The 7 Links of Answering Oliver

There have been a few improvements around here that I'd like to let y'all know about!

• You can now subscribe to Answering Oliver via RSS — just do the Subscribe thingy in the right sidebar (directly under my big head). I'm a few years behind, um, everyone else and just started using Google Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds and keep track of some of my favorite blogs. It's amazing!

• You can also sign up to receive new posts right in your email inbox — just do the Follow By Email thingy in the right sidebar (directly under Subscribe and my big head). Since I don't post on a regular basis (sorry — I really want to change that!), you'll be notified when I put up a new post. That means you don't have to hang out on my blog hitting "refresh" over and over in anticipation! OK, so no one does that. Regardless, feel free to sign up to receive my posts via email — I swear I won't send you anything else, and you can unsubscribe at any time. 

My 7 Links

Meg over at Mega Musings tagged me to participate in posting seven links that fall under interesting categories. Most of my favorite bloggers have done this already and I've loved going back and reading the posts they've chosen! It gives new readers a chance to dig into stuff that's now collecting dust in the archives.

Here we go!

MOST BEAUTIFUL POST: 

For Aaron

I wrote this post to celebrate how incredibly far my boyfriend had come in one year since he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle. His extensive injuries, including a completely destroyed knee, sidelined him and demoralized him for months, and yet he came back with an intense desire to live life to its fullest and never let that accident impact his goals. I cried writing it. I cried reading it. I think his story, and his spirit, are beautiful.


MOST POPULAR POST:
An unhurried life

This post is the most popular by the number of comments and emails I received in response, and that meant so much to me. I think it was popular because Leo Babauta tweeted it to his 70,000-something Twitter followers, but I'd like to believe it was because it's awesome. : D

I wrote this about a life realization I had at the World Domination Summit in June, one that I happened to be able to share with Leo first. I have never, ever experienced anything like what happened to me on that walk through Portland; I suspect it's rare. I'm glad I have it down in words and photos.


MOST CONTROVERSIAL POST:
Fremont Solstice Parade 2011

OK, I don't really have any controversial posts! Nothing has sparked a vigorous debate in the comments or spurred an angry email in my direction (so far).

I chose my post about the semi-naked bike ride for this because you would not believe how many people visit my blog because they're searching for naked photos from the Fremont Solstice Parade. In fact, it's actually my most popular post by far in terms of traffic. You mean people... search the Internet... for naked pictures? Scandalous!

I imagine that once people see my pictures and realize Aaron and I weren't naked, they're pretty disappointed. Sorry, guys! That's as controversial as it gets.


MOST HELPFUL POST:

Tip #1: Get organized — write everything down

Tip #2: Get angry — raise a little hell

Tip #3: Get thee to an ATM — start paying with cash

Last summer, after I became debt-free, I wrote this series of three posts full of tips to help people get started with paying off their debt. I outlined exactly how I got organized and created my first budget; how I badgered Citi into lowering the interest rate on my credit card from 19.99% to 9.99%; and how I successfully used cash to curb my spending and stick to my budget.

When I first started paying attention to my finances, I knew nothing! I think these posts are very helpful for anyone who's looking for their first steps.

(The more fun and interesting runner-up for Most Helpful Post is Hawaii video & what to do on Oahu.)


SURPRISINGLY SUCCESSFUL POST:
Halloween 2010: The lobster costume

I guess I shouldn't be surprised; this costume was awesome. I guess I'm more surprised by how many people share my desire to dress like a crustacean!

I was the talk of the Halloween party in this homemade costume — I was even able to play beer pong with my claws on! — and I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to top it this year...


POST THAT DIDN'T GET THE ATTENTION IT DESERVED:
The Value of Financial Struggle

This was actually a guest post that I wrote for Pocket Changed that got one very nice comment, and I'm proud of what I wrote.

Patience, passion and a plan were the three keys that helped me pay off my debt, and I still rely on those elements to achieve every goal I set for myself. Financial struggle definitely sucks, but I learned some very important things from it, and I wouldn't go back and change my financial journey for the world.


POST THAT I'M MOST PROUD OF:
2010: The year in review

This was a tough post to write because I admitted several things that happened in 2010 that I was ashamed of. I'm proud that I was able to write this from a vastly different and better place, knowing that I was no longer that person who drank too much, didn't exercise at all and was deeply unhappy with her life.

I was finally able to say, "I am happy every day. I'm not necessarily happy all day, and sometimes not even most of the day, but I am happy. Every. Day."


***


That was fun! I'm tagging these five bloggers to post their seven links as well:


- Jacob Sokol of Sensophy
- Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads (EDIT: Jodi's wonderful links are already here)
- Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness
- Jenny Blake of Life After College
- Joel Runyon of Blog of Impossible Things


Can't wait to read 'em, ladies and gentlemen!

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1/1/11 in photos, plus 2011 goals

The Resolution Run 5K and Polar Bear Dive...

Fish and chips and beer at Paddy Coyne's...

Aaron doing something I cannot do in front of a random apartment building...

Not pictured: a delicious nap, a ridiculously cheesy grilled cheese sandwich, watching Easy A and watching episodes from the first season of Dexter.

