resolutions for 2014
Here is my end-of-the-year post last year, and as predicted, I look at that picture and think, "What happened to my tiny baby?"
It's been a good year for us overall, although a difficult one for many friends and loved ones, which did cast a bit of a cloud over the year. Two of my friends were diagnosed with cancer, one had serious health issues and almost died of sepsis, and my best friend's father died. My heart goes out to those of you who had difficult times this year as well. I hope 2014 is better for everyone.
It was a comparatively light travel year (probably because of our big Singapore trip at the end of last year) but I did go to Chicago to visit Wendy and Chris, to Vegas for Michelle's bachelorette and to Los Angeles a bunch of times: for a Disneyland trip, for David's dad's funeral, for Michelle's wedding, and for Christmas. In local travel, the birding pelagic trip stands out, as well as the Las Gallinas hike and the Christmas Bird Count. In fact, I traveled all over the Bay Area looking for birds, and had a wonderful time doing so. We also spent a weekend in Tahoe with our parent friends, and a weekend in Monterey with Shannon and Jen and their families. Of course, we also went to the railroad park resort in Dunsmuir and I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. So still lots of awesome trips!
For next year I'm doing Weetacon in March, and we're talking about Alaska in the summer. Even though I've been wanting to go for years, I'll probably appreciate it a lot more now that I'm a birder! So I guess it's good that I've had to wait. Also on the table: visiting Lisa in her new post in Surinam, going to visit my family in Holland, and taking a birding trip to Texas or Ohio in the spring. We'll see what materializes.
This year was a big year for me work-wise. I was having major anxiety issues about work at the beginning of the year, and ended up starting therapy in the spring to help deal with it. At the same time, I got laid off, which ended up as a huge blessing in disguise, since it actually alleviated a lot of my work stress. My therapist was great too, and taught me a lot of coping mechanisms for anxiety. When I saw her a few weeks ago, she said she no longer thought therapy was necessary for me, and so I "graduated." I can go back if I need to, though! From her, I learned that it's okay to do things solely for the joy of it, to let go of caring so much what other people think about me, how to reframe problems, and how to "speak my truth" and "do the thing I fear" and "live in the now" and other hippie-sounding stuff like that. Good stuff.
Then I had a delightful (seriously) period of unemployment, which I really made the most of, followed by the horrible stint at Chemico and the craziness that is my current job at Dataco. Overall, I'm so happy to have a flexible job that lets me work from home, to not be micromanaged anymore (thank fucking god), and to be building awesome new project management and community management skills. My bank account has largely recovered too, which is another relief.
Mina, of course, continues to be a joy. She started preschool this year and has just exploded with language and learning. She is the best.
In 2011 I scored 40% on my resolutions, and in 2012 I scored 67%. Let's see how I did in 2013!
Resolutions for 2013
1. Finish the Time reading list. Yes, I did this! My writeup is here.
2. Learn to cook at least two healthful, easy meals. I did this too! I need to make my crockpot pork again for that one to really count, but my parmesan-crusted chicken is a hit, crudite veggies are easy and delicious, and I can do quesadillas like nobody's business. I also went through a banana-cinnamon pancake phase that was quite successful.
3. Continue with Flickr weekend assignment, flossing, and the monthly wrap-up posts. Yes, I did this, and in fact I took over the moderation of the Flickr weekend assignment. By the end of next year I may be ready to hand it off to someone else though; who knows. I'm not reiterating these as goals because I think now they are pretty ingrained.
4. Finish young adult novel. Hell yes, I did this! Another huge one! I still have a couple of agents to hear back from who requested the full manuscript, but my eyes are kind of on the sequel at the moment. I feel like as one agent suggested, the sequel might be where the real meat of the story is. We shall see.
5. Be doing some consistent cardiovascular exercise by the end of the year. Yep. This year I went through physical therapy for my knee, found a gym to rival the One True Gym in Green Bay, and have been steadily increasing time on the elliptical as well as weight on the machines. As for consistency, I've been going to the gym 1-2 times per week for the past two months. I would have gone today but I have a chest cold. I will work out when sick except when I have a chest cold, per the advice of Dr. Internet.
