2007: The Year Ahead

Yes, yes, I know. We are more than halfway through the month, and I am just now starting to work on the whole 2007 Resolutions/To Do/To Don't List...but hey, I was sick at the beginning of the month, and for the past week I have been juggling various crises.

Maybe "don't procrastinate and make lame excuses" should be at the top of the list.

Finances:

1. Pay off my credit card debt left over from the move (already about halfway there! Wooo!)
2. Pay off one of my private loan from Sallie Mae (assholes)
3. Save receipts, record all purchases

Professional Development:

1. Update my resume every 6 weeks
2. Update my work blog very regularly
3. Attend ALA in Washington this summer
4. Set deadlines, and stick with them
5. Remember this: Every taxpayer is my boss
6. Read all the Caldecott and Newbery Award-winners
7. Do monthly genre studies

Friendships/Relationships/Community:

1. Remember everyone's birthday, and send their cards on time
2. Be prompt in returning emails and letters
3. Become a Big Sister

Physical Care:

1. Drink lots and lots of water
2. Start using gym pass
3. Take vitamins and medications on time
4. Get teeth cleaned
5. Moisturize and use sunblock, copiously
6. Strive to take good care of possessions: hang up clothes, iron items, polish shoes, don't get things so dirty!
7. Learn how to apply eyeshadow with some degree of skill
8. Floss
9. Cut back on junk food. I do pretty well with the no fast food, and have sworn off beef. Now, must do this...

Homemaking:

1. Start cooking, dammit.
2. Learn how to mend
3. Spend 15 minutes each day, cleaning up after myself
4. Get a couple of (non-poisonous) houseplants

Travel:

1. Take a road trip to San Francisco
2. Fly back to Daytona at Thanksgiving
3. Visit Palm Springs
4. Visit San Diego

Creative Ventures/Hobbies:

1. Learn to knit
2. Learn to make jewelry
3. Write more--writing prompts, letters, journal entries, short stories, poetry, haikus, lists, freewrites, research, ideas for novels
4. Try to go on a hike at least once a month
5. Learn Dreamweaver, and how to design my own blog

Spiritual Development:

1. Read Desiderata every day
2. Meditate

Purchases, Little Indulgences:

1. George Foreman Grill, water filter, vegetable steamer, and electric wok
2. Papasan chair
3. End table
4. Bedside table lamp
5. Featherbed mattress
6. "Taste of Home Cookbook"
7. Replace hubcap on car
8. Get car door handles fixed
9. Get car detailed

To Don't

Don't get dumped in a student union! In fact, don't go to any student unions, for any reason!

Don't cry like a bitch with a skinned knee for an entire month if I get dumped. Moping occasionally is okay. Lying on the floor of friends' apartments, sobbing and hyperventilating? Not so much.

Don't sabotage the relationship with the boyfriend. Sure, I've got a lot of issues and hangups left from the last relationship that carries over into this one. Sure, I have my fears. But DON'T SABOTAGE.

Don't spend a lot of time thinking about small-minded Italian women who hate me. If I don't forgive, I am allowing them to live in my head, rent-free. And we all know how expensive rent is here in SoCal.

Don't swear so much.

Don't lost all my nail-files, lip balms, and pens.

Don't procrastinate

Don't think negatively, or anticipate. I don't know what the future holds, so it's unfair to project...