It's a Stop-The-Pity Party.

This is definitely not my cake, or my design, or my photo.
All came from Pink Cake Box, but this one reminded me of Dr. Seuss, which I <3>

My lovely blog turns one year old today!!!

My dear agent-sister, Linda Benson, is holding a contest for her blog's first birthday, which I think is an awesome idea.

But I'm not going to do that, not for this anniversary.

In my six-month-anniversary post, I chatted about all the things I've accomplished since leaving NY. And at the risk of sounding like I'm bragging, I'm going to do that again.

I encourage you to do the same. Especially if you've been hard on yourself lately, like I have.

I mean, I'll be the first to admit that I add items on my to-do list just to make myself feel more productive - e.g. 3) eat lunch, 11) load the dishwasher, and 21) take a shower. (This totally works by the way. Seeing things, even small things, get crossed off your to-do list is a very satisfying feeling.)

But I also have to admit that I'm totally Type A. (Or rather Type C - which is Type A, who works really hard to convince peeps that she's Type B.) It's an advanced case - I have a voice in my head that talks a lot like Hermione Granger. It's always concerned about the things that I haven't done or that I could've done better.

That voice is particularly noisy this week - for two reasons:

a) I'm getting over being sick, and I'm working about half as quickly as I normally do.

b) I just realized that one of my projects will be late - despite the best efforts of the people involved, including me. :-(

(Of course, I won't repeat all the things I've already talked about in this post, because that would just be bragging. So, this is just a list from February 19 onward.)

1. I went to New York to meet my lovely, talented, sweet agent, Joanna Stampfel-Volpe.
2. I completed two revisions for my agent (plus a pass she never saw).
   
3. I lived alone for roughly 21 weeks of this year, which was one of my life goals. (Not the week-count, obviously - the living alone part.)
   
4. I embroidered a cute little something for my little sister.
5. I read 45 books since February 19, which makes 125 over the course of the past year. (But only 78 were book I had never read before. The rest were re-reads.)
   
6. I also went on submission.
   

And, of course, I also took showers on a regular basis. So there's another item to cross off the list. :-P

So, I definitely did stuff. And I bet you did too.

What I've noticed about people (including myself) that if you're Type A or just stressed out, most of your thoughts are concerned with the things that you still need to get done. Sometimes, you can remember what you spent the last month accomplishing. In a few rare cases, you might recall what you did two whole months ago.

Think back six months. Where were you then? What were you doing? What were you worried about? What were you thinking would never get done? ('Cause I bet it got done.)

Now think back twelve months. Ask yourself the same questions.

You probably racked up quite a list of accomplishments. Give yourself credit.

No matter how long your to-do list is at this moment, you've already done - and forgotten - some of the things on your list (and a few things that probably weren't). Put it all in perspective. You'll probably forget about all these things that you're currently worrying about within the space of two years. Try to limit your worry as much as possible.

When I moved out of New York last August, I couldn't have predicted everything that happened to me. Or everything that I would make happen.

It's been a heck of a year.

And though I'm going to try to limit the freakout as much as possible, it's only going to get more hectic from here.

(Hahahahahaha. Okay, I'm sorry. I couldn't resist. :-P)