6. Get my California ABA California bird list to 200 species. Yes! This one really benefited from my unemployment, when I went birding almost every day. My California list is at 200 or 203, depending on how you're counting.
7. Make an earthquake kit for the house. Half credit for this one. I made one, and currently there's a radio, some food, and some water, but I think I need to add a first aid kit and some other stuff.
8. Make a will. I signed up for the legal services through my ex-employer, and when I got laid off, I had 90 days to use them. So we were able to get our will and trust set up for free using that benefit. As a bonus, our lawyer said that people who do this hardly ever get divorced! So hopefully we'll be on the right side of those odds.
9. Contact one of my biological relatives. I have met my half-sister once and my half-brother four times. My biological mother now also knows I exist and that I'm in touch with her kids. This situation is still evolving but we'll see what happens this year.
10. Do at least two major house list items. We had bookshelves and a window seat and a laundry cabinet and shelf built. We are really happy with the house. It feels like a real house! Here are some before and afters:
Bonus 11. Do something each month to make the world a better place. I didn't really do this one as much, sad to say. I think the goal was not concrete enough and it really was an afterthought for the most part. I did find some cool charities to give to like Rolling Jubilee, but I probably did this fewer than half the months of the year.
This is a 9.5/11, or 86%! I went from an F to a D+ to a B+, thanks to the monthly check-ins, good goal-setting, a period of unemployed free time, and my own dogged persistence. Go team me!
Resolutions for 2014
1. Finish first draft of my YA sequel. As I said, I'm turning my focus this year to writing the sequel, and I'm currently revising my idea so it works as a standalone. This will be a lot of work, but I'm excited about it.
2. Organize my bedroom closet. It's currently a mess, and I know there's stuff I can purge and way more organization that can happen. Having a linen closet now is very inspirational also, since it helps avoid the "giant piles of blankets and pillows" that were taking up way too much room in the closet.
3. Work out 75 times this year. This is more than once but less than twice per week, which I think is a reasonable goal to set. I'm going to aim for twice a week, but with my work schedule, travel, and birding hikes, I know there will be weeks where I go only once. I'm currently doing a modest workout, but I expect to ramp that up slowly over the course of the year as well.
4. Get my ABA list up to 250 birds, and go on a birding trip outside of California. Birding in Chicago last year was so awesome, I can't even imagine doing a birding-focused trip during spring migration. I hope that I'll be able to do that this year, so I'm making it a goal. As for the target number of 250, I will reserve the right to adjust this goal upward if it seems too easy. It depends on whether I get to take that trip or not!
5. My reading goal. I have a working list of 10 books to read and 10 to re-read. I'm also planning to try and read as many of the Tournament of Books finalists as I can, since it was so fun to follow the contest this year. Rather than diving into the next booklist, I'm kind of focusing on savoring and enjoying reading this year.
6. Learn how to soft-boil an egg. Another extremely modest cooking goal, but I love soft-boiled eggs.
7. Finish my earthquake kit. Come on, Mo! You can do it!
8. Do one house project. I really want this to be getting the house painted in the spring, but we also have a big electrical project we need to prioritize.
9. Challenge anxiety. This goal is a little ephemeral, but I think it's going to be helpful for me to check in with this one at the end of each month. Am I still working on my mental health? Am I trying new ways to challenge anxious thoughts? I'm going to try meditating this month and see how that is, but as long as I am actively working on this throughout the year, it will count.
10. Rebuild savings account. Is it three months living expenses that is suggested? I'll try for that.
11. Every month, either donate to charity or shop locally rather than from a conglomerate, or both. This is only slightly less ephemeral than last year, but I will try. I will kick it off with my first dollar spent in the new year. I think I'll start with Charity: Water.
12. Organize and back up my pictures in a way that makes sense, ideally to the cloud. This is a huge one, but I need to do this. I guess I could upload everything to Flickr, but I hate Flickr. Anyone know of any good cloud storage options for one zillion pictures?
That's it for me. Pretty ambitious, but I'm feeling cocky after last year's success, so fingers crossed. Happy new year, everyone! As Michael Scott once said, catch you on the flippity flip.
