Accomplishments and Lessons Learned

After my obligatory "I rode my bike on New Year's" post, I really slacked off in the biking department, partly due to work obligations, partly due to my own self. I've accomplished and learned some things, though, over the past week and a day:

• Walking to Minnehaha Falls is really beautiful in the winter. (Accomplishment.) And even nicer with a friend. (I already knew that!)
• Eating at the nearby Mexican restaurant is delicious (learned thing), especially after walking to the Falls, and they have plentiful, good, fresh, homemade chips that go down easily (accomplishment?).
• I need to practice my Irish dance stuff more if I want to keep up with my classmates. (Learned thing.)
• My weird circulatory issue that has gotten really bad this winter is messing with my head. (Learned thing.)

  

  After driving home from Target,
  having worn gloves and mittens.

• It may be the reason why my Tuesday night platelet donation did not go well (hypothesis, not a learned thing), but a drawn-out and somewhat bruising platelet donation (accomplishment) is 1000x better than what's going on with the people who need my platelets.
• I re-watched Ride the Divide while donating platelets and learned a thing or two about perseverance, and also not to judge the Red Cross workers (who knew of the documentary) by their covers. (Learned things, obviously, based on the wording of this bullet point.)
• Sometimes it's okay to go to bed at 8:45 p.m. (Learned thing and accomplishment!)
• I should have re-treated my rain gear with the waterproofing stuff my parents gave me for Christmas before commuting to work in the slush on Thursday. (Learned thing.)
• Cars give you wide berth when commuting in the winter. (Learned thing.)
• Riding home at night in the winter can be as nice as riding home at night in the summer. (Here, more of an accomplishment than a learned thing.)
• Swimming at lunchtime on Fridays, even when my form is horrendous, helps with afternoon focus at work. (Learned thing.)
• 3-year old kids don't mind when you sing them INXS songs from 1985 at bedtime, apparently. (Actually, I'd put this in the accomplishment category thing due to being able to remember the words.)
• Desks that bring back traumatic memories of junior high apparently aren't high on the list of items scavenged out of alleys.

  

  This has been out there for a week,
  which is pretty much unheard of in a Mpls alley.

• I thought I might be sad when purging our house of half of its books today, but it was quite liberating. (Learned thing.) I think all those CDs will be next.
• My 93-year old former neighbor, Esther, still loves donuts from our neighborhood bakery, despite her concerns about her weight. (Learned thing.) Today's visit was grossly overdue. (Accomplishment.)
• I got Ol' Mexico booked for the MS trivia fundraiser on March 18 - and think I'm able to keep all of the costs the same as last year. (Accomplishment.)
• Despite my nightcap margarita being very weak, after working for a few hours on a grant proposal for work, the tequila feels twice as strong. (Learned thing, I guess. If I was in college, I'd call this an accomplishment.)

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