Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–April Update
avatar

J0341653I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was going to celebrate my 50th birthday by planning a year of activities and challenges to honor this milestone. I’m calling it Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash, and so far, as predicted, it’s been a blast.

I originally planned to map out activities for the entire year, but that proved really cumbersome. So in the interest of keeping things simple, I decided to give myself four monthly goals. First, every month I want to launch something, whether an activity or event, product or service, or even a business! Anything goes, but the goal is to launch something new every month. Second, I want to submit my writing to someplace I haven’t tried before, preferably a publication or venue that makes my palms sweat. Third, I want to try something new or different, just for the hell of it. And lastly, I want to tackle some kind of challenge that makes me stretch emotionally, physically, or professionally.

How’s that for going BIG and BADASS in my 50th year?

So besides several birthday dinners and a trip to Sea Ranch with Katie, here’s what I did in April to mark this milestone year:

  • Launch—I produced and hosted an extra-long, extra-fabulous Storied Nights: An Evening of Spoken Word called Celebrating Life on the Spectrum which served as an autism awareness event and also the official launch and first fundraiser for Autism A to Z. Six rocking autism moms (me included) shared their funny, bittersweet, and inspiring stories and poems. Marilyn read some other autism-related work and we followed the whole thing up with a book signing. It was an incredible evening and we raised almost $200 for Autism A to Z!
  • Submission—I submitted a story to Flash Fiction Forum in San Jose (and was accepted, which is awesome, but that’s not the point).
  • New Things—1) I signed my first book that someone had just purchased with their hard-earned cash! Wow, that was an incredible feeling. 2) I got stood up by a guy I met through online dating on what would have been our second—or was it third?—date. Disgusted with online dating in general, I agreed to a blind date with my friend Melanie’s boyfriend’s friend. (Did you follow that?)  3) I walked my first labyrinth and it was an amazing experience!
  • Challenge—1) I enrolled two people with Isagenix which means I became a Consultant and then the following week signed up for the 90 Days to Freedom Challenge. This was a serious sweaty palms moment. 2) I also signed up for a four-month-long virtual workshop entitled Nurturing You offered by my friend Sheila Pai of A Living Family. Self-care is not something that comes easily to me so I’m sure this workshop will nudge me to grow emotionally and improve my work-life balance.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds!

Until next time,
Cynthia Patton

About Cynthia J. Patton

Writer, Editor, Advocate, Speaker, Special Needs Attorney, and Autism Mom. Also the Founder and Chairperson of Autism A to Z, a nonprofit providing resources and solutions for life on the spectrum.
This entry was posted in My Life and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

16 Responses to Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–April Update

  1. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–May Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  2. Karen Hogan says:

    Cynthia, I don’t know why you still insist on claiming that you launched Storied Nights. You’ve done a great job of running with it. But you did not launch it and you had nothing to do with getting it off the ground. I believe you were the right person for me to hand it off to, but I regret that you seem to need to take credit where credit is not earned. It’s a matter of integrity. I suspect you will either not approve or will delete this comment. Let’s see . . .

  3. First… Happy Birthday! I love that you are filling your year with fabulousness and finding new ways to celebrate. Year Long is definitely the way to go and love how you have given yourself monthly goals. Don’t forget the celebrations along the way! Looking forward to reading more… it’s exhilarating and exciting.

  4. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–June Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  5. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash-July Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  6. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–August Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  7. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash-September Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  8. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–October Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  9. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–November Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  10. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–January/February Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  11. Pingback: Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash, March Update | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

  12. Pingback: The FUN List Revised | CYNTHIA J. PATTON

Leave a Reply to Cynthia J. Patton Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>