51
votes
What are you looking forward to right now?
In an effort to make life feel a little more joyful, I added a new calendar to my calendar app called "Nice things". In this calendar, I'm putting all sorts of nice upcoming things to look forward to (album/movie/game releases, the start of Fall, when my preorders will ship, upcoming eclipses and equinoxes and full moons, you name it). My goal is to feel more connected with the passage of time, rather than letting each day blur into the next. I want things to anchor and ground me each day.
Along the same lines, I'm curious: What are you looking forward to? What things on the horizon have you excited for the future? What would you put on a hypothetical "nice things" calendar?
I have a lot this week actually! It’s my birthday on Thursday - not something I’m usually very bothered about but I’m getting a new running watch which I’m excited for. At the weekend I have the 10K race I’ve been training for and then that afternoon a birthday lunch with good friends at a place that ranks in the top 10 on several lists for the best roast dinner in the city. The following day I have my citizenship ceremony!
I love your idea of a Nice Things calendar. So often our calendars are just filled with chores and obligations! Great idea
Sounds like an amazing week! Happy birthday and good luck on the race!!!
Thank you!!
Happy birthday!
Thanks!
I don't know how no one has mentioned this and I had no idea about it, but a citizenship ceremony! Congratulations!
Thank you! My citizenship has been accepted for a few months, but until you go to the ceremony and say the pledge (promising to follow the Australian laws and way of life) you aren’t a real citizen.
I’m excited because we have an important referendum next month, so I’ll get to vote in it!
Happy birthday, in advanced! I always look forward to your Tildes comments as they always feel insightful. What's the new running watch?
What a beautiful compliment, thank you!
I’m upgrading from a Garmin vivoactive to a Forerunner 265S. I considered going all the way up to a Forerunner 965, but I’ve got small wrists and it looked way too big. I’m excited for some of the extra features!
That’ll be a huge upgrade, congrats! Excited about any features in particular?
Excited to try out Garmin coach! I was using an app to get me up to 10K but I’m keen to have a plan that’s more individual. Haven’t decided yet whether to train for a longer distance or try to improve 5k speed. Maybe both as the 5k should speed up naturally with longer distances I assume.
I used to be a runner, then got arthritis and could barely walk without pain. The joy of movement is so immense now, I just want to run all the time!
That’s right, we totally talked about this at one point. Yeah Garmin Coach is great, can confirm. I’ve been using just the general “suggested workouts” feature recently and it’s been A at nailing exactly what I need to be a better overall runner with the current mileage that I’m doing. Love it.
Oh that sounds like another great feature! I was always a bit overwhelmed by Garmins as there are so many models, but now I’m mad at myself for not buying one years ago! What kind of workouts do they give you?
All of the different types. In particular, especially with this latest set of watches including the 265, they focus on three main areas: Base, Aerobic, and Anaerobic. Base are your easy runs. Aerobic are your mid to hard to runs. Anaerobic is your super hard runs. It picks up on how to measure this based off of the data you give it. You can set up a specific benchmark test or it can eventually figure it out just based on your runs and health stats.
This has me SO EXCITED for my next few months of running!
I was running with a Samsung watch for a few months and then I got a Garmin Forerunner 55 because I just wanted the cheapest one I could find and trust to be highly accurate (I already have a watch that I like for everyday use). It has been great for me. I haven't used the coach at all on mine because I'm following a plan, but I'm thinking about using it for a bit after my marathon. It's also actually easier to control what I'm listening to with it because it has buttons that aren't messed up by my sweaty fingers like a touchscreen is!
I got the cheap, out of date version because I knew that if I really get into running the way I want to, I'll buy an expensive watch that's good for ultramarathons. If I don't keep running for a long time, I'll have avoided spending extra money. All in all, I'd say that if you're not a crazy person like me who started running five months ago and now is intending to run literally all day (or longer) in the future, the 265 should be probably the best option!
I have my eye on an ultra too! It would be several years away for me, if ever - autoimmune arthritis might not allow me to ever run that far but what an achievement it would be! Is there a specific one you’d like to do? Here in Sydney there’s one that goes from Bondi Beach to Manly, 80km, and it looks so beautiful.
So far (one day of use) the 265S is perfect for me! Loving the extra features that I didn’t have in the Vivomove. Taking it out for my first run in a couple of hours :)
Awesome! I don't have a specific one in mind but I do have a list of ones that I have found online. I technically did one this year (12 hour endurance run) but I just did the training runs that I had scheduled those days with some walking in the middle. I will probably progress from 50k to 50 mi to 100k to 100 mi (if I progress that far!) so I have a lot of research to do!
Enjoy your watch! And make sure you use it right...I accidentally tracked my first race as a walk so I had to guess my pace from time and distance the whole race. I ended up running faster than I meant to though, so maybe it was a blessing!
Good luck with it!! I hope all the training goes well and you hit that 100 miles one day :)
Thanks for the tip!
My wife's retirement. I've been trying to get her to retire for years, and fortunately she didn't listen to me as we would be have been in much tighter financial state if she had. But now it's getting closer and I've finally pinned her down to 5 years. Still a long time but at least it's not forever.
