A Quick Rundown For the Year of 2017

 

Job aside, I am pretty happy with my year of 2017:

• Reading: target 10 books

    Thick or thin, total 34 English books read:

    1) Outdoors and wilderness: 11, including several about Mt. Everest, climbing, hiking, mountaineering, or survival stories.

    2) Finance: 3, mostly about investment

    3) Jack London: 3

    4) Relationship: 1

    5) Charles Dickens: 2, “Great Expectation”, 3rd time Redo

    6) Henry D. Thoreau: 1, and some essays

    7) W. Somerset Maugham: 5

    8) Earnest Hemingway: 7, 2 of which are 2nd time redo

    9) Virginia Woolf: 1

 

• Exercise

    1) Jogging: pretty regular, about 2-3 times per week, rain or shine. 

    2) Anaerobic, focusing on leg muscles, lungs, squats, wall sit, side planks, bridge etc, average 3 times per week since May 2017.

    3) Hiking: total 248 miles, mostly day trips, a few 1-3 nights of backpacking.

 

• Trips

    1) China visit: me alone, twice, 2 weeks each. Chinese New Year, the other in October, mostly spent time with my parents.

    2) Summer Road Trip: me and husband, 9 nights/10 days: 3 nights in Atlanta, hiking and visiting Allman Brothers Museum, 1 night at Savannah, 4 nights at St. Petersburg Fl, attended a fancy Sandbar party, basically people anchor their boats in one shallow water area (no dry land around), swiming, playing music, drinking while standing in water, kids, dogs, whatever. I was quite afraid of alligators, most of the time stayed in boat. Beaching never my cup of tea.

    3) Whitewater kayaking trip: family, 2 nights at New River in West Virginia, almost got drowned in a mostly class 3-3+ rapids during the 15-mile run. My husband now forbids me to do it again, unless I finish the kayaking class. Attended twice already, never got finished due to the conflicting schedule with my work.

    4) Backpacking trip: family, 2 nights 3 days for the Presidential Traverse, NH, 26 miles 11600 feet gain. Later visited Walton Pond in MA, total travel days: 7 nights/8 days.

    5) Labor day beach visit: me and husband, 1 night, attended the music show. Our family tradition.

    6) New York City Trip: me alone, 3 nights, Broadway shows, The Lion King, The Phantom of Opera and Chicago. Museum: the MET, Natural History Museum, Whitney Museum. Night Club: Blue Note.

    7) Ski Trip: family, 7 nights/8 days, Jackson Hole Wyoming. Spent New Years Eve there. For me, was also a snowshoeing trip (3 day skiing/2 day snowshoeing alone in the Grand Teton NP)

 

• Home Project

    1) Painted the sunroom light blue, set it up as my exercise room

    2) Helped my husband build a retainer wall

 

2018 Resolution 

    1) Cut my cell phone time in half, spend more time with my husband.

    2) No matter what, always keep cool and kind.