A solid first day of the year.

As for the rest of the year...


Devon's 2011 Goals


Running

- Run a sub 27:00 5K — 2/12/11
- Run the Warrior Dash — 7/16/11
- Run a 10K (Bellevue 10K) — 4/17/11
- Run a 15K (Seattle's Best 15K) — 5/21/11
- Run a half marathon (Seattle Rock 'n' Roll) — 6/25/11
- Run a marathon (Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll) — 12/4/11

Writing

- Develop a regular posting schedule for this blog (3x a week; M/W/F?) — Ongoing attempt!
- Be honest — Ongoing
- Be myself — Ongoing

Finances (i.e. the thing I've gotten lazy with lately)

- Write a budget before each payday (twice a month) — Didn't do this!
- Go back to using cash for discretionary spending — Nope
- Save bonuses, as well as a portion of each paycheck — started automatic savings account 7/1/11
- Have one year's worth of salary in savings by the end of 2011 — YES! Allowed me to quit my job 11/30/11

Health

- Get at least 7 hours of sleep per weeknight — HA! I was terrible with this
- Eat more fruits/vegetables/whole grains — I did well with fruits/veggies and AVOIDED grains for stomach reasons
- Eat less dairy (cheese in moderation, especially) — Success
- Eat even less meat (I hardly eat it anyway) — I ate MORE meat (still not much) for protein during marathon training
- Find and stick to half-marathon and marathon training programs — Very successful!
- Do more outdoor activities (like hiking) — I hiked, biked, skydived, learned to surf, swam and ran my little heart out

Random

- Go skydiving again — 3/2/11 on the North Shore of Oahu
- Learn how to wakeboard — Nope
- Go rock climbing (even just at REI) — Nope
- Have coffee with Nicole Brodeur — I emailed her and she agreed, but I failed to follow up. Oops.
- Visit New York City — 10/7-10/10
- Have regular lunch/dinner dates with my dad — Not as many as I would have liked!
- Buy a digital SLR camera and use it — 2/9/11
- Buy a new laptop — 1/29/11


That's all I could come up with for now. It'll be nice to revisit this list and be able to cross things off, or check back on it when I'm in a rut and see what I need to work on achieving.

Speaking of crossing things off... here's my completed (and very short) 2010 list of goals:

1. Pay off my credit card by my birthday.
2. Pay off my student loan by July 1 (actually July 16).
3. Move out of my mom's house by the end of January 2011 with no debt and more than $10,000 in the bank.

The final portion that I just crossed off the list — in bold — was moving out of my mom's house. I moved into a townhouse with two of my great friends on December 26. I love it so far, and I'm so glad I was able to start 2011 out on my own.

2010 was the year of getting my finances straight and becoming independent. 2011 will be about maintaining and adding to what I achieved financially in 2010, plus tackling new athletic challenges, embarking on more adventures, embracing new hobbies and overall becoming a healthier person.

Bring it on.

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When I was 17

I kept an online journal from 2005 to 2008, and it's a treasure trove of random adventures, rants, woe-is-me stories about boys I liked not liking me back, anxiety about getting into college, anxiety about taking AP tests... wow, lots of anxiety, period. Some of it was written by a girl I no longer recognize. Some of it aligns exactly with the way I feel today. This entry, from February 21, 2005, falls somewhere in between:

"I was wondering the other day how many times I have traveled the same path home and looked at all the same things as I drive by. I always notice these places when I pass them, for lack of anything better to look at, but it has never occurred to me to wonder how many times I have seen them in my life. I can only guess its in the thousands, or tens of thousands? I have no idea.

"In terms of time, it always feels like I'm changing, getting older and making progress toward something. I don't know what that is. But really, after all those trips back and forth between my house and different places, where am I except exactly where I started? What has really changed as a result of all those trips?

"When things change, they seem so monumental, but later on you realize that maybe really nothing has changed at all. Or, maybe what was new is now normal, and doesn't feel like a change. Maybe change is so constant that we never notice it; like every second we are irretrievably different and will never be the same as we were the last second. I don't feel any different than I did a month ago, but I am an entirely different person who has a month's worth of experiences more than my old self. Nothing amazingly important happened in that span of time, but I was probably affected in tiny ways by each and every thing I saw, heard, said or did.

"Life seems to not be about progress, but about maintenance. Like we all think, 'Hey, we've got a good thing going here, let's keep it up.' People fall into doing the same things every day, things that make some sort of difference, somewhere, and we just keep doing them because we're supposed to. How much do these things help? What are we helping? What good does micromanaging every little detail of life do? Wouldn't you be just as successful, and a lot more happy, by being equally driven but more laid back?

"There is so much unnecessary worrying, discussing, debating, arguing and who knows what else going on in this world. Personally, I have heard so much worrying about senior year stuff going on. I know people who are intensely worried about getting the right prom date, the right prom dress, the right person to walk down the graduation aisle with. In the end, senior year is about finishing high school and having that achievement. No date or dress or graduation escort will take that away, and it's stupid to worry about things like that.

