Karwoski Life

I’ve never really been someone who loved goals – setting them, reviewing them, completing all those ‘important’ steps to achieve them. Yawn. I’ve read articles about them, attended seminars and various training sessions on them, heck; we learned about them rigorously all throughout school. The importance of setting goals…making them SMART…blah, blah, blah. Whatever. I just don’t DO the whole goal thing. I don’t know if it is because I’m afraid of failing, if I’m just that non-committal, or if I just don’t want to be held accountable to anyone but my own darn self. I’m not sure…maybe a combination of all that…and my general bad attitude towards someone else telling me what to do (even if that someone else was me). I guess I like the freedom to change my mind…example…my GOAL is to only spend $50 whilst shopping today. However, 30 minutes at Eddie Bauer and I quickly realize this ‘goal’ simply won’t work. It’s just not ‘attainable’, not practical. Before long my goal seems more like a co...

This past week I traveled to Atlanta, GA for my yearly work conference. Given the state of things in the economy I wasn’t sure I’d be given the opportunity to travel at all this year, but it worked out for me and my co-worker Pam to make the trip. Pam likes to call me the travel advisor for our conference trips…as I always try to find something fun and unique to do and see in the various cities we travel to for our conferences. It was easy to find and plan wonderful things to do in places like Boston, Anaheim, Orlando, and New Orleans…Saint Louis was a little trickier (though riding up in the arch was pretty cool)…and Atlanta seemed tough too. Atlanta is a hopping city, for sure, but what is IN Atlanta to see, tour, etc? Coca-Cola headquarters…eh. CNN headquarters…eh. A big aquarium…can it really compare to Shedd? What else ya got, Atlanta? Well…after doing a bit of research I came across a company which gives guided tours of the city by Segway! What’s a Segway, you ask? Have you seen...

Last week in church I read in the bulletin that a group of folks were thinking about putting together a co-ed softball team to play in a league around Des Moines this summer. It got me thinking…it could be something really fun for Matt and I to do together. Now, I am NOT a softball player…never have been, but Matt played baseball most of his school days and has always loved the sport. I was thinking maybe it’d just be fun to be a part of the team, get out and make new friends, and do something completely out of our comfort zone. So on the way home, I mentioned to Matt that I thought maybe we should consider joining – and honestly, I expected him to be a bit hesitant…and rightly so. But he wasn’t. Not even a little, as far as I could tell. He just said sure. Even though he can’t play on the team, I thought it’d be fun for us both to just be a part of the team…and he even said he could give me some pointers. If I hadn’t been driving, I would’ve jumped on his lap for a big ‘ol hug. Some...