Resolve is a carpet cleaner

LJL asked me if I do resolutions for the New Year.

*cough*

I make them but I rarely end up doing them. And then I remembered that I have resolutions from last year to refer to as a kind of scorecard for the year.

"get a job":
Did that. It has opened my eyes to the world of work and now I just wish I could figure out how to close them again. Working has certain advantages like paying. But there are drawbacks like having to get up early and change out of your PJ's.

"lose my thesis weight":
Did that. Moved to New York and promptly started putting it back on. I am in between sizes now. My grad school pants are too tight. My thesis pants are too loose. I need a belt, some suspenders, some new pants or maybe just a waistband extender.

"Continue to fight my sentimental and acquisitive nature and pare down my material world":
Well, I think I am as sentimental as ever and barring some horrible chain of events, likely to remain that way.

As to my acquisitive nature I have been trying to cut back on the things that I buy. It helps to live in NY without a car. Having to carry everything you buy puts a real damper on any wild shopping spree. I stop at the point where the bags are cutting off circulation to my fingers.

I have had little success in paring down my material world. It's just all boxed up in my parents' basement still.

"Read the news more regularly":
Totally dropped the ball on that one. *sigh*

"write people back faster"
That one was touch and go. Had some very good and very bad phases on that one.

"Read a Winter's Tale"
Didn't happen either. Nor did Bryce Canyon, the Kentucky Derby or the getting organized or the complete works of Shakespeare.



That was then what about now? What about for 2007?

I have run across two quotes that I like for the year 2007:

"We are all on our own journey from the home we were born into toward the home we make for ourselves."
-Frank Warren (creator and curator of Postsecret)

I need to stop looking for a place to call home or a person to be my home. I need to recognize that home is the ground I stand on and what I carry inside me. I need to recognize that my life is not something that is eventually going to happen but what is happening with every blink and breath.

Don't cut funny. "If it's funny and it forces you to look at yourself honestly, how can you cut it? If you're writing and you don't feel embarassed and you don't feel nervous, then you're probably not writing anything interesting."
-Erica Jong

I have been feeling kinda numb lately. I think it's because I have been living too safe and too careful.


Recognize my limitations - honor them 80% of the time

Set deadlines and meet them

Clean my room at least four times in the year

Throw a party or two

Have one pet project for each month

Sleep more
Eat well
Exercise
Do chores in a more timely manner
Do the hard stuff before the easy
Be better groomed
Do less and do it better

Make more lists

And read the news