Tag Archives: resolutions

2012 Resolutions In Review

Oh right, last year’s resolutions.

1. Running faster in at least two half marathons plus the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.
Done. I PR’d in the Illinois half in April, taking 6:40 off my Detroit time. I missed a PR in the Monster Dash by 4 seconds. I also took 4:59 off my Cherry Blossom time.

2. Learn more about [my] DSLR.
Done. I took a DSLR workshop in May and feel like I have a somewhat better grasp on how my camera works – and then I broke my arm and couldn’t hold it properly for a few weeks, and then it started taking spirit photographs and spent 3 months in the shop. Whoops.

3. See [no] fewer than 12 movies in the theater.
Done. I saw: The Adventures of Tintin, My Week With Marilyn, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Artist, The Skin I Live In, Joy Division with Le voyage dans le lune, Shame, The Cabin in the Woods, Your Sister’s Sister, The Hunger Games, Shut Up and Play the Hits, Moonrise Kingdom, Skyfall (x3), and Django Unchained.

4. Write at least one [letter] per week.
Done. I wrote 169 letters and postcards in 2012.

5. Find a job in Chicago.
Done! I’ve been at my job nine months, and while it isn’t my dream job, that has less to do with the job and more to do with my dreams.

6. [Bake] one pie per month.
I baked zero pies in 2012.

7. Master at least one new cocktail at home per month.
I mastered two cocktails: the manhattan, and the French gimlet.

8. More travel.
I didn’t leave the country despite my best attempts to walk to Mexico. I did leave the state more than a few times, though.
January: Carlsbad/San Diego, CA plus lots of back and forth to Chicago
February: back and forth to Chicago
March: Champaign for LEEP weekend, DC for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler
April: southern Illinois with the GSLIS ladies, Champaign for the Illinois I-Challenge
May: Overnight to Indiana
June: weekend in A2, Anaheim/Imperial Beach, CA
July: nowhere because I had a goddamned broken arm
August: weekend in A2
September: nowhere
October: two weekends in Champaign, Charlottesville, VA for a conference
November: DC, Champaign
December: San Francisco, CA, weekend in A2

9. Read at least two books per month.
Nope. I read 17 books, quit one book club, and started another.

10. Learn to do alterations.
Nope. Maybe this year.

11. More feats of strength! More push-ups. More miles on Orange. And maybe, just maybe, a pull-up.
Done, sort of. Angie and Soy and I started the 100 pushups training program, and I was happy as long as I stayed ahead of the husbands. We had a push-up competition on our girls’ weekend (I won). And then I broke my arm. My strength is coming back, but a pull-up is still a long ways off.

I did, however, put a lot of dang miles on Orange, though I didn’t hit my arbitrary and late-established goal of 1,000 miles.

12. More time connecting with the important people in my life.
Done, though this looks dramatically different than it did last year.

2013 Resolutions

No pants in public. Jenny asked how this counts as a resolution since I’m not inclined to wear pants in general. I said it’s like a social smoker quitting smoking for real. No pants in public except those required for specific fitness activities (yoga, running, biking, etc).*
One really big race: either the Chicago Marathon or a triathlon. Despite the adrenaline of finishing the former with Annette, I’m still unconvinced that I need to do it myself. The latter sounds hard but fun. Or “fun”. So maybe I do an Olympic/international tri, and then run Nat in from mile 18. All the adrenaline, none of the missing toenails.
Ride a goddamned motorcycle. This was on my list of things to do in my 25th year. I’m almost 33.
Get out of debt. I also want to build up my savings, but interest rates are higher on credit than on savings, so debt reduction it is.
Leave the country at least once.
Run 1,000 miles and bike 2,000 miles.**
Figure out this career stuff. I can’t be more specific at the moment, but I want to make this happen.
Keep living with my heart wide open.
Be more like Leslie. Always.

*I enjoy that I will not be wearing pants in public, while Jenny generally doesn’t wear pants in private. Opposite/same!
** Special dispensation will be given for this resolutions in case of injury.

Bourbon and Pants

That’s what I’m giving up for Lent: bourbon and pants.

