Finish-it February starts tomorrow

I had nearly forgotten today was the end of Guilt-free January, though I didn't have guilt-free starts. I just started freebies. January went fast, though, didn't it?

I am pushing myself to get things finished next month. Maybe not so much finishing in the sense of making ornaments, but finishing UFOs. I've been goofing off with my stitching the last couple weeks. I'm behind on my ornaments for SALs. Acccckkkkk.Probably because I've been so busy with everything else. I am going to try to do better.

This morning, I told myself I have to start on our ring pillow. Since I picked the final color, a purple-y blue (which took much arguing to arrive at and was not the first choice), it's time to get it done. I have the idea in my head how I want to do it, as a biscornu (I think I mentioned that before, didn't I?) Then, for the back side, have my name on one side, his name on the opposite side, our wedding date on the 3rd side, and a wedding phrase on the 4th. I think it ought to be pretty, if it makes up the way it looks in my head, Then I can sew on a ribbon to "ring-bearer proof" the rings and we should be good to go.

The Polar Bear Plunge was yesterday. We had (at least to us) a surprise snowstorm. They said it would be snow showers late in the day, but it started snowing at 10AM and didn't stop til we were home. The plunge itself was fun. I didn't really notice how cold it was. Of course I was in a couple layers, plus a hat. When you get down with a huge crowd of people, who are excited and happy and joyous, it's an infectious kind of energy. I was a bit chilly when I came out, and the water felt like running a Brillo pad on my legs, but it wasn't bone-jarring. The water was actually warmer than the air, which was 19 degrees out.

I picked the right time to go in. The weather deteriorated all day, and, by the time we were on the bus, they cancelled the second plunge. So they had a mess getting 8000 people or so off the beach and out of the park--we sat on a school bus for 90 minutes. You run out of ways to amuse yourself after 30 minutes. Then it took us 3 hours to get home. But we got home. I was exhausted; I had a lot of adrenaline pumping and when it went away, there wasn't much left. We want to do it again next year.

I really feel proud of myself. I didn't reach my fundraising goal, but I got some money for Special Olympics. And every penny counts. Most of all, I didn't chicken out. I set a goal, I accomplished it. Maybe not the most gracefully, maybe not with flair, but I did it. And it was something I was afraid to do. And it wasn't bad. I think I've taken a strong lesson from this not to let the what-ifs and the what could bes scare me as much as they do. Every "what could be" didn't happen. There was only "what is." And the what is was so worth ignoring the what ifs.