NJM 2020, Entry 1 - Hello November in These Foolish Things

Hello November.

You woke me in the middle of the night and I couldn’t get back to sleep. My mind has been spinning with all kinds of thoughts, and I think we need to get to the bottom of it during YOUR month.

Your neighbor October knows I was happy to be able to see my friend Cindy yesterday. We sat outside for a late lunch in the glorious sunshine and I had a couple of glasses of bubbles. She didn’t drink because she had to teach a yoga class at 4 (we hung out until 3:45, so I think she stretched our time until she was late!), but I stayed for one more drink because it just felt so nice to sit in the sun, halfway buzzed and I just melted into the moment.

October also knows that when I got home and had messaged Lovely Leah because I wanted to see my long lost friends, hopefully outside and socially distanced - we couldn’t make it work out. And of course that’s fine, but man, was I sad.

So October saw me out with a buzzed nap, and you welcomed me with a harsh hangover and I think you and I both know that this is the most depressed I’ve ever felt in my whole life. Really. It’s just this nagging feeling that I’ve been dragging my feet on everything. And for what? Just because 2020 is a sucky year?

Well, welcome back, November. I’m happy to see you and I hope you feel the same about me, but we have a LOT of work to do this month:

• We must brace for this Tuesday…and possibly several days (maybe weeks?) to follow. This election is going to be one for the history books, isn’t it?

• We must begin to follow through on the promises I have been making to myself for several months. No more using the pandemic as an excuse. There’s NO reason that I can’t get my daily sweat in every single morning of your month. In addition to NoJoMo, I think I’m going to call you NExMo as well. I know I can write in here every day and that takes just about as long as it does to get 30 minutes of a good workout in a day. We can absolutely do this.

• We must get focused for the move to a new home - to hone in on a neighborhood and begin securing a new space. You’ll be over as quickly as you began and then it will be December and the days will tick by. We gotta put in notice 90 days in advance, which means the beginning of the new year and 2020 is practically over (can you believe it?).

• We must figure out this job situation. I mean, the networking game should be much, much stronger than it has been the past four months since coming back to work after the furlough. I’ve seen folks go back to work after furlough only to be permanently laid off. If that ain’t some shit. In case you haven’t seen the news, 2020 hasn’t gotten better. It’s only sunk deeper and deeper with each passing month. I know that has been my excuse for letting myself sit in this depression, but there’s no reason that I have to simply roll over and LET November suck. Right? Why can’t you be a turning point?

I have high expectations for you, November. Like I’ve said above, if I can be disciplined enough to do NoJoMo every year for the past, how many years? Guessing at least 10. Right? If I can write every day in November to make a nice little habit out of you, then I can get a running start on 2021 and the upswing.

And there WILL be an upswing. Because that’s the only direction we can go from here.

Looking forward,
GS