In the short term, publishing a book I wrote last year. Now that the colder days of fall are upon us I won't feel badly about staying inside to work on that.
Starting my new job. I've got six weeks of my current one to get through (read: Play a lot of games and pretend to be working), six weeks off, then I start my new role. Really excited for it!
My current role has been hellish the past 9 months or so. My Director has been an absolute jackass about just about anything. He's become a single point of failure due to his micromanagement behaviour... then demands reasons why things haven't been done on time (Because we're waiting on him).
Honestly, there are too many men and women out there who know nothing of themselves beyond the profit they derive, it's exhausting.
But I am VERY excited to go to my new place.
My wife is just a few weeks away from giving birth to our first and only child. I am personally pretty terrified about it but she's so excited and seeing her this happy is really contiguous. If anyone has any advice for I'd gladly take it !
Don't know why, but this question hit like a truck. I'm approaching the point where I'll see resolution happen one way or the other on a issue that's taken the best years of my life.
At this stage, I just need it to be over.
Best of luck, however the pieces fall. Just wanted to say that I feel like I can maybe somewhat commiserate with this sentiment (without knowing the details), at least in having been trying to work through an issue that's taken a long while to bubble to the surface.
Came to this thread to feel some inspiration.
To keep on topic: right now, I'm grateful to have a stable job that allows me to look forward to the weekend. Boring, maybe, but it's not nothing.
My 15-year HS reunion in a few weeks. My brother is 5 years older, so we get to see each other for our reunions since they always happen the same year. Also the first 5-7 years after I graduated, I never felt like I'd have a strong bond with my old classmates. I needed to find my path and mature around new people outside the insular environment I came from, but after 10+ years, I realized we all went through our own version of maturing post-HS and I've become close with old friends again.
This kinda hits close to home because I've started hanging out with an old friend from high school. We drifted apart our Junior and Senior years, and 12 years later we're having a blast hanging out again. He and his wife just had twins, and my wife and I have a little one due in March so we're all excited and happy for each other. Plus we can practice on their babies :p
Weirdly for me, running!
I have always been a decently active person. At times in my life, I have ran consistently too. But I have never liked running. I would always tend towards other forms of exercise. About a month ago, I started running on my lunch breaks. At first I hated it as I expected. But I forced myself to start liking it. I don't know how its possible to force yourself to like something, but it seems to actually be working. About 2 weeks ago I hit 5k in about 30 minutes ish and have been doing at least a 5k consistently since then. I started to bump up the distance because I actually wanted to. I did not have to force myself to. This morning I was stuck in meetings. I was actually disappointed because I couldn't take my lunch early and go running. I have no idea how I did this to myself, but I am absolutely loving it! I found a 5k and 2 mile run this weekend that I am planning on participating in. My current goal is 10k which I feel pretty confident I can do. I tried to do it today, but there is a pretty aggressive hill about 2.2 miles into my route that absolutely killed me. On a relatively flat route, I think I could do 10k no problem.
Slow down and you'll be able to run it. In fact, generally slowing down is the correct advice with running. Doubly so for beginners - almost everyone starts off trying to run too fast. Most of your training should be slow.
My unsolicited advice: take those hills slow. Slower than you think. There's no shame if you need to walk up a hill.
When I'm doing long runs during half marathon training (10 miles), I take hills at 13 or 14 minute/mile pace. It's not far off from speed walking, but I don't want to push into the red heart rate zone on a long run. Once you hit the red zone, it's very difficult to come back down.
Thanks for that advice (also thanks /u/lebski). I’ll try to do that on my next few runs. I felt like I had to push myself pretty hard just to have a good pace. I don’t think I would have stuck with running if I didn’t have what felt like a fast enough pace (might be something to do with my ADHD). But I think I am enjoying it enough now that I can slow down without loosing motivation.
Edit: Just finished my daily run. 5.3 miles which is the longest I have run. I tried to stay in zone 3 the entire time. I had to slow down my pace quite a bit, but not as much as I expected. When I got to the hill, I slowed down quite a bit. I bounced around at high zone 4 and low zone 5 for the hill. Coming back down, I pretty quickly dropped back to low zone 3. I added a short 0.3 mile sprint towards the end. All in all it was a pretty good workout. Not yet my 10k goal, but a good step towards that. I feel pretty confident that I could do 10k on flat ground. Thanks for all the advice!
I’m looking forward to finding a new job and leaving my current one (hopefully in that order).
I’m spending a lot of my free time working on projects for my portfolio and doing online courses to learn new programming stuffs.
It won’t be long now. 🫠
I'm travelling to Seoul! Looking forward to some dak-galbi!!
Premier League games on Saturday. There were none this past weekend due to international games.
International break is just painful. I know they have to factor in qualifiers to the season but I just loathe the process.
Quite a bit, I was actually just talking about this with a friend.
September 26, Phantom Liberty comes out, so I’m trying to do as much as I can in Starfield so I can devote all my focus on that. Then there’s Assassin’s Creed: Mirage in October, Modern Warfare 3 in November (I’m looking forward to the campaign), and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in December.
