Good Way To Start The Year

Well...for as much as I had to drink last night I didn't wake up with a hangover. Good start! I got up and decided to go through the whole womanly preening ritual, so I scrubbed, shaved, polished, plucked, lathered, brushed, dried and painted. I felt like I was looking pretty good...

After that I did pretty much nothing. I watched Star Trek (again :) I did a little window shopping, and little camera research, I took my parents out to dinner, and now I am watching the last little bit of LOTR 1.

Work has aged me, life has aged me, 2009 has aged me. It shows on my face and in my manner; in the way I move and the way I talk. This is even more disheartening to me because now is the year I have been dreading...2010...the year I turn 30. I know age is just a number. I could just as easily tell you I am 25, and who would know I am lying; me, my family, and maybe a couple of close friends. And if I look at it logically, I really just turned 29 three months ago. I have 9 months, 3/4 of a year, before I actually turn 30...but it still burns me. I am going to be 30, and to add insult to injury, it shows.

So I guess the question now is what am I going to do about it...

But moving on to the real reason I wanted to write this post...goals...

2010 Goals
*Teach myself to cook. I started to teach myself to cook (by trial and error) last year, I don't know what happened but I kind of gave it up. I am coming back to it...for better or worse...I want to be able to cook an exquisite 3 course meal for a small to medium dinner party by the end of the year.

*Keep a Journal. For awhile I considered my blog my journal. But I find myself editing my blog entries because of who can potentially see them. This seems to defeat the purpose or keeping a journal. So I am going to start "offline" journal. It will still be kept digitally, but not available to everyone. And if I do it right up front at the end of the year I should be able to have it printed and bound. Along with this I want to archive all my older blog entries and journals so they all match and there is a hard copy of everything :)

*Lose weight. The actual number is yet to be determined. What I should lose should actually take longer than a year to lose if I am going to do it in a healthy way. So at this point I just want to make a noticeable impact in "the bulge."

*Try one new thing a month. I have decided I don't "do" enough. So once a month I am going to try something new. This can be as simple as trying a new restaurant, as intermediate and giving it a go at a new hobby, or as extreme as skydiving or speed racing.

*Build and maintain a personal website and/or web community. I haven't ever really done anything with my personal website because of my blog and facebook. But I would still like to carve out a little piece of web just for me. Along with this I thought a building a communication hub for family and friends might be a worth while endeavor.

*Maintain my blogs. This one is pretty self explanatory. Simply, don't let the blogs I have sit dormant for months at a time.

*Do something with That's My Favorite or shut it down. I started this small home business with my mom thinking we could sale craft supplies and projects. But since I set it up we haven't done anything with it. There for a time I was going to transform it into a way to process freelance/contract design work, but I didn't get very far with that either. I either need to step up and sell some stuff or shut it all down.

*Create an all encompassing self promotion package. I broke this into segments last year and did nothing with it. So I am making it one big goal this year. Business card, printed portfolio, disposable portfolio, website, mailers, etc...

*24 books in 12 months. Last year's goal was 20. I ended up a little short, but I could have tried harder. I think I can do this, I just have to make a real effort.

*Produce "fine art" to sell. This might go along with the whole "crafting thing" above, but I think I can produce art that is affordable, that people will want to buy. Even if it is just "crafty" stuff to sell on etsy, or fine art to put in a gallery.

*Find a stable, healthy, relationship. I hate to make a "relationship" a goal. I hate to say, "I want to find a boyfriend this year, I have been without one long enough." I hate to do this for a couple of reasons. First, I know I have no intention of working on it. I want it to be something that happens, not something I pursue. Secondly, I have come to terms with being alone, I have these fleeting moments when I wish there was "someone there," but I always come back to be being okay with being alone...Also, a boyfriend would be just another thing tying me to SLC, which I am not sure I want. I am going to keep this goal on the list though...I don't know why...it just feels like I should.

The Big Decision
As we all know 365 days really isn't as long as we would like to think it is. I have these two "Big Goals" I want to do, but the fact of the matter is I don't have enough time or money to accomplish them both in a single year (actually start them...because both will end up lingering longer than a year)...So I have to decide, do I: A) go to graduate school, or B) move out of my parents basement? One or the other needs to be started by the end of year...the question is which one...

Wish me luck!