This is 39 (Month 2, Check-In 2)

I didn't learn my lessons from last month and ended up waiting until the end of the month to get two of my big goals in: yoga and volunteering.

This morning, on my first day of winter vacation, I found myself up at 6:00 a.m. and shortly thereafter, at the gym (on the last day of my membership) for a 6:30 a.m. yoga class. Next month I'd really like to attempt to not wait until the last day because I quite enjoy yoga. And I think if I went earlier in the month, I'd go more than once. I'm going to explore different yoga studios now that my gym membership is up and see where I can get some free classes Good news- I remembered to turn my alarm off. So no dog barking alarms went off.

On Wednesday I volunteered at Venice Housing Community. I took this directly from their website: Founded by local community members in 1988, Venice Community Housing has been developing lasting, neighborhood-based solutions for low-income families and individuals for over 28 years. We own and manage 216 units of non-profit affordable housing, both transition and permanent throughout Venice, Mar Vista and Del Rey. We also provide comprehensive supportive programs including job training, youth development, life-skills coaching, and family services to help people regain or retain their self-reliance. Our non-profit, permanent affordable housing helps people whose wages haven't kept pace with rents in their own neighborhoods. And for the most vulnerable who can't make it without help, we provide permanent housing with supportive services that allows them to live with dignity. So the cool thing about this non-profit is that I've unknowingly walked by it many, many times over the years as it's located a couple doors down from my favorite Mexican restaurant in LA (La Cabana)

Thanks to Volunteer Match, I found this opportunity and showed up Wednesday afternoon to help set-up for their annual holiday party. It's always a humbling experience to give to those who aren't as fortunate as you are, especially around the holidays. I met a few lovely ladies who were also volunteering and had to laugh at how much being an event person makes me a turbo volunteer. To every five chairs I carried (at once!), another woman brought out one. This sight was pretty funny while we were placing chairs:

I'm still trying to find the right volunteer opportunity that helps flip the house (who am I?!) in 2018. I know there will be no shortage of opportunities, so until the right one comes above, I'm going to keep exploring options close to home that allow me to make an impact in my community.

One of the biggest goals that I made major headway on this past month, and since my first update earlier this month, was "stay on top of BRCA2 gene appointments." I had my breast MRI (my first bit of surveillance since August of 2016- not cool Molly) on Tuesday morning. It's not a fun experience at all. But, it's a necessary one. And I'm happy to share the results I got yesterday: Benign findings. No suspicious masses or areas of abnormal enhancement. I don't get too freaked out about my test results, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't get anxious at all. Of course my mind wanders to the worst case scenario. Which is why it's all the more important that I remain on top of my surveillance. That way if they do find something one day, it will be caught early because I will not have let more than six months pass between tests. Anyway- a huge sigh of relief.

Tomorrow I'm making headway on my four massages and four facials goals and I'm really, really, really excited about that.

I also reallllly need to get moving on my goal to read 20 books this year. I am currently reading three books: What Happened by Hillary Clinton, What Unites Us by Dan Rather and Promise Me, Dad by Joe Biden. (Side note: if you had told me a year and a half ago that I'd be reading three politically slanted books, I would have laughed in your face.) I'm hoping my two week vacation will provide me with an opportunity to relax and read and make some headway here.

A few other goals I want to put some attention to during this break are:

• Date night with Steve- since we're both off and don't have a ton of holiday-related obligations, I hope we can do some fun things so we can also nurture our marriage. 
• Finish the remaining stair walks- I plan on getting a few of these crossed off my list in the next month and I'm excited to do more exploring at a time when Los Angeles isn't too busy.
• Organize and back-up photos- I came out of the gate strong on this one, but I've stalled the past couple of weeks. So I need to pick this one back up and get my photo library down to a more manageable size. The good news is that I've made so much progress already that I can now sync my phone to my computer because I've freed up enough space on my Mac.
• Write an article/short story about Clancy- I don't know exactly what this will look like, but I want to get this started.

Month two- check! And I'm feeling really good about everything I've set out to accomplish. It doesn't feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew and it's guiding me in having a really productive and focused year.