Cardiogirl: 19% body fat 100% fun

Friday is The Book of Questions Day around these parts. Today’s query comes from the aptly titled book “The Book of Questions” by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.

And here it is, Question 213.

What would you like to be doing five years from now? What do you think you will be doing five years from now?

I have always hated this question. Really the only time I’ve had to deal with it is during a job interview but I still hated that question during the interview. I did prepare a pat answer back then — something stupid like “In five years I’d like to advance to senior Marketing Coordinator while becoming indispensable to my manager and the company” — but I was never fully behind that answer.

So I can honestly say it’s been more than ten years since I’ve considered this question. I haven’t had a paying job for almost ten years. Isn’t that crazy? I cashed my last paycheck almost a decade ago. Damn.

Having said that, I do think it’s a good idea to have a five-year plan. Hell, I think it’s a good idea to have a three-month plan. But I don’t operate that way. Mr. C and I do make a loose plan for summer which, as you know, is three months long and features three kids 24/7.

My kids always want to know what we’re doing today. Kids like structure and so do I, but I don’t seem to need as much of it as they do. Many times I answer that question with, “Today we’re going to relax.” While that works for me, it doesn’t really cut it for my kids, so having this loose summer plan for them is working out well.

Back to the question, though. I’ve been living week to week for a long time now due to certain circumstances so it’s difficult for me to project out that far. As I said, I like the idea of a five-year plan but at the moment I don’t have one. My answer, then, is: five years from now I’d like to be sane and self actualized. I’m really not kidding about that.

However, I like the idea of preparing a plan for my home life. When I attended a Franklin-Covey training seminar roughly 15 years ago, they suggested approaching all areas of your life with a goal in mind that could be broken down into steps. The seminar also suggested having a goal for your family. And since my job right now is raising my children I want to focus on coming up with some specific goals that can be broken down into manageable steps.

Yes, we all want our kids to grow up to be happy, healthy adults but I also want my kids to learn life skills. I want to teach them, as well as I can, how to cope with disappointment and challenges.

I want them to embrace their religion because it’s what they are comfortable enough with it that they choose to embrace it without me nagging them. I want them to be able to find creativity in everything — even the most mundane tasks.

I’d like to teach them:

how to cook and manage a financial budget;

how to drive a stick shift and change a tire;

how to earn respect and how to demand the respect every person deserves;

what to do if they’re ever chased by a bear (I still need to research that one)

how to enjoy what they have rather than focus on what they want;

how to appropriately express anger and how to resolve conflict.

Mostly I want to give my daughters the best start in life that I can provide. I want them to know that every sort of relationship — from a marriage to a business partnership — requires hard work, effort and tenacity. But I also want them to know when it’s time to cut their losses.

Five years from now I want to have a solid family life that’s fueled by equal parts of respect, laughter and love. I also want to to have a Body Mass Index of 16.

I can’t believe the last time we hopped on the Party Posse train was in December of 2009. Unacceptable. Get in line kids, single file now, and keep your hands inside the cart at all times. If you missed the previous party let me explain what we’re doing.

I thought it would be fun to take the VIP Lounge to another blogger’s site. As you know, the VIP Lounge is my comment section. My peeps are fun! We have a party daily and I like the idea of having a progressive party on the internet. Hence the Party Posse.

Usually I ask you to read the post and leave a thoughtful comment — no “Great post” comments — with the thought of hitting 15 comments from my VIPers.

Today is one-time-only Very Special Episode of the Party Posse.

A good friend of mine is training to participate in the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training. She’s trying to raise funds to help stop blood cancers and she is completing this event in honor of her five-year-old daughter Eleanor who is two years in remission from leukemia.

Please consider making a small donation — just $1 — to support Team in Training DeeAnn’s Fundraising Page.

I firmly believe every bit helps and if we collectively donate $10 that’s $10 closer to her goal. Naturally I’m hoping we can raise more than that, but I’m asking you to consider giving up an item from the dollar-menu at McDonald’s (or Wendy’s or Burger King or your favorite artery-clogging fast food joint.)

Currently the site is set up to take a credit card, but I’ll find out if she can accept PayPal donations.

If you choose to accept this mission, please let her you’re a member of Team Cardiogirl. (Rubs your shoulders and pushes you away while saying “Go get ‘em, tiger!”)

TO: Mother Nature
FROM: Cardiogirl
RE: Our recent exchange

Hey there. How you doin’ chica? Remember the last time we tangled? I rolled right over and cried uncle immediately. You are the Master of All Elements and I bow down to your greatness.

So now that we’ve established the fact that you rock and I suck we need to get down to brass tacks. I’m getting pretty tired of dealing with the aftermath of that torrential wind and rain storm.

We lost all of the food in the fridge, we had to go camping in our own house over the span of three days, that huge branch busted the windshield of our car, we had to use a hacksaw to cut up all of the branches so the city would chip them — shout out to this fine city; you’re spending our tax dollars wisely — and I had to shower at the Y.

I am still ever grateful, however, that the branch did not fall on the house jacking up my world in a big bad way. Thanks for that.

So I tried to suck it up and I stifled most of the bitchy thoughts I was experiencing. But I’m really getting pissed off, betch.

The oven doesn’t work now. The stove top does and I should be grateful for that. I am grateful for that. I made some bitchin’ fried chicken the other day and we all enjoyed it. No leftovers that night. But the inside of the stove doesn’t work.

I’m really
getting
pissed. Why
won’t you just
step off, betch.

The digital control panel on top psyches me out. The clock runs, I can press Broil or Bake and then Start and the control panel tells me it’s preheating. But it’s not. It is not preheating

It lies.

And the dude who came over yesterday was friendly and all, but naturally he didn’t have the part necessary to fix it. And of course there were no stores within a 50-mile radius of my house that had the part in stock. So it’s on order and it’ll be here in seven days.

So that dude will be back next Tuesday with the part and next Tuesday I will make banana bread. But until then I will bitch about you behind your back while being subservient to your face.

Please stop jacking up my stuff. The running total so far is roughly 875 clams. I know. It was a calculated risk to jack up our insurance deductible to $1,000. Our monthly fee is lower, but when shit like this happens we have to suck it until we pass $1,000.

So I’m happy I don’t live in a third-world country, I’m glad none of us were maimed by a falling branch and I was really thankful that we had water. But come on.

End it, gingah.

Thank you for considering my request. And good day to you, m’lady.