I’m not pregnant. I am not adopting. I’m not even getting a puppy, but I am nesting.

I started thinking about my recent actions. I’m clearing room on my calendar. I am doing home renovations. I am purging my belongings. I am making room for something.

I just don’t know quite what that something is yet.

Let me clarify, when I say purging my belongings, I really mean giving away things that don’t fit and things I don’t use. I still have a huge amount of crap in my house. I will never be a minimalist when it comes to things.

It just seems like lately everything I do is in preparation for something. I don’t know what, but I know that I will be ready.

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Do not let this alarm you. I just need to get reorganized after the holidays. December wrecks me every year. It is a new year and I’ve got things to say.

Here are some of the things I have been thinking about.

1) Last year was my “Year of Jubilee“. I am thinking this year will be my year of “Getting My House in Order” both literally and figuratively.

I am literally tearing up my house. Well, I am not doing it, I am guessing some sort of skilled construction crew will be doing the actual work, but we are redoing our kitchen, all three bathrooms and really, rearranging our entire floor plan. It is exciting and terrifying.

Figuratively, I need to clean up my internet mess. I’ve got this amazing sports site with phenomenal writers that I tend to forget about twice a year. I need to get it back up and running. I need to make Sarah and the Goon Squad a priority again and I need to keep branching out and creating fresh new content. I need to find where I left all of my funny.

2) I read somewhere that Taylor Kitsch was considered for the role of Edward in “Twilight”. I actually think Pattinson did a great job as Edward (just taking into consideration the first movie, nothing was good about “New Moon” or  ”Eclipse” and I haven’t seen “Breaking Dawn” yet) but what I was thinking was that if they had cast Kitsch as Jacob it would have changed the entire dynamic.

No offense to Taylor Lautner, but if this guy was Jacob I don’t see how there could even BE a Team Edward.

I have no idea what it going on in this picture but now I kind of want to see "The Covenant".

Right?

(I’ve been watching a lot of live streaming “Friday Night Lights”. A lot.)

3) I turned 39 last month.

Most of my friends are already 40. I spent the last 10 years watching them spend their entire 39th year preparing to turn 40. It seems like such a weird thing to do, but I’ve found myself falling into that trap – I want to lose 20 pounds before I turn 40, I want to go somewhere for my 40th birthday, I should have a party for my 40th, etc. It is almost an entire year away,  yet I am almost obsessing about it. I am going to try really hard not to do this, but I make no promises.

4) I found a partially written life list in an old computer bag. My best guess is that it is between a year and a half to two years old. It had 35 items on it. Since I wrote it I have completed six of the things already. I took my kids to Disney World, I watched the movie “Amelie”, I went to the Messiah sing along at the Kennedy Center, I had dinner at “The Inn  at Little Washington”, I went to a Virginia winery and I have had one of my essays published in a book – two, actually.

I realize that most of these aren’t huge things –  anybody with Netflix and a DVD player can watch “Amelie”, but I had to orchestrate and entire weekend out of town and spend a good deal of money to eat at The Inn at Little Washington (totally worth it). I also realize that #11 –  Hold my grandchild – might take a while before it becomes a possibility. My kids are both seven and I sincerely they wait at LEAST 15 years before they even consider procreating.

I also realize that I got to sing on stage at The Kennedy Center which has been a dream of mine ever since moving to the Washington D.C. area, but I was too chicken shit to even write it down on a piece of paper.

If I can do six (or seven) things on my half-written life list in two years, what would happen if I wrote a real list? What if I wrote down 100 things and actually set out to do them?

I have been known to make fun of the life list. I have also been known to cross things off my life list that I really wanted to do because someone more famous had it on her life list and it didn’t seem cool when she did it. But maybe there is some magic to these lists. I guess it could also be the concreteness of writing something down and cross it off of a list. Looking at what is still on here it would take very little effort for me to take my kids to a live symphony or grow tomatillos or read “War and Peace”. Maybe sometimes we just need to be reminded of what we actually want to do.

Writing my life list will be part of my year of “Getting My House in Order”.

And look at that, I just wrote four posts.

I’ve been thinking that if I mean to keep on telling people that I should probably actually write something here.

This has been a busy week. I turned 39, I threw out my back, I sang at the Kennedy Center, I wrote about being the cookie mom for girl scouts and I am ready for Christmas tomorrow.

Also since we last spoke, my children have taken to calling us (and their grandparents) by our first names. It makes me laugh at home and makes me feel uncomfortable in public.

My pain killers (stupid back) are kicking in and so I ought to wrap this up.

Have a Merry Christmas or a happy whatever you celebrate and please admire my lovely new blog design. My friend Janet did it.

And because I need a picture here and my Aunt sent me a bunch of old photos on my birthday, here is my first grade school picture.

I suppose this is why people don’t blog on painkillers very often.

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For those of  you in the Washington D.C. area my choir is performing a on September 11th at 4:00pm at National Presbyterian in remembrance of the September 11th attacks. The concert is called “In Search of Peace.”

Before you get bored and move on, this isn’t a crappy church choir. We have over 100 voices and Gretchen Kuhrmann is one of the best conductors I have ever worked with (and I have worked under some pretty amazing directors). Choralis has commissioned a piece by local composer Gary Davison with original lyrics by local poet Margaret (Peggy) Ingraham. This will be the world premiere of this amazing piece. How many world premieres do you get a chance to attend?

Listen, if I am missing the first Bucs game (and all of the other football games) of the season to sing it, you know it is important.

Tickets are between $40 and $100 with discounts available for students or active duty military.

If you are prone to crying bring some tissues. This is going to be amazing.

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Have you been over to my Babble Voices blog yet? It is pretty awesome over there. Okay, fine. It is just like this, but over there. And instead of laser eyes and an exploding head I have a cleaver in my header.