It's been a good year for us overall, although a difficult one for many friends and loved ones, which did cast a bit of a cloud over the year. Two of my friends were diagnosed with cancer, one had serious health issues and almost died of sepsis, and my best friend's father died. My heart goes out to those of you who had difficult times this year as well. I hope 2014 is better for everyone.
It was a comparatively light travel year (probably because of our big Singapore trip at the end of last year) but I did go to Chicago to visit Wendy and Chris, to Vegas for Michelle's bachelorette and to Los Angeles a bunch of times: for a Disneyland trip, for David's dad's funeral, for Michelle's wedding, and for Christmas. In local travel, the birding pelagic trip stands out, as well as the Las Gallinas hike and the Christmas Bird Count. In fact, I traveled all over the Bay Area looking for birds, and had a wonderful time doing so. We also spent a weekend in Tahoe with our parent friends, and a weekend in Monterey with Shannon and Jen and their families. Of course, we also went to the railroad park resort in Dunsmuir and I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. So still lots of awesome trips!
For next year I'm doing Weetacon in March, and we're talking about Alaska in the summer. Even though I've been wanting to go for years, I'll probably appreciate it a lot more now that I'm a birder! So I guess it's good that I've had to wait. Also on the table: visiting Lisa in her new post in Surinam, going to visit my family in Holland, and taking a birding trip to Texas or Ohio in the spring. We'll see what materializes.
This year was a big year for me work-wise. I was having major anxiety issues about work at the beginning of the year, and ended up starting therapy in the spring to help deal with it. At the same time, I got laid off, which ended up as a huge blessing in disguise, since it actually alleviated a lot of my work stress. My therapist was great too, and taught me a lot of coping mechanisms for anxiety. When I saw her a few weeks ago, she said she no longer thought therapy was necessary for me, and so I "graduated." I can go back if I need to, though! From her, I learned that it's okay to do things solely for the joy of it, to let go of caring so much what other people think about me, how to reframe problems, and how to "speak my truth" and "do the thing I fear" and "live in the now" and other hippie-sounding stuff like that. Good stuff.
Then I had a delightful (seriously) period of unemployment, which I really made the most of, followed by the horrible stint at Chemico and the craziness that is my current job at Dataco. Overall, I'm so happy to have a flexible job that lets me work from home, to not be micromanaged anymore (thank fucking god), and to be building awesome new project management and community management skills. My bank account has largely recovered too, which is another relief.
Mina, of course, continues to be a joy. She started preschool this year and has just exploded with language and learning. She is the best.
In 2011 I scored 40% on my resolutions, and in 2012 I scored 67%. Let's see how I did in 2013!
Resolutions for 2013
1. Finish the Time reading list. Yes, I did this! My writeup is here.
2. Learn to cook at least two healthful, easy meals. I did this too! I need to make my crockpot pork again for that one to really count, but my parmesan-crusted chicken is a hit, crudite veggies are easy and delicious, and I can do quesadillas like nobody's business. I also went through a banana-cinnamon pancake phase that was quite successful.
3. Continue with Flickr weekend assignment, flossing, and the monthly wrap-up posts. Yes, I did this, and in fact I took over the moderation of the Flickr weekend assignment. By the end of next year I may be ready to hand it off to someone else though; who knows. I'm not reiterating these as goals because I think now they are pretty ingrained.
4. Finish young adult novel. Hell yes, I did this! Another huge one! I still have a couple of agents to hear back from who requested the full manuscript, but my eyes are kind of on the sequel at the moment. I feel like as one agent suggested, the sequel might be where the real meat of the story is. We shall see.
5. Be doing some consistent cardiovascular exercise by the end of the year. Yep. This year I went through physical therapy for my knee, found a gym to rival the One True Gym in Green Bay, and have been steadily increasing time on the elliptical as well as weight on the machines. As for consistency, I've been going to the gym 1-2 times per week for the past two months. I would have gone today but I have a chest cold. I will work out when sick except when I have a chest cold, per the advice of Dr. Internet.