On November 10th, I’m planning on going to a concert in Austin, TX (any recommendations while I’m in the area?). And Every December I go up to Tennessee, so I’m looking forward to some cold weather to contrast from my typical Florida heat. Oh, and on Christmas I get a pay increase!
There’s more, no doubts, but those are my current highlights.
Well, I loathe summer, so first of all I'm elated that it's finally over with. In our household, fall is the most jam-packed time period of fun, so I've got a whole season of events to look forward to!
This weekend I'm going to my favorite music festival to catch some dubstep, DnB, techno, house, and in general a surprisingly diverse variety of electronic music. For many years my husband and I have gone to festivals just the two of us, but in the past two years we found a really good group of festival friends (the type you're actually real friends with outside of festivals,) and it has been wonderful! We're all in our 30s and have been going to festivals for a decade, so we always have a fully decked out campsite with all the amenities, and there are no annoying kids who aren't prepared or can't handle their drugs/liquor. Everyone gets along, we never run out of electrolytes or good food, and we just dance and laugh for three days straight. It's just fantastic.
End of September I've been invited to join my old coworkers for an unofficial company camping trip. I resigned from that company last year after working there for 8 years and I miss everyone deeply. I'm feeling very lost when it comes to my career lately, so I'm really looking forward to catching up with a few people who have been supportive professional mentors for me in the past.
On October 1st, my husband and I begin our month-long horror movie marathon - everything we watch in October must be spooky or scary. Usually we pick themes like Stephen King, B-movies, or horror films from a specific country.
Second weekend of October we have a couples trip, camping near Duluth, MN. The state parks in that area are absolutely beautiful, and I believe we will be there during the peak of fall colors. We're going with a good friend of ours whom we've known for 9 years, but for some reason we've never spent much time with her partner, so we're looking forward to getting to know him.
After that we have the first group vacation we've ever done with our main friend group. We're going to Wisconsin Dells, the hilariously tacky and cheesy tourist capital of the Midwest. It's like Las Vegas for kids, but is strangely a ton of fun for adults too. It's slightly more southern than our camping trip in early October, so the two trips should be timed as such that we get to follow the peak fall colors all through October.
Halloween weekend will be a two day concert with the same people I'm going to the festival with. Everyone lives out of town, and we live a few minutes from downtown/the venue, so we get to be the home base for the weekend and host everyone since our place is convenient. It's also my favorite venue in town.
Wow. I didn't realize how much we have going on until I wrote it all out like that, haha. But I'm very excited. I'm super low energy in the summer so I haven't been hanging out with people much lately, and my social battery should be fully charged up for all the chaos in the coming weeks.
Edit: Also, I love this post! I've read that taking time to specifically look forward to things is helpful for mood, perspective, and happiness. It's like the flip side of reflecting on previous positive experiences and things you've been grateful for.
I love Halloween time! There’s nothing that quite matches the feeling. Any obscure movies you’d recommend? I’ve seen so many that I’m starting to struggle to find new ones.
Are you wanting something cheesy/bad good, or genuinely good?
My personal favorite find last year was The Gingerdead Man, a breathtaking film starring Gary Busey as a tiny, homicidal baked good who came forth from the oven when the ashes of a serial killer were accidentally mixed into the gingerbread dough at a small bakery. It's one of those movies that knows it's bad (I assume,) and is intentionally campy, but also retains the genuine charm of a bad horror movie that doesn't know it's bad. Terrible, hilarious acting, terrible writing, but also a surprisingly fantastic performance from Busey.
I am not as good at finding high quality obscure films as I am at finding laughably bad obscure films. Most of the good horror movies I've seen in recent years are critically acclaimed Korean films, which I feel like are well-known by most horror fans at this point.
Cities Skylines 2 coming out late October. Also I ordered a new-to-me Thinkpad off ebay that should be here tomorrow.
I'm celebrating another ride around the sun this week (happy also-birthday, /u/AgnesNutter).
First game of Euchre in about 17 years is set up for tomorrow. [It's good to be back in Michigan, where Trumps are just cards.]
Spouse and I will be taking an autumn foraging class/hike this Saturday.
Sunday, I'm off on another work trip, but I get to come back and wrap up a major rebuild project that I've been sweating over for months. I don't know why it's so satisfying to have many fiddly bits come together, but that's how I apparently get my thrills.
Third week in October is our staycation. If you have a place that you consistently visit to "get away from it all", I highly recommend relocating to that locale.
Also, pretty tree season! Autumn is so bittersweet in temperate climes - it's like the trees are throwing a confetti party to welcome in winter. Plenty of hiking at the perfect temperatures to avoid sweating, and photographs that never quite capture the gorgeous scenes. Hanging out in the backyard with a fire in the firepit and a bottle of local wine is just the peak experience of the month.
Thank you! Many happy returns to you too :)
I ordered a bunch of new
toystools for my workshop recently - a resin printer, a mill, and accessories for both. Most of them arrive this week. I'm looking forward toplayingbuilding stuff with them.