2014

Pretty much. 2013 was full of more love, triumph and running than any other year before it. At the beginning of the year, I was about to leave my first (and probably last) ever corporate job to start working at a local hospital. After only a few months, I left that job to bartend and freelance.

As a beginning bartender, the hours and fluctuating pay have been challenging, but knowing I don't have to keep office hours can be its own reward. Technique-wise, it's been so fun to begin mastering the basics and working towards a deeper understanding of the foundations and science that underpin it. However, the combined time constraints of Adam's and my work often mean that we can go days without seeing each other for more than five minutes. During this upcoming year, I will set my priorities and honor them as such.

I also began treating my writing like a business and building it accordingly. This approach has expanded my market significantly and given me a bit of financial wiggle room. Connections within my network have afforded an online column for mental_floss, pieces for a gorgeous wedding magazine and a continued relationship with my first freelance client. In 2014, I'll build my market and marketable (writing) skill set even further.

This year also marked the start of my journey to become a runner. It hasn't been easy or extremely consistent, but it's consistently demonstrated the necessity of exercise. I haven't been blogging much about writing or running recently because I had too much material. Once that had passed, I didn't have enough so I stayed away. That changes in 2014. Instead of trying to continue a breakneck pace of personal blogging, I'm cutting back.

Each week, I will be posting twice: one Cocktail of the Week post and one running or writing post. Two posts each week will provide a stable schedule (hopefully) without giving me an excuse to skip runs. 2014 looks different than any previous year, but it looks pretty nice from here. Bring it on, 2014. Bring it on.

Adequate beyond measure

He loves me. One of my biggest struggles is with adequacy. Deadlines put me into an almost perpetual spin of balancing talent I know I have and a fear of not being enough. When I didn't finish the Blog Like Crazy challenge, I threw a pretty epic pity party. Despite the nastiness, I managed and rocked ten deadlines in sixteen days. My blog and running fell by the wayside. As a result, my mood fluctuated a lot and I started spacing out at work.

Through it all, Adam was amazing. His support and reassurance kept what's left of my sanity intact, even as he himself was going through finals. Without him, I would probably have been curled up in a little ball before cranking out a last minute second draft. His encouragement (and cooking) have provided the backup and strength I needed to knock everything out.

Every time I began getting a handle on myself, something came up. First, it was applying for healthcare. Though my income is far below the cutoff for subsidies, I only qualified for $9 per month. The increase will most likely supersede setting up a Roth IRA. On the bright side, it's spurred me into self-incorporating -- once that's done, healthcare costs become a tax-deductible expense.

On Christmas day, I went running for the first time in more weeks than I'm willing to admit. It was a short run, made shorter still by Guntersville's hills, but it felt so good. Today I'll be working out my hips and legs, and tomorrow I'll be going back out. Starting almost from scratch isn't fun, but getting back into the swing of it will be good.

From here, I have a couple weeks to re-establish myself (and my blog and running and writing) until my next deadline. This mini-break will give me a chance to de-stress, catch up on fun and enjoy bowl season. During this time I'll also be able to pitch new article ideas and maybe even give myself a pedicure. It's been a while.

Today's title is modified from a quote by Marianne Williamson. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."