6. Get my California ABA California bird list to 200 species. Yes! This one really benefited from my unemployment, when I went birding almost every day. My California list is at 200 or 203, depending on how you're counting.
7. Make an earthquake kit for the house. Half credit for this one. I made one, and currently there's a radio, some food, and some water, but I think I need to add a first aid kit and some other stuff.
8. Make a will. I signed up for the legal services through my ex-employer, and when I got laid off, I had 90 days to use them. So we were able to get our will and trust set up for free using that benefit. As a bonus, our lawyer said that people who do this hardly ever get divorced! So hopefully we'll be on the right side of those odds.
9. Contact one of my biological relatives. I have met my half-sister once and my half-brother four times. My biological mother now also knows I exist and that I'm in touch with her kids. This situation is still evolving but we'll see what happens this year.
10. Do at least two major house list items. We had bookshelves and a window seat and a laundry cabinet and shelf built. We are really happy with the house. It feels like a real house! Here are some before and afters:
Bonus 11. Do something each month to make the world a better place. I didn't really do this one as much, sad to say. I think the goal was not concrete enough and it really was an afterthought for the most part. I did find some cool charities to give to like Rolling Jubilee, but I probably did this fewer than half the months of the year.
This is a 9.5/11, or 86%! I went from an F to a D+ to a B+, thanks to the monthly check-ins, good goal-setting, a period of unemployed free time, and my own dogged persistence. Go team me!
Resolutions for 2014
1. Finish first draft of my YA sequel. As I said, I'm turning my focus this year to writing the sequel, and I'm currently revising my idea so it works as a standalone. This will be a lot of work, but I'm excited about it.
2. Organize my bedroom closet. It's currently a mess, and I know there's stuff I can purge and way more organization that can happen. Having a linen closet now is very inspirational also, since it helps avoid the "giant piles of blankets and pillows" that were taking up way too much room in the closet.
3. Work out 75 times this year. This is more than once but less than twice per week, which I think is a reasonable goal to set. I'm going to aim for twice a week, but with my work schedule, travel, and birding hikes, I know there will be weeks where I go only once. I'm currently doing a modest workout, but I expect to ramp that up slowly over the course of the year as well.
4. Get my ABA list up to 250 birds, and go on a birding trip outside of California. Birding in Chicago last year was so awesome, I can't even imagine doing a birding-focused trip during spring migration. I hope that I'll be able to do that this year, so I'm making it a goal. As for the target number of 250, I will reserve the right to adjust this goal upward if it seems too easy. It depends on whether I get to take that trip or not!
5. My reading goal. I have a working list of 10 books to read and 10 to re-read. I'm also planning to try and read as many of the Tournament of Books finalists as I can, since it was so fun to follow the contest this year. Rather than diving into the next booklist, I'm kind of focusing on savoring and enjoying reading this year.
6. Learn how to soft-boil an egg. Another extremely modest cooking goal, but I love soft-boiled eggs.
7. Finish my earthquake kit. Come on, Mo! You can do it!
8. Do one house project. I really want this to be getting the house painted in the spring, but we also have a big electrical project we need to prioritize.
9. Challenge anxiety. This goal is a little ephemeral, but I think it's going to be helpful for me to check in with this one at the end of each month. Am I still working on my mental health? Am I trying new ways to challenge anxious thoughts? I'm going to try meditating this month and see how that is, but as long as I am actively working on this throughout the year, it will count.
10. Rebuild savings account. Is it three months living expenses that is suggested? I'll try for that.
11. Every month, either donate to charity or shop locally rather than from a conglomerate, or both. This is only slightly less ephemeral than last year, but I will try. I will kick it off with my first dollar spent in the new year. I think I'll start with Charity: Water.
12. Organize and back up my pictures in a way that makes sense, ideally to the cloud. This is a huge one, but I need to do this. I guess I could upload everything to Flickr, but I hate Flickr. Anyone know of any good cloud storage options for one zillion pictures?
That's it for me. Pretty ambitious, but I'm feeling cocky after last year's success, so fingers crossed. Happy new year, everyone! As Michael Scott once said, catch you on the flippity flip.