"I used to worry so much about every little thing I did. I used to think I would die if I didn't graduate with a 4.0. I don't know if its just the effects of senior year, or an awareness that makes me realize that most things aren't worth worrying about, but I find these thoughts frequently in my mind: "Oh well;" "Good enough;" "It won't kill me." Maybe this is a descent into mediocrity, or maybe it's just a good shedding of anxiety. Really, how many times have I been in a situation where I actually thought I was going to die because of something? So many. And here I am, still alive."

Lighter things

Last night I was going to write about patience — how important it is in nearly every aspect of life, and how I'm working on practicing it more often.

But then Losing It With Jillian came on TV. Love that show. Amazing.

Tonight I was going to write about the very, very near end to my Big Debt Payoff of 2010. I owe $685.78 on my student loan, and that's... it. But I feel like the end of that journey deserves a longer, more reflective post, and my mind isn't in that mode right now.

(I just wrote out my budget for July. It was fun. I'm not being sarcastic, either, because I actually love writing my budgets! It's just like how I love writing HTML and solving symbolic logic equations. Blame the OCD.)

Instead, I decided to let my mind take a break from numbers and from the things I want to work on about myself. I'll cover those in excruciating detail in due time.

For now, I'll settle for something that makes me smile every time I look at it, that epitomizes everything I always thought my early twenties would be, and that reminds me to savor the sweet things in life, like a long, laughter-filled evening with a good red and even better friends...

Settling back in to the blogosphere

It's been a while since I've blogged, and I have to say — a bit ashamedly — that I've enjoyed the break. Blogging should be fun and even cleansing, in a way.

My past blogs — SeattlePoliticore.org and Green Gal — started out fun, but eventually became things I felt obligated to write rather than things I really wanted to write. SP was always done for a grade, but I did enjoy it. It was a great experience and a subject that I was and am very interested in, although I would have loved to have been less objective.

Green Gal was born from a class assignment, but I was never graded on it. It was always something I elected to do. However, I wasn't passionate enough about the subject to truly enjoy writing about it day after day. I certainly learned a lot, and have adopted some "green" habits that I am proud of, but honestly... there are only so many things you can say about reusable grocery bags.

I got tired of saying them. I got tired of hunting for new things to write about. I got tired of being called both "holier than thou" and some version of "not green enough." (Somehow I was both...?) I got tired of writing things differently than I normally would have written them because I was afraid of offending this or that person. One of the first things you learn when you start blogging is that there will always be someone who disagrees with you, or is offended, or is just a jerk for no reason. No matter what you write about, people will make mean and/or stupid comments. There are a lot of things people will write as "Anonymous" that they will never say to your face.

As an aspiring writer, I obviously need to have a thick skin. For every negative comment I received on Green Gal, I know I've got about a thousand more coming to me throughout my future (fingers crossed) career. But what I've realized is that I can handle negative comments if I really believe in what I wrote in the first place. I am passionate about my political positions, but my "green-ness" is a different story. Obviously I think we should all be more conscious of the resources we use and work on re-using more often, but it's not my life. And I really didn't like being confined to writing about the topic of green living.

So this blog is mostly for me. I'm not writing it for a grade, I'm not writing it to be read by thousands of people, and I'm not writing to to please anyone else. I'm writing it to help myself reflect and to look forward. I'm writing it to organize my thoughts and to make plans. I'm writing it for the sake of writing, just because I love doing it. And, honestly, I'm writing because I'm out of practice and I'm afraid I won't remember what to do when school starts again. OK, that's not entirely true, but it doesn't hurt to get back into the habit of writing.

I won't be focusing on anything in particular in this blog. When I was trying to come up with a title for it, I looked around my room to find something that could help define me. Instead, I spotted a quote that has resonated with me, and that I have had taped to my bedroom mirror for a while now: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Although the blog is called Answering Oliver, I'm not actually trying to come up with any concrete answers for Mary Oliver, who came up with that quote. It's more about identifying the way I want to live my life. I don't want to end up living a safe, buttoned-up, overly cautious and practical life. Clearly one needs to be somewhat cautious and practical to survive, but that is just the basic definition of living — breathing, sleeping, eating.

I want to figure out how to be alive. Alive in the sense that I can feel the blood coursing through my veins for a purpose. Alive in the sense that I can close my eyes and feel the sun on my face, go running just for the hell of it, wake up with a smile on my face and be ridiculously excited for another day.

It sounds incredibly cliched and idealistic, I know. And on a more pessimistic day, I would scoff at myself like you may be scoffing now. But every time I read some article about a person who lived their life extraordinarily, I feel lacking.

For instance, I just read something about a woman who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in her 20's, but she lived the rest of her life like mad and made it count. She made a list of 41 life goals long before she ever got sick and kept it in her wallet. Number 40 said, "Be alive." Number 41 said, "Be really alive."

I don't want to wait for the death of a loved one or a grim diagnosis to shock me into living a life that counts. It's hard to live every day like it's your last when you're healthy, and it's so easy to be resentful and angry about things that are so inconsequential in the end. I'm going to give it a shot, though. I'm going to try to do better.

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"