Great in 2008 Check-In

Okay, it's no mystery. I'm not really sticking hard and fast to my list of resolutions...err, "goals." Surprise. Still, I am making steps in the right direction. I think.

1. I am currently reading a book--The Best American NonRequired Reading (2007). I've been consistently reading on the subway and even read a few times at home (gasp!).
   
2. I attended the first meeting of a new writer's group on Sunday morning. I wrote something during the meeting and struggled for several hours to develop it into a longer fiction piece about a monkey and a mad scientist. It didn't really work out, despite the support provided by Jason and Jessica. I kind of got lost in trying to develop plot and then lost interest altogether. Perhaps, I should focus on writing in genres I feel more comfortable with for now. Fiction isn't really my forte. I still need to come up with something to be workshopped by Friday. Dang it!
   
3. Draw more? Okay, I haven't been. I'm saddistic. Still, I put the Monday night uninstructed Life Sketch at the Art Students League on my calendar. (It's only $6!) I'll go for the first time next week.
   
4. It's hard to quantify if I have been procrastinating less. I mean, I wasn't a total mess before and I did finally do the painful chore of redeeming the massage coupon Jessica gave me for my birthday. But in general? Uh...well, I do have some mail from 2 weeks ago that I should open, like a million SuperVegan friend requests on MySpace to approve, and a few good restaurants to add to our resty guide. Dang it!
5. Think less. Do more...well, I've been adding and attending lots of things on my calendar without sweating if I'm totally prepared or if I'm going to have to go it alone.
   
6. I've been drinking so much water my eyeballs are floating.
7. As far as eating more at home, does it count if I eat leftovers from work at home? That goal isn't going to well. True, I've been eating out less, but mostly that's because I've been eating less in general. Note to self: Buy some groceries!
8. I downloaded an audio book crash course in Spanish from the Brooklyn Public Library's E-Library. Despite putting the book on my MP3 player, I have yet to listen to it. I blame my self-consciousness about wearing headphones in public for this.
   
9. I have yet to visit anywhere new, but Chinatown in Sunset Park is calling me. Oh, wait. I went to the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa for my massage last week. That place was new and felt totally foreign. I guess I was thinking more geographically when I made the goal though.
   
10. I am far from freed of my TV addiction, but I am making an effort to watch less TV. In fact, I didn't watch any TV today! I think the key is to get out of the house. Binging on Netflix also helps the me stay clean of TV for about 48 hours. (Last night Jessica and watched 4 episodes of last season's L Word.) I haven't watched a full episode of CSI: Miami in about four days. I do miss Horacio Cane as others might miss a close friend they haven't seen in a while, but (theoretically) I do have more important things to do than watch the forensic unraveling of a fictional murder mystery in Miami.
    

NYE: Gearing up for 2008

New Year's Eve
Anyhow...I don't work today since it's Monday. Instead, I wake up at 11am and wait for Jessica to get off of work and join me for lunch at Curly's. I'm nearly 20 minutes late because I decide to eat a bowl of soup and some bread before leaving home. On the way there, I beat myself up for starting the new year this way--late, again. Then I remember it's still 2007. Phew!

After a delicious lunch, Jessica and I spend an ridiculous amount of time--over an hour--picking out her new cell phone and an emergency phone for her aunt. The options are limitless, confusing, and, ultimately, meaningless. It's just a phone, for chrissake. Still, when you're surrounded by a few dozen of them, yet have to make a long-term commitment to just one, the entire thing is overwhelming.

Jessica and I part ways after the phone fiasco. Needing to poop and buy baking supplies, I head to Whole Foods. The women's bathroom line is obscene. I fantasize about using the men's room the entire 15 minutes that I wait to use one of the two stalls in the room designated to my gender. It's finally my turn, but I can't poop knowing there are a dozen women on the other side of the plywood door listening to me and silently commanding me to hustle. It's not fair! Defeated, I pee instead and head downstairs to buy overpriced organic groceries. I actually score some really awesome orange extract for $3--not a bad deal.

Though it's technically still 2007, mentally I'm already in 2008. 2007 sucked and I have no problem saying goodbye to it. Though I'm an awesome person in general (beautiful, friendly, funny, caring, multi-talented, modest), in 2007, I was ruled by the not-so-great parts of my personality: flakiness, t.v. addiction, reclusiveness, and a self-loathing that prevented me from doing many of the things I enjoy.

In an effort to turn over a new leaf, I compose the following list, titled "2008 Goals", because calling them "resolutions" just seems like an invitation to failure:

1. Read more.
2. Write more.
3. Draw more.
4. Procrastinate less.
5. Think less. Do more.
6. Drink more water.
7. Eat more meals at home.
8. Learn another language.
9. Visit 3 new places.
10. Watch less television.
11. Learn to shoot a gun.

I'm pretty confident that at least half of these goals will be accomplished, especially since I carefully avoided quantifying what the terms "more" and "less" mean.