Bourbon should be pretty straight-forward. I like it. I like it a lot. Bourbon and I got back together in 2011 after several years of separation and brutal hangovers. In previous years, the bourbon hangover tended to hit me about 16 hours after the actual consumption of bourbon, and felt a bit like someone is performing trepanation on my head. This past year, however, bourbon has come back into my life, particularly in the form of manhattans, and it has been my welcome companion at many a happy hour or party, particularly in the last few months. When I posted on Facebook that I’d be giving bourbon up for Lent, I was accused of contributing to the mass of lies already on the internet. I was also told that I was SO BRAVE. Regardless of your stance on this matter, I will be deprived of bourbon for 40 long days and nights.*

Miss you, Prescription Julep

Pants, on the other hand, might be the tougher challenge. Let me clarify that this means pants in the American sense, not the British sense. My stance on those pants is none of your business. My desire to give up pants is twofold. First, I have an awful lot of vintage dresses and skirts and knee socks and tights that I really should wear even more often. Second, I have a hell of a time buying pants, and the ones I do own no longer fit. I possess a body made for 40s house dresses, not for 21st century pants. I’m tall, which means that most pants are too short. I have runners’ legs, which means I can’t buy skinny jeans. I have a butt and a proportionally small waist, which means that pants that fit the former don’t fit the latter, and pants that would fit the latter won’t pull up over the former. I’ve resorted to adding extra buttons to my jeans, but even then, my pants are all doing this:

I’m not pregnant, and I’ll punch anyone who suggests that I might be.

The pants pictured above are freshly washed in hot water and dried, and yet I still have 1-2 inches of space between my waist and the waistband. My jeans are even worse. So to some extent, giving up pants is a no-brainer. They don’t fit. I live in Michigan, though, and walk most places, including the 3/4 mile to work every day. This sacrifice may require some sartorial creativity. If nothing else, it will guarantee that I finish out my time in my current job without ever having worn jeans to work. And that in and of itself is a success.**

So: bourbon and pants. I’ll miss you, but that will just make April all the more sweet.

* I haven’t yet decided if I’ll also be giving up rye, scotch, or other forms of whiskey. It seems like I should.
** Exemptions will be granted to pants necessary for exercise, so yoga pants and running tights are still OK. But, like leggings, they aren’t really pants that should be work in public anyway.

2011, part 1

Does anyone have the patience to read another year-in-review post? Much less more than one? If not, sorry about that, as I apparently have more to say about the year gone by than can be reasonably accommodated by the checklist of sorts that is my resolution list.

First, though, what I intended to do in 2011:

Expand my bread repertoire by baking 2 new types per month.
The Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day technique led to a whole lot of delicious bread in the first half of 2011. Halfway through the year, however, we adopted a lower carb diet, and I haven’t baked a loaf since. I miss baking and also bread.

Knit socks.
Done! Except that I used cheap cotton yarn and didn’t finish the toes neatly, rendering my lovely handmade socks the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever put on my feet.

Run the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.
Done! Also two half marathons and a handful of shorter races, with 523.22 miles run in total.

Continue saving aggressively for a down-payment on a house.
The first part, yes. The second part, not so much. Instead we paid off our car a year early and built up a decent safety net.

Complete the 25 Recipes challenge.
If the convener of the challenge is treating it as a lifetime project, I think I can too. I did manage eight successful recipes, and a few unsuccessful attempts.

Learn to accessorize.
I don’t know that I’ve succeeded here, but I did embrace vintage dresses and big hair.

Make a decision about grad school.
In retrospect, I’m not even sure what this was about. Was I seriously considering grad school at this time last year? Huh.

Sock away 3 months’ worth of my half of the household budget (approx $4500).
Not quite there, but in good shape.

Survive my first semester of teaching.
Two semesters down, with my third starting on the 17th. I’m incredible thankful for the opportunity, as teaching has been both more challenging and more rewarding than I expected.

Take a solo trip and a vacation with SB.
I went to Philly and DC in the spring, where I gave a talk, went to a bibliodiscotheque, and ran the CB 10 Miler (see above):

New York in the summer, where I walked for hours and hours and hours:

and DC again in the fall, where I dressed up as a fancy lady for Halloween:

In addition to many weekends in Cleveland, Chicago, and Rockford for weddings, Shane and I took a Midwest road trip, where we rode a ferocious beast, hiked around a lake, ate a lot of ice cream, and laid on a beach long enough that I got a sunburn on my butt.

Mo-mo-more?

We’re in Rockford for the holiday, having moved the majority of our material possessions to Chicago three days ago. The last two days have been full of cookies and presents and traditions and relaxed family time. Max has been running around playing with trains and pointing at various delicious things and saying “mo-mo-more”, his voice lilting upward as he points at the object of his desire.

