Hard to believe January is already gone, but that just means we are one month closer to spring. There’s always something to look forward to. Here’s how my January went…

I started the new year with bronchitis, and even still have a slight cough today. It’s lingered on since the weekend before Christmas, but it isn’t nearly as bad now as it was those first few weeks of the new year. But I haven’t let that stop me from having a great year so far.

Being sick, comedy got put on hold. I only did one open mic in January. But I did manage to do two paid showcases which was nice. I’m looking forward to getting back out there in February..

I finished reading The Kids in the Hall bio by Paul Myers. I also reread Mary Oliver’s Why I Wake Early after she passed away on January 17th. I started reading Michelle Obama’s book, and for some reason this past week I started reading The Gold Finch – again! I’d tried reading it several times and never got very far but I’m really enjoying it this go around. I guess all the other times it just wasn’t the book I was meant to read at that moment. The book definitely chooses the reader when it’s ready.

Speaking of Mary Oliver, I’ve been so inspired by rediscovering her poems, I decided to make it a daily goal of mine to read or write poetry every day. I started on January 19th and reached my goal every day but once. I even completed 4 poems of my own during that time.

And speaking of setting goals, I downloaded a new app at the beginning of the year that I’m really enjoying. It’s called Goal Tracker. You set a goal and how often you want to do it and then you check off each day with either a bright blue check mark if you did it or a red X if you didn’t. It’s really fun. I set 4 goals so far: poetry, jokes, read, and write.

I’ve been doing other writing too. Still plugging away at the book I started in August. I finished with the rewrite of the first draft mid January. Minus the first 9 days of January from being sick, I worked on the book every day of the month except 1. I have almost 45K words so far and I still don’t know how the book is going to end.

That’s it for me. Turn that calendar and let’s do this, but before we do, how was your January?