New Year's Revolutions - 2007

I remember that this time last year I was feeling hopeful. This year I feel like I'm going through rehab. The very real cost of how I've been living my life in the past year has started to take its toll, a toll that has become all too visible with actually having some time to rest.

As a result, there are going to be some major changes this coming year, but first a recap.

Here is a condensed version of my revolutions for 2006.

1. I will get a new hairdresser. - DONE. And thank tha lawd.
   
   
2. Speaking of hair, I will never again use cheap ass shampoo. DONE - If a shampoo's under 5 bucks for a big ass bottle, beware my friend. Beware.
   
   
3