Resolute

Day 1 of the semester, day 4 of the year, and already I'm feeling unmotivated and lazy. Not the best way to kick off the new decade. I'm going to blame the apathy on the sub-freezing temperatures and the unwelcome jolt of the 5:30 a.m. alarm after a week of sleeping late. But in the interest of jump-starting myself a little, I figured I'd throw out some resolutions, just for the hell of it.

First, a little year-in-review. 2008 was apparently the pinnacle of resolution-following; I wasn't nearly as successful in 2009. Of my four resolutions, I half-assed three and didn't exactly blow the fourth out of the water. I managed just 38 blog posts last year (a little more than half of my once-a-week goal) and didn't write anything worth saving in our short-lived creative writing club. I did learn to knit, but shelved my project with the warm weather; now I'm not sure if I remember how to do it anymore. I volunteered on a biweekly basis with Chicago Cares from January through April and then took the summer off, intending to find a new project or organization in the fall--which didn't happen. However, I did write a pretty solid grant application--unfortunately the state cut funding for the program before it was awarded--and I "published" an article in a professional organization's newsletter. So I'm going to count that one as a qualified success.

But when it comes to resolutions, I'm an eternal optimist. So here goes.

1. Write at least 1 blog post a week. M. Defarge is talking about getting me a laptop, despite the fact that Christmas ended about 20 minutes ago. Maybe that will help.
2. Expand my exercise repertoire to include one day of non-yoga activity per week, even if it means less yoga. In the short-term, check out Pilates classes at my gym and attempt to find an instructor who makes me rethink my current view that Pilates is horrible torture masquerading as fitness.
3. Invite over all of the people who have had us over for dinner. (That can't be grammatical, but I can't figure out how to make it less atrocious.) After successfully hosting three "dinner parties" in the span of a week I was reminded just how much fun it is to have friends over. In the past I've been reluctant because of our ugly bathroom, obnoxious dog, and dirty house. The first problem has been completely rectified, and I managed to look past the other two and still enjoy myself, so I'd like to do it more often.
4. Clean out the desk drawers and the medicine/junk closet in our study when I do my annual room-by-room cleaning, instead of putting them off indefinitely like I did the last two years.
5. Go to Europe. Enough said.

We'll see if I can put my money where my mouth is. I spent the entire fall semester preaching about setting goals, breaking them down into manageable tasks, and keeping oneself accountable, but it's a lot more daunting when I have to do it myself.