Ring in the New Year

(Brandy excited with her backpack on)

I will be turning 27 in the year 2012. There is no significance to me turning 27, nor is it a big milestone in the eyes of the world. but as this year is ending, I've been thinking about what I want out of the one to come. I am working full time at Coca-Cola Refreshments, and I am getting my MBA at Emory. In the last year, I feel like I have been too focused on my job and school and I have been ignoring my well being. I am not nearly as stressed out as you'd think I'd be working and going to school, but I definitely do not exercise very much. I can't stand gyms, mainly because I am judging almost everyone there, so I know that they are judging me. I love to be outdoors, and I have a dog named Brandy. So I have decided that a good goal for 2012 is to try and do 27 hikes over the course of the year. Brandy is pretty excited.

 What kind of hikes, you might ask. Well, each hike will be within a days trip of where I live, Atlanta, Georgia (the state). I like variety, so each hike will be different. I make killer sandwiches, and my friends and I like to bring wine on our hikes, so we'll be having a picnic during each hike.

You also might ask, why would anyone care to read about these hikes? I have seen lots of websites with step by step descriptions of hikes. I've also seen websites centered around good hikes for dogs. However, I would like to offer a more personal description of the hiking locations and my experiences at each. Therefore, I will be reporting on the quality of the hike based on the following factors:

• Difficulty, in my opinion
• Natural Beauty, in my opinion
• Dog Friendlines, in Brandy's opinion
• Picnic-ability at the half way point

I will also share my sandwich recipes, and the reviews from my hiking comrades. They're pretty honest, so they'll tell you if the sandwiches sucked. We usually take, what we like to call, juice boxes of wine, but perhaps we'll switch up the beverage of choice every now and then, and I will report back on how that went. Any other products that we decide to use, I will report our findings.
All will be documented with the IPhone and my Canon EOS digital SLR, and pictures will be posted. Hopefully, there will be some mental enrichment with each experience, so I will close each blog with a lesson that I have learned.
My goal to do 27 hikes in 2012 will hopefully give me time to melt away some of my stresses throughout the year. I guess not many people think of setting a goal to plan out more than 2 hikes a month and hike miles at a time as a calming thing to do with there time, but I think it will be. I am also letting a yoga studio take money out of my account every month, and I have to go about 8 times a month to make it worthwhile. I'm hoping that if exercise and health are on the brain, I'll be more likely to keep up with that goal as well. Even though the world is going to end in 2012, I would like to feel well balanced when it does. I'm hoping to start January 1, but it might rain and i might be hung over...


Mental Enrichment: On the last hike I did, I learned that in Japanese, little chickies say Pio-Pio.