The Masterplan: A primer

As part of my bigger, bolder, betterer movement in my own life, I've signed up as a volunteer at our local Writer's Festival, and tonight went to check out the volunteer orientation. Had a blast. It's part of my meet-new-people plan that really is just about meeting new people, and not about getting laid... but getting laid would be bonus. Heh.

I've written now and again of late about how much I feel my life's been off-track in the last year, but there are a lot of ways I've been off-track for a long time. Back when I lived in the Yukon, in the span of a year I pretty much met and knew everyone and anyone worth knowing, largely because I volunteered with the local playhouses, music fests, special events, and more. Volunteering with the arts are a great way to meet people, and beats the shit out of shelling out membership fees for clubs or paying for classes... especially when you're naught but a wee writer wanting to eek out a life for yourself. Plus, you get free shit. I like free shit. Bet you like free shit, too.

I'm getting on-track, though, and quicker than I might've thought. I sort of told myself -- even as far back as in August, when I first decided to quit that wrong job -- that this would be the week things would finally start coming together. My thinking was merely that I'd be properly acclimatized to the new-old job again, but I'm proving myself to be right in more ways than one, which is delightfully refreshing.

This weekend's just freed up for me a little, and the resulting gameplan now is to take this handy laptop out in the world, find a great place to write for me for a change, and do a list of probably 100 or more goals. Everything from the wacky to the insignificant and easy is going to be on that list because it's going to be a list of things that are achievable in the near future, long-term goals, and things I may even die trying to get to in the (hopefully) decades that lie before me.

One goal I've had for a long, long time, and I've never achieved until last week, was that of omitting butter from my diet, for instance. And I know that sounds like such a silly little thing, but until you've been on the other side of the scale, fighting weight issues your entire life, you can't know what kind of a crutch something as stupid and detrimental as butter can become. Especially when you can knock back a pound of it every couple of weeks, as I'd be able to do. As I wrote in a posting on the other blog 'o mine, "my ass has become an ode de butter". Cutting it out of my diet is just hugely symbolic of things I've feared and always felt I could never manage. Restraint isn't exactly my watchword, except when it comes to the bondage and play kind.

I know I have a lot of work before me, and it'll be a while before I accomplish a lot of those goals of mine, but I'm already on that road. I'm volunteering. I'm cleaning up my place, picking out paint chips for doing some redecorating*, and I'm really getting enthusiastic -- not just optimistic, but enthusiastic -- about the weeks and months ahead.

It's amazing what simply choosing to use the power you have over your life can do for you. Just amazing. My outlook's getting better and better every day and this new attitude I've begun to adopt is kind of setting my life on fire. It certainly doesn't hurt that I'm being more honest with myself, yet far less judgmental, than I've probably been in years. (The attitude? I'll write about it in the coming weeks, I'm sure.)

What can I tell ya? It's been a great week.

*Saffron yellow for my presently lime-green kitchen, a warm mauve for the currently sky-blue living room, cranberry for my terra cotta hallway, then some teal blue in my boring beige bathroom, and warm sage green to off-set the chocolate accent wall in my bedroom (it's sand and chocolate now, but I want some punch...). Something to keep me busy over the winter... vibrant colours so I always feel alive. I can opt for neutral when I'm over 40, but fuck it for now. I'm going out on a ledge this time. Yes, I will post pictures.