Please go over and check it out or at least pretend you checked it out and just hit like. No one will know the difference and it will make me look good.

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If you aren’t reading Draft Day Suit you are totally missing out. Truly. You don’t even have to really like sports to enjoy it. Those people are hilarious!

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The same is true for Insert Eyeroll. Just know ahead of time it is satire. (Some commenters didn’t get that memo.)

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And last but not least, I still sell swag, so if you need anything branded (did you see the awesome nail polish and power strips I made for the Clever Girls?) please let me know. I have lots of super cool ideas for you.

Seriously? How cool are these?

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Thank you for your time.

As you were.

It wasn’t.

Almost 1800 posts later (and that is just on this site, since then I have written for at least 20 other websites) I am still here.

Life takes you in crazy directions. Impulsively signing up for that blogspot blog changed my life. I have gone places I never would have been, I have met amazing people and been given really cool opportunities. I have been in the photo pit at a rock festival, I attended a WNBA draft, I met John and Roger Taylor, I ate at The French Laundry, I have spoken on panels all over the country, I cooked with some underprivileged little kids and a Top Chef,  I drove across the United States, I edited posts that were written by Ronnie Lott and I got to go to The Winter Classic. I have made a lot of very talented friends. I have become a writer.

Who knew?

You don’t have to buy me anything for my birthday/anniversary, but I would love it if you would send me some more pictures to add to my flickr set.

Thanks for reading. I can’t imagine that I would have kept this up if it weren’t for you guys.

What I am trying to say is that if you have actual problems, you should stop reading this post right here.

I am not kidding. Stop reading right now because I am about to make you really mad. You will yell at me. You will resent me and you will wonder why I think I have a thing in the world to complain about. Don’t read on unless your life is perfect.

I am pissed off because my cleaning people walked into my house without knocking at 7:45 am.

7:45 am! Claudia was still asleep.

I was dressed but that was a fluke. Usually at 7:45 in the morning I am standing in the kitchen in my underwear packing lunches for the kids.

Let me address my problems with this separately:

1) They are supposed to show up around 10:00. I don’t expect them to be here at 10:00 am sharp, but keeping it to a window of 9:45 – 11:00 would be nice, or they can feel free to call me and say, “Hey, can we come at 3:00?” or “We’re running early, do you mind if we show up at 8:30?” But nope, they just walk right in at 7:45. For a while they weren’t coming until 2:00 which is annoying because I never knew when it was safe to take a shower, and I would second guess myself – oh crap, maybe it isn’t the third Friday,  but at least 2:00 is normal business hours. I am generally dressed at 2:00 and working. 7:45 is early! Don’t come to my house before 8:00AM unless I am expecting you or if there is some sort of emergency. That is very bad form.

2) Why don’t they knock? Yes, I gave them a key to my house but there are two cars in my driveway and it is 7:45 in the morning! They know I work from home, they know I have two children in elementary school. They are using neither their context clues nor their manners. Knock, ring the doorbell, call ahead, play Peter Gabriel really loud outside my window, but please don’t just walk into my house at 7:45AM. Those people are lucky I don’t own a gun. They scared the crap out of me.

The last time they walked in unannounced before 9:00 I thought it was the kids leaving and I started yelling at them. “Hey! Who opened the door? You don’t leave this house until I am downstairs!”

So anyway, I feel better. Thanks for letting me vent. Also, do any of you local people have good reliable cleaning people who are cheap and and show up when expected? I am in the market.

I know, I always say that I don’t like outside and I hate nature unless it is the beach, but that sort of comes into play.

First (and least surprisingly) it is good exercise and gives me a feeling of accomplishment. When I am done I can actually see that the lawn looks different. That is nice.

Second (or third, that part was kind of two) my iPod is awesome. My iPod is way better than other people’s iPods because there aren’t any songs on it that I hate. I used to put stuff on my iPod so that my husband wouldn’t laugh at me, or so if someone was in my car they would think I was cool. I don’t do that these days.  I don’t give a shit anymore. Now I just put on songs I like. Right now I have 594 songs all of my choosing. Today when I mowed I heard Slayer, Mozart, Tomahawk, Alice in Chains, R.E.M., KIX and Blur. It ruled.

My attitude is also better. Well, maybe not better, but it works.

Mowing my yard has become Sarah vs. Nature. When Slayer is on – no mercy, when Mozart is on la vendetta. Pixies? Wave of Mutilation.

Now that I think about it my iPod has a lot of pent up hostility.

Now that I think about it I have a lot of pent up hostility.

So, mowing works for me, and I think it makes Gabe’s life slightly easier.

Plus my neighbors think I am a good worker.

It is a win/win/win/win. For now. Soon it will get too hot and I’m  sure I’ll hate it again.

My philosophy on doing laundry is entirely based on a two word phrase. “As needed.”

I’m not kidding. I wash my towels when they get yucky, I wash my sheets when they get dirty. I wash my underwear every time I wear it, but that is underwear. It touches my butt.

I mean it. I don’t have a laundry schedule. I have a big pile of laundry at the top of my stairs, a small pile of laundry in my bedroom and a medium sized pile in my laundry room.

Hey, is this thing on?

I just got a reservation for two at Le Bernadin on a Friday night with less than three weeks notice.

A couple of weeks ago we finally broke down and bought the DSLR I had been coveting for three years when it finally came down so far in price that it was affordable.

But I’m waiting to buy my new couch, because I know the economy blows and that thing has to go on sale soon. There cannot be that many people as desperate for new living room furniture as we are, right?

**attempts to use the Jedi mind trick on furniture store**

Nothing yet. But it will go on sale and then the new couch will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine. Then I will sit in style and comfort until one of the children or cats vomits on it for the first time.

I’m thinking I’ll have at least a day and a half.