twentyten

so first of all, i'd like to wish anybody who is still reading my blog a happy new year. thanks for sticking with me. my first three days of 2010 were so uncharacteristic of how i normally live my life. i partied pretty hard on both new years and the first saturday with an 8-hr shift and what felt like no recovery time in between. i learned that if drinking and little sleep can give you a cold, more drinking and even less sleep can take it away just as fast. let's just say that sometimes the way to beat a cold is to ignore it with distractions like shots, private booths, glow sticks, hot dogs at 2 a.m., and, of course, friends.

good times.

but i'm back to my old self, don't you worry...eating solid foods, stressing about my job, and contemplating whether i should feel guilty or not over the fact that my mom emptied my trash for the second time since we've been here.

now i'm not going to claim that i have ever made strong new years resolutions or even really fancied the whole idea in the past, but for some reason i had an itch to dedicate myself to a few (okay, more like ten) self-improvements. amid my frenzy to create "a better me," i came up with ideas such as mastering the amazing machine known as the crock-pot, being less of a bitch to my family members on the phone, and abstaining from mindless chocolate-chip consumption. being a lover of anything related to lists (making lists, crossing things off my list, making my lists pretty...), i was excited at the thought of banging out a traditional new years resolution list. then i read in realsimple magazine that seven is the maximum number of tasks that should be on a daily-to-do list to avoid mental overflow. okay, so new years resolutions don't exactly fall under the category of daily-to-do lists, but it got me thinking about mental overflow and i decided to throw out the whole idea (i'll probably find out tomorrow that studies show writing down your resolutions increases the likelihood that you will actually adhere to them).

anyhow, below is my new years resolutions "list", a.k.a, goals that flutter in and out of my head like a coma patient in and out of consciousness (maybe a good resolution would be coming up with better metaphors).

in 2010, i will:

make time to actively educate myself (watching the news, continuing to read the paper, expanding my knowledge of topics that interest me). learn from my dad through working on creative projects together (designing and constructing furniture, gardening). living more in the present and not in the past or future.

how's that for self-improvement!? i feel like a better person already... i should really reward myself with some chocolate chi-NO!