I mention this because as I look forward to 2012, what I want most is mo-mo-more. More time with friends and family. More travel. More flowers, more movies, and more amazing food. More miles. More love, more patience, and more connection in my relationships and with the world. So this post is me reaching my hands in the air and asking the universe for what I want in the next year:

This year was about running further. 2012 will be about running faster in at least two half marathons plus the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.
I want to take better photos of more than just food, though better food photos would also be progress. I want to take a class, read a book, participate in an online workshop – in general learn more about the fancy DSLR we bought almost three years ago. And then apply that knowledge for good, not for evil.
I’m reasonably certain that the only movie I saw in the theater this year was the final Harry Potter installment. With two movie theaters within a mile of our new place, we should have no excuse – other than lousy offerings – to see fewer than 12 movies in the theater.
I want to write more letters – at least one per week. Do you want to be my pen pal?
I need to find a job in Chicago, as it will make many of these mores possible. More time with my family as they’ll be 75 minutes away instead of 5-7 hours. More time with many many Chicago friends (though less time with A2 friends). A new and exciting city life for the two of us. I’ve loved my MPub job, but I need to be in Chicago.
I wanted to bake 24 unique loaves this year. We made significant changes in our diet over the summer, and I haven’t really baked since then. I think, however, that one pie per month is a reasonable goal.
Bourbon and I got back together in 2012, but I need to have more in my cocktail repetoire than the trusty Manhattan. There will be many opportunities to drink fancy cocktails in our new ‘hood, but I want to master at least one new cocktail at home per month.
We took a fun road trip vacation over the summer, and I took solo trips to Philly, DC, and New York for work, races, and fun. I would like more of the same this year, beginning with my birthday weekend in California and possibly including a trip to Europe after the semester wraps up.
More books read: finish the 2/3 challenge, keep up with my book club, and hammer away at the To Read lists while reading at least two books per month.
Step up my game and learn to do alterations so that I can finally finish all of the half projects in my closet.
More feats of strength! More push-ups. More miles on Orange. And maybe, just maybe, a pull-up.
And, most importantly, more time connecting with the important people in my life. I’m not sure how to quantify this other than to say that I want to fight my introvert nature and say ‘yes’ more than ‘no’ for lunches with friends, dates with my husband, or visits to my family.

What will you do in the new year?

Socks!

It’s a great then when you can knock off an entire new year’s resolution in the first six weeks of the year. For me, that resolution was socks. Knitting socks, that is – though if I’d resolved to buy new cute socks from Sock Dreams, well, I could check that resolution off the list as well.

Sock #1, completed at a Super Bowl party over the weekend.

The pattern is Candide Ragg Socks and Cap, which was generously shared with me by Leah, who also took on sock knitting this winter. I ran into a few problems mostly related to trying to figure out the technique and pattern on my own. I knit the body of the foot inside out – oops. Then I misread the instructions for decreasing on the toe, resulting in a very strangely shaped foot, but nothing I couldn’t quickly fix between bites of brisket taco and omg queso dip.

Sock #2 in progress

And THEN I forgot to change needles when I started on the foot of sock #2, resulting in a somewhat looser fit. This isn’t a big deal, especially as the socks will probably shrink a bit in the wash. And even if it does turn out to be a big deal, the yarn was cheap, and I can make another pair. Or another pattern. Or whatever.

Socks!

Regardless, I knit socks! And you should be glad you’re not my husband, because I spent a good part of last night nudging Shane and saying “dude!” and “look at these effing socks!” and “i made socks!”. How awesome is that?

2011 Resolutions

I usually like to give myself until my birthday to make resolutions and to report in on those from the previous year. This year, however, I’m pretty set on my list, and if I post it today, that gives me almost 13 months to complete the following:

Expand my bread repertoire by baking 2 new types per month. I can make a solid sandwich loaf, but there are many more loaves to try!
Knit socks. I’m there. I can do this.
Run the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. If my knee, winter training, or finances prevent this, run at least one 10K.
Continue saving aggressively for a down-payment on a house. We’re hoping to buy this summer, but it might be advantageous to wait another year, which is why this resolution is ‘save’ not ‘buy’.
Complete the 25 Recipes challenge, in which we attempt to master 25 recipes that we’ve been intending to try.
Learn to accessorize. I love the look of scarves, jewelry, and all of that, but haven’t spent much time figuring out how to work those things into my wardrobe.
Make a decision about grad school. Do I need/want more of it? In what field? This decision will largely be influenced on my job situation.
Sock away 3 months’ worth of my half of the household budget (approx $4500). I worked on this in 2009, was un/underemployed for a few months, and then got a job that pays $15,000 less than I was making when we established our budgets. I’ll be posting about this and other financial goals on How I Am Not Spending Money. Hopefully extra income from teaching will help with this.
Survive my first semester of teaching. Can I tell you how intimidated I am about this? It’s a little paralyzing.
Take a solo trip and a vacation with SB. We’re thinking Portland or San Francisco, and I’m thinking that my reward for #9 should be a trip to NYC.

What do you want to do in the new year?

Mid-year Resolution Check In

Actually a little past mid-year, but who’s counting? Besides, I usually give myself until my birthday to finish up the previous year’s list.

1. Focus on my relationships and be a more patient and loving partner and friend. Also cat parent to Basil, who is adorable but drives me freakin’ nuts.

Working on it, but then this will be a work in progress for the rest of my life. I feel – if I haven’t mentioned it before – like the biggest change I’ve noticed since getting engaged/married is an increased focus on just this issue. Like it’s more worth the work, and less like ‘work’, you know? So that’s pretty awesome.

2. Get married. This should be action item #1, but item #1 on this list is actually much more important.

Done and done, and I still haven’t posted about it. Wedding photos are up, though, and I can give you a guest pass if you’re not on Flickr.

3. Save aggressively for a house and for overall financial stability.

We’re working on it! Wedding gifts helped us pay for new tires rather than having to gouge our savings, and we’re plugging away each month with the intention of buying next summer.

4. Go camping and generally explore our new state.

No camping yet, but we have been to Muskegon and Detroit a couple of times, plus stops through Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Marshall (all cities/towns that coincidentally house great breweries).

5. Get over my fear of DPNs and knit the kittyville hat.

I’m feeling more competent with DPNs, but have yet to make the hat. Lots of other hats, though.

6. Write two more issues of my zine.

Thought about it but haven’t done anything in that direction in a while.

7. Run 500 miles. This works out to roughly 9.5 miles per week.

My fitness tracker on SparkPeople says I’ve gone 416.7 miles, but a fair chunk of that has been walking. I’d hoped to be able to use data from Nike+ or RunKeeper, but both have been unreliable. Either way, I’m back to running 2-3x per week regularly after recovering from a knee injury in May, so that’s a good thing.

8. Learn CSS. I mean really learn it.

Launching the new site helped considerably towards this end. I still have a lot to learn, but am a great deal more competent than 6 months ago.

9. Read 30 books. This works out to 2.5 books per month.

14 books so far, including books of craft and cookery. Totally counts if you read them cover-to-cover, as I did.

10. Kitchen Diaries project.

A big success, though it has resulted in a few people complaining that our blog is all food, all the time. I’m glad this is a one-year project, though. As much as I’ve enjoyed it, I look forward to the days of being able to eat a lousy dinner and not having to figure out how to get a good blog post out of it.

¡Viva España!

I’m taking Spain’s victory today as an excuse to declare a new challenge for myself: cook my way through the Spanish cookbook that has been lingering on my shelves for at least five years.

Over 150 recipes, some of which I’ve made, many of which will provide new and interesting challenges. I’m allowing myself to skip 10, with extra special dispensation given to pulpo gallego in honor of Paul the psychic octopus, who called the game in favor of España. ¡Viva España! ¡Viva Paul!

2010 Resolutions and/or Action Items

Focus on my relationships and be a more patient and loving partner and friend. Also cat parent to Basil, who is adorable but drives me freakin’ nuts.
Get married. This should be action item #1, but item #1 on this list is actually much more important.
Save aggressively for a house and for overall financial stability.
Go camping and generally explore our new state.
Get over my fear of DPNs and knit the kittyville hat.
Write two more issues of my zine.
Run 500 miles. This works out to roughly 9.5 miles per week. Totally doable.
Learn CSS. I mean really learn it. More than just troubleshooting and/or fixing things.
Read 30 books. This works out to 2.5 books per month.
Kitchen Diaries project, which should result in achieving the following sub-goals:
1. focus on healthy, flavorful meals
2. try several new recipes each month
3. learn more about the camera + take better photos
4. update my/our blogs more regularly