New Year's Resolutions

Every year I make resolutions (like most people) and I actually do a fairly decent job of accomplishing them, or at the very least trying my darndest to accomplish them. I even like to revisit my previous year's resolutions to "evaluate" myself prior to writing my new set. Yeah, I'm cool like that. So here are my unofficial resolutions, keeping in mind that most of these I've been trying to make a solid effort at accomplishing for the past 3 to 6 months.

1. Start writing more (ie: anything. at all.) I've never been an amazing writer, but it's something that I actual enjoy doing. At the very least, it's just nice to get thoughts down on paper, and be able to revisit them in the future. That is the one downfall of the new j-o-b. No writing. At all. Except signing my name on paperwork. Hopefully having this blog will get some of my creativity a-flowing yet again. Maybe my mind will be able to generate new music again, because it's been a long while before I've written anything new. Which brings me to my next resolution...

2. Play music more. Luckily for me, my madre passed along the musical gene to me, and music has always been a pretty big part of my life. Unfortunately, once I entered college, most of my playing ceased. Now that I have my very own apartment, and no roommate to annoy/bother with my singing and guitar playing, I have no excuse not to get strummin'. Also, I bought myself a harmonica as my graduation gift almost 3 years ago, and still can't play the darn thing. Maybe by the start of 2010 I'll be a regular one (wo)man band.

3. Continue to read. Since graduating I've been on reading over-drive. There were 4 years worth of books that I hadn't read because I was busy reading (or not reading) textbooks, so of course many of these books have been pretty "fluffy." I try to read something of substance every 5th or 6th book, but oftentimes it ends up being every 10 or 15.

4. Practicing yoga. I've had an on again off again relationship with yoga, and am currently in the on again stage. I have found myself doing it very regularly for the past 3 or 4 months and love how it makes me feel. I think yoga is the anaerobic version of prozac. Plus I'm starting to get some intense guns. Look out!

5. Run Jeri Run. This is on my list every year, and it's the one I suck the most at. I usually give myself a yearly mileage goal, and then get annoyed when I'm no where near it. I think for this year, I'm going to concentrate on doing a lot more 5ks and 10ks. I was reminded after my half marathon this fall that I'm actually a fairly quick runner, so I think it would be good to actually train for one of the shorter races, rather then using them as training runs for my 1/2. Plus my pal Matty is going to be my running buddy, and I have to run a bit faster to keep up with him. PLUS one of these days I will convince Taylor to do a race with me, and I refuse to let him beat me. :)

6. Lead more of a vegetarian-esque lifestyle. Being the tree hugger that I am, I can't help but read all the reasons to ditch meat, dairy, eggs, etc. from your diet. Although I don't think I'd be able to eliminate everything, I do see the benefits for the environment, animals, and your body. Ironically the one item I would have the hardest time giving up to be a true vegan would be dairy. This is ironic because I'm lactose intolerant and usually get violently ill after I eat my favorite foods (ie: cheese, ice cream). Seriously. Why would you continue to eat something that makes you sick? I'm an idiot.

7. Cook more. Strangely cooking has become one of my new favorite hobbies. I love looking for a new recipe. I love shopping for the ingredients to make the recipe. I love making the item. And more importantly I love eating it. Of course this goes pretty hand in hand with #6 because it's hard to be conscious of what goes in your food unless you're the one making it.