My Year in Facebook Statuses” as a year-in-review blog post, but...I really didn’t post that many statuses this year. Facebook was more of a way for me to post pictures from the races I did and to keep up with friends’ lives. I’m not even using Facebook that often anymore the past couple of months. So I decided to just do a bulleted list of things that happened. Facebook did at least help me remember some of them, though my calendar also filled in a lot.

January

• St. George Half Marathon and long MLK weekend in St. George 
• Got LASIK 
• Started Salt Lake City Track Club Winter Series 

February

• Found a therapist in Utah to go to 
• Al Carraway gave an awesome devotional at work. My takeaway: "Hard times will always be there. But so will Christ." 
• Last race of the Salt Lake City Track Club Winter Series and I won a raffle prize ($25 gift card to Cafe Rio) 
• Went to Encircle for the first time 

March

• Weekend in St. George to visit Madi, where she introduced me to women’s professional soccer by having me watch a U.S. Women’s team game 
• Alan Menken at BYU 
• Game night at Heather’s, which helped to start a great friendship 
• My baby sister turned 20! 
• North Star Conference 
• Messiah MoTab concert 
• Did the Playworks Utah's Race to Reduce Bullying 5K with Sara 

April

• Jordan River Temple Open House with family 
• Started six week fitness challenge
• Went to a Salt Lake City Bee’s game briefly, but then it was pouring rain and we left 
• Did a race every weekend for a month--Emigration Canyon 10 Miler, Girl Scout Cookie Chaser 2K and 5K, Salt Lake City 10K, Tulip Festival 5K 
• First Utah Royals home game
• Blind date with a guy to Temple Square 
• Roommate reunion with Sara, Julie, and Aleisha 

May

• Hamilton 
• Spamilton 
• Finished the 6 week fitness challenge, down 9.4 pounds and 3.3% body fat. Though I’ve continued working out at the same place. Who would’ve thought I actually kinda like weightlifting? 
• Ogden Half Marathon. Gorgeous race, got a PR, and had fun seeing Boise Galloway friends 
• Lagoon with some Boise friends 
• Grassroots Shakespeare Festival with Sara and Garrett and Julie 

June

• Utah Pride with Madi, then the parade the next day with Madi and Jess 
• U.S. National Women’s Soccer team friendly game at Rio Tinto vs. China 
• Drop 13 Half Marathon and got another PR and all three race medals (one for finishing, one for getting a PR, and one for dropping 13 pounds while training). 
• Went to Baltimore for a work conference. I really enjoyed hanging out at the Inner Harbor each day after the conference. 
• Started house hunting 

July

• Hobbler Half with Alma. Such a hard half--so insanely hot. 
• Pentatonix concert 
• Affirmation Conference 
• Love Loud concert 

August

• Hit 100000 miles on my car. 
• Saw the play Aubrey was in (Thoroughly Modern Millie) 
• Bubble Run with Sara and Garrett and Kelly 
• My golden birthday 

September

• One year anniversary at my job 
• Did the Moonlight Half and finished my race a month for a year goal 
• Waitress 

October

• Amazing work conference in New Orleans 
• Josh Groban/Idina Menzel concert 
• Lore at BYU with Sarah 

November

• Mike and Kyley’s wedding 
• Girls weekend in Park City 

December

• Christmas MoTab concert, with special guest Kristin Chenoweth (went with Jess and Taryn) 
• The Forgotten Carols 
• Small Christmas--two siblings now married and it was the in-laws’ Christmas 
• And now it’s New Years Eve. Crazy how fast a year can go by when you’re looking back at it.

Updates on 101 list from 2018

And... I'm terrible at updating my blog. 2018 has been a crazy year. But here are some of the things from my 101 list that I did:

• Get massage that I haven't done before
• Ashiatsu
• Take notes at church for 3 months
• Spend a day at Lagoon
• Go to a concert
• Actually went to a few--Love Loud, Pentatonix, Idina Menzel/Josh Groban, and a couple of MoTab ones
• Keep a gratitude journal for 3 months
• Run a race a month for a year
• And I actually did a race every weekend for a month, but that apparently wasn't on my 101 list, though I thought it was. Whoops!
• Collect five new smashed pennies
• Go to a state I haven't been to before
• Louisiana for a work conference
• Go to a dinner theater
• Spamilton at Desert Star Playhouse
• Eat at three Downtown Dine O'Round Restaurants  
• See 5 new plays/musicals live
• A Doll’s House
• Spamilton
• Two Noble Kinsmen
• Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Waitress

And now a few more 2018 in review posts to come...

LASIK

I finally got LASIK earlier this month and got to cross that off my 101 list.

I've been wanting LASIK for a while, but my eye doctor in Boise was really against it for some reason, saying that he had "seen too many go wrong." However, my eye doctor here said I was a good candidate, and the surgical center I went to agreed.

It was a little rough having to go back to wearing my glasses for five days before my consult. Then, once I scheduled my surgery for as soon as possible after the consult (another week out), I couldn't go back to wearing contacts. Wearing my glasses full time for a week and a half wasn't the most fun thing ever. I've worn glasses since third grade, but had contacts since sixth, and I would pretty much only wear my glasses at night before bed. So to go back to wearing them full-time was a bit hard. I forgot how easily they smudge! And they slid around a lot. Plus, I have seriously bad eyesight (-5 in one eye and -5.5 in the other, with a slight astigmatism in at least one eye), so not being able to see when I took my glasses off to wipe them, or just not being able to see clearly in my peripheral, wasn't fun.

But I made it through and got to surgery day. About an hour before the surgery, it hit me what I was actually doing and I got a bit nervous. I went anyways, and everything went really well. My dad and aunt actually watched. (My aunt was fascinated and my dad was having a hard time watching and was worrying they were hurting me.) I didn't feel a thing, as the numbing eye drops were great! The only thing that was a bit uncomfortable was them putting on the device to keep my eyes open during the surgery (my eyelids weren't numb). Other than that, it really was just pressure (and there were times the pressure made it so I could actually see stars). The smell of them lasering off part of my eye wasn't something I was prepared for. I was glad the doctor was talking to me the whole time, explaining what he was doing.

As soon as the surgery was over, I could see so much more clearly, though things seemed a bit foggy (like what happens if you're in a really humid sauna). Another doctor did an eye test. Though the prescription doesn't translate exactly to whatever 20/20 means, he said I had been at about a 20/600. I was at a 20/20 after my surgery. And at my one week follow-up I had this week, I was at 20/20 vision, and I was even able to make out a couple of letters on the 20/15 line.

It's incredible to be able to wake up and actually see! Modern medicine is amazing.