lifestyle

36 for 36

Photographer: Stanley Parrish (www.pixeloutflowstudios.com)

There’s something special about having a birthday in the second month of the year. If you’ve had less than a happy new year, if you’ve broken resolutions or failed to accomplish your January goals, your birthday becomes your second chance. Your birthday becomes your do-over.

Today, February 9, is my birthday. Today begins my second chance at 12 months of excellence.

Today I turn 36 and as I wrote in my Write Like a Girl column for B-Metro, at first I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this new age. You see, 36 is not a milestone birthday, but it sure feels like one as it officially declares me closer to 40 than 30. Does this make me old? I wondered. Does this mean I’m “over the hill”? Was 35 “the hill”?

But, I’ve decided that only I can define the prime of my life, so, I will take 36 and have the time of my life.

Here are 36 things — both personal and professional — I want to do while I’m 36:

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My Solo Weekend Writing Retreat at Hotel Finial

Sometimes things just work out.

Last year I told my husband that I wanted to take a solo weekend writing retreat, or a “writecation,” so I could start working on the book that I hope to complete in 2017. I wanted to check myself into a hotel for a weekend and just write.

I considered booking a room at a hotel in Birmingham, but I knew I needed to get away. Otherwise, the demands of family obligations and the lures of social events with friends would be too much of a distraction.

About a month or so after having this conversation with my husband I was contacted by a representative from Hotel Finial in Anniston, Alabama. They offered me a two-night complimentary stay so I could have the writecation I’d dreamed of. But my stay at Hotel Finial exceeded anything I could have ever imagined!

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Gift Ideas for Women Who Write and Blog

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Whether you’re looking for a gift for your blogging buddy or writing critique partner or just shopping for yourself, here is a list of holiday gift ideas compiled with women writers and lady bloggers in mind. And feel free to send this to anyone shopping for you this holiday season so you won’t get another ugly Christmas sweater or giant can of popcorn.

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#ShopLocal Gift Guide

Back in the day, I was a hard core Black Friday shopper. Armed with a detailed shopping list and a bundle of sales paper, my cousin and I would start before dawn, take naps in our car in between shopping trips, and keep going until 10 a.m. — leaving enough time to get breakfast at Chick-fil-A.

But those days are long gone and not just because I’m too old for the chaos and the crowd. These days my tastes have changed and I’m much more interested in buying gifts for others (and myself) from independent makers and locally owned shops.

Here are a few #ShopLocal ideas for you:

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Girl Talk

girl-talk

If you’ve been following me and my blog for awhile it should come as no surprise that I watch Beyonce’s 2013 documentary Life is But a Dream at least once a year. And one of my favorite quotes from that documentary is about Beyonce’s ideas of sisterhood. She says: “I love my husband, but there’s nothing like a conversation with a woman that understands me.” She goes on to add, “I grow so much from those conversations. I need my sisters.”

Sisterhood is one of the things I value most in life. It drives so much of what I do as a blogger, writer, teacher, and entrepreneur.

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