Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash–January/February Update
avatar

J0341653As I described back in April 2014 (you can read the post here), I’m celebrating my 50th birthday with a year of activities, challenges, and FUN designed to honor this milestone. I’m calling it Cynthia’s Yearlong 50th Birthday Bash, and so far it’s been an incredible experience. The thumb infection in December and January wasn’t any fun, but the rest has been great.

Here’s what I did in January and February to celebrate:

  • Launch—Due to my thumb infection, I’ve been forced the past few months to do some radical self-care. In response, I’ve dubbed 2015 the Year of Self-Care. Self-care has always been a challenge for me, but since becoming a single mom, it more often than not falls to the bottom of my list. It’s time to change that bad habit. Expect to see more on this subject in coming months.
  • Submission—In January I managed to submit a story to Helen, a new literary journal. Last year I submitted to their first issue, and while I was rejected, they invited me to submit again in the future. So I did. And got rejected again. Sigh. Then in February, I submitted to Creative Nonfiction. They are producing an anthology on mental illness in conjunction with In Fact Books. I converted a chapter from my memoir to a stand-alone piece and sent it in. Fingers crossed.
  • New Things—1) Finger infections! Not much fun. 2) Double Barrel Wine Bar in Livermore. Yes, I know, it’s not a new place. but I’d never been there before. 3) Coffee Meets Bagel—a new online dating site a friend recommended. I’m not sure it’s a good fit for me, but we’ll see.
  • Challenge—Overcoming my thumb infection, which involved sleeping for ten hours (or more), drinking plenty of fluids, eating right, soaking my thumb four times per day, saying no to lots of things, visiting a hand specialist repeatedly, etc. As a result, the infection is finally under control. Yay!
  • Fun—In January, my good friend and fellow writer Jennifer Simpson stopped by for a visit. Despite my thumb, we managed to see a movie (The Imitation Game, which I highly recommend) and then headed to Swirl on the Square for a glass of wine, yummy food, and great live music. We also shared a delicious lunch at another local hang out, cooked dinner with my daughter Katie, and talked and talked about books, literary events, dating, life, and of course, writing. Afterwards I was wiped out, but don’t regret it at all. Hope we can do it again soon. We also celebrated Katie’s 11th birthday with a three-day extravaganza. On Friday Katie had a party at school. On Saturday we had brunch with Nate and split an enormous (and delicious) cinnamon roll. Afterwards Katie and I went shopping. Then on Sunday we met my parents, my sister Jen, and my niece and nephew at Bothwell Park for cupcakes, presents, and bocce. My mother kicked everyone’s butt at bocce. In February, I attended a CAbi clothing party with my girlfriend Melanie and watched a movie (Birdman, a dark comedy I also recommend) with Nate. I had coffee with my friend Karen and felt well enough to go on a few dates. Katie and I got out and enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather. I also attended the Special Olympics and watched Katie play basketball for the first time. As always, it was a blast!

What new activities and challenges did you tackle this month? Let me know in the comments.

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.

Leave a 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>