Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 3: The Goals And Dreams Project (Beta)

 The Goals And Dreams Project (Beta)

On Saturday, February 15th, 2025, at about 9:30 am, I sat at my computer and began to upload the podcast version of the previous installment, They Grow Up So Fast. As I completed this task, I thought back with pride on what had led me to this moment:

In 2018, I interned at my grade/middle school, Our Lady of Peace (OLP). My mentor was the middle school English teacher, Mr. Livingston. Mr. Livingston had a significant impact on my teaching career. So much so that now seven years later, I still find myself acting the way that he taught me to. Very early on in my internship, Mr. Livingston came up to me and said, “I want you to make a Google doc and list some goals and dreams you have for yourself.”

In 2022, after Gabby and I broke up and I had an ill-fated “situationship” with a girl named Lauren, my “sisters” devised a plan that we called “The Mitchell Project” that could help me better myself between my 25th and 26th birthday. The Mitchell Project would work best if I didn’t date anyone during those 365 days. Of course, I started dating Paige during that time, so while I wouldn’t say The Mitchell Project was a failure, it was not as successful as it could have been.

The success level of The Mitchell Project brings up a problem with Rules for a Greattastic Life as a whole. Each season, I set one pretty inflexible goal for myself to keep myself moving forward. Keeping it bound to one season, however, usually leads to failure. The clearest example of this is season four.

My goal for season four was to move out of my parents' house. While I did move in with Shane at the end of the season, and I was on the lease for 2 years, I would say I only lived there for about 6 months. In fact, I didn’t reach that goal until I moved in with Paige last summer. All of this to say, I have the ability to achieve goals, but hard deadlines are just a bit too restrictive.

After I had a discussion with my friend, Madison, my Grandpa (Pop-pop), and his partner Sara about how I was feeling about my success, back on New Year’s Day, I came up with a new plan. I Call it "The Goals and Dreams Project." I made a document called Major Goals and Dreams and included long-term goals and dreams (2030). I then made a Goals and Dreams document for this year. I have also added a color code. Black still needs to be done, green, completed, and red moved to next year.  I think this will give me a way to track my goals but still be flexible enough that I don’t get overwhelmed. On top of that, I'm just keeping it in a beta testing phase right now, so if it fails, I can scrap it and figure something else out.

I got a new computer for Christmas because with all the moving I did last summer, my computer was the last thing that made it to Paige and my apartment, and by the time it got there, the battery was shot. When I posted They Grow Up So Fast, I smiled, pulled out my phone, opened Goals And  Dreams 2025, and changed the goal “post more consistently to Rules for a Greattastic Life” from black to green.

Have a Greattastic Day and Be Safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 2: They Grow Up So Fast

 They Grow Up So Fast

As I’ve mentioned several times, I’ve become really good friends with my former coworker Clo. Despite a minor setback in our friendship in 2022, we have a very strong friendship now. I love my “sisters” and my other friends, but Clo… Clo is what I would be like if I was born a woman. I mean, she’s autistic, and we are the same kind of autistic; she thinks the same way as me. All this to say, our friendship is effortless because we can both kinda just be.

In the nearly four years that I’ve known her, Clo and I have never gone out to celebrate her birthday. Her 27th birthday was Thursday, January 16th, and Paige and I were going to go out with her that Sunday, but Clo had to cancel at the last second. On Friday, January 31st, 2025, Clo texted us and asked if we wanted to go out that night. 

We picked Clo up at 7:40 and drove to a restaurant nearby. While waiting for our appetizers, Clo pulled two tiny ceramic sheep and a ceramic head of lettuce about the same size out of her purse. I took one sheep, and she took the other. Then, we simulated them playing soccer with the lettuce. As Clo and I got more into it, Paige began to laugh. I turned to her and said, “You know this is what it’s going to be like when we have kids, right?” She laughed and rolled her eyes. 

Pins is a bar/duckpin bowling alley that started in Columbus. My dad has done all of their hand-painted graphics. At the original location, Pins has the world's largest ping-pong paddle, which Dad built. The original location was right by the restaurant, so we went over there after we ate. 

Now, when we were initially planning to hang out with Clo, Paige and I were going to get her something for her birthday before that Sunday. But because she had canceled, and the actual hangout was so impromptu, we never got around to it. Luckily, I had some leftover cash from Christmas. 

After hanging out on the Pins patio for about an hour, Clo said she wanted to play on the pinball machines. We went inside, and she started using her quarters. When I saw she was almost out, I ran to a machine and got about $10 worth of quarters. When Clo ran out of quarters and saw Paige and I holding the ones I just got, she practically de-aged 20 years, looked up at us, said, “Thank you,” grabbed the quarters, and scampered off to continue playing. 

“They grow up so fast,” Paige said in mock sadness. I put my arm around her waist, and we both looked at Clo nostalgically. Then, we busted out laughing. 

Have a Greattastic day, and be safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 1: The Funeral

 The Funeral

In loving memory of Jack Charles Savage

March 30,1953-January 21, 2025

This installment was not supposed to be the first one of this season. I had actually already started writing the installment that is now the third one when I knew this one was a necessity. On Wednesday, January 22, 2025, Mom called me first thing in the morning to let me know that her stepdad, Jack Savage (Papa), had died the night before.

Sadly, I knew this day might be coming. Papa’s health has been declining for the last few years; Paige has only known him with an oxygen tank. On top of that, he had been in the hospital for two weeks on a ventilator due to RSV. And the day before he died, he had a tracheostomy.

My Aunt Shana, Uncle Scott, and their daughter, Lexi, live with my grandma (Nimba), and I knew that my Aunt Cyndi might need a break from her kids, Caitlynn and Cameron. The funeral was scheduled for Monday, the 27th, so Paige and I decided to take the cousins to the mall on the 26th.

Cameron ended up not feeling well, and for transportation reasons, Cyndi ended up staying with us. We ate lunch, got some Starbucks, but we spent most of our time looking for something for Caitlynn to wear the next day.

The next day, I picked Paige up from work, and we drove to the funeral home. During the public viewing hours, I’d estimate that at least 250 people came in and paid their respects.

The funeral started with the pastor leading us in an opening prayer. Afterward, Cyndi got up and spoke. Cyndi said a lot in her 3 minutes, but the biggest takeaway was, every day for their 47 years of marriage, Papa would tell Nimba, “You look so pretty,” and she would reply, “You need your eyes checked!” Papa was an organ donor and actually ended up donating his eyes to someone… so Nimba was wrong; he didn’t need his eyes checked.

After Cyndi spoke, two of my great uncles did, and then I went up. I told two stories; the first was about how Papa introduced me to Beauty And The Beast on the weekend Ryan was born, and inadvertently sparked my interest in storytelling. The second was an account of when Papa taught me how to drive. I emphasized how confident he had been in my ability to drive, which led to some comical ignorance. Finally, having seen me and his mother give speeches, Cameron stood up and told a couple of stories that had everyone laughing.

I try to stay positive in this series. As a result, in the installment that I wrote about Papa teaching me how to drive (Play Another Song), I focused on the negative aspects of learning to drive and Papa’s positive impact overall, as opposed to telling the more comical aspects of that event. Between how I told that story, the funny stories that his brothers told, and how funny Cameron was, the funeral was (relatively) lighthearted. Honestly, I think that’s how he would’ve wanted it.

I love and miss you, Papa, 

Your grandson- John Mitchell Ulibarri