say yes to all invitations

• A bootcamp class with a friend
• Contacted the tennis guy to set up a game for Saturday.
• Went for Sunday lunch with a gang of friends

Theres an invite pending with a gang of mates to a mad fetish party, still debating it :-)

I guess when you consider that at the end of life , you don’t remember the quiet nights where you sat in and watched tv, you remember the things you did where you took a chance.
And this is about me taking chances and surprising myself.

• He was probably some saddo who was trawling the internet looking for a hook up
• My tennis game would not be up to scratch and it would be embarressing
• He was only asking me to play tennis in the park on a winter evening so he could assault me or just be wierd :-()

Am I insane? The guys just looking for a game of tennis!

9/1:
I didn’t really have many chances to say yes, but I did suggest what we should have for dinner (Thai takeout) and went and picked it up for my family and I.

9/2:
Again, not too much happened. I was off work and helped around the house a bit.

9/3:
Not too much was asked of me, but I did share some personal things with a new friend.

9/4:
I was at work for most of the day. I volunteered to switch shifts with a coworker next week and also stayed a few minutes longer so that she could take a little break.

9/5:
After my class got out, I met my mother at the outlet mall so we could look for shoes. We left empty-handed, but we did get a delicious lunch at Coconut Point together. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and I even took a little nap.

9/6:
I said no! I really didn’t want to see Step Brothers at the theater, so I said no. I was already watching one movie at home, but I should have gone out anyway, this is the month of yes afterall! But then is it so bad to say no to spend $10 on a movie I don’t want to see?

I’m really going to make this my number 1 priority for the month of September. I said no to go to someone’s house last night because I was tired, but no more excuses! This month is the month of yes. I will say yes to anything that doesn’t hurt me or anyone else. I will chronicle each day here on 43Things.

I gave a hearty yes to every invitation I received this summer, then noticed that I was extremely over-committed and had to back out of a lot of things. Which disappointed a lot of people. I’m lame like that.

I’m going to try this again but with a lot more careful planning!

I went to a party that I didn’t really want to go to just because somebody asked. I ended up being the photographer for the evening. I also left early because they were all really loud and drunk and it gave me a headache. But I’m still glad that I went.

I haven’t said yes to everything. But I have said yes to a lot of different things. I have been to two surprise parties, played monopoly, watched Grey’s Anatomy with some new girlfriends, and gone out to clubs three times with different people. I’ve been having a blast. I did say no to going to karaoke and to going canoeing in the Everglades, but I don’t feel like I’ve failed, because sometimes you just don’t want to do something. A lot of the time I don’t want to just hang out at somebody’s house, but I’ll say yes to at least get out of mine.

If I follow this rule then I will say yes to the mini-reunion my college friends are having in St Louis in August. But I’m not sure I want to go.

“I’d always been secretly scared of so many things, and the months of yes had changed me. Maybe I’d been scared of falling in love, just as I’d been scared of roller coasters and sweater vests, of leaping before I looked. From the outside, I knew that I looked devil-may-care, but on the inside, I cared like crazy. Part of me was always preserving myself, making sure that I didn’t get hurt, making sure that I didn’t get lost. Not today. I let go of the last things I’d been clinging to. I was ready for love to come for me.”

- Maria Dahvana Headley, The Year of Yes, p. 197

I am taking a short weekend trip north to Gainesville to visit my friend at UF. I am also picking up another friend in Tampa to drive up there.

Last night, I went to see the movie Rambo. I didn’t really want to see it and I didn’t really like it, but it was good that I went out and chatted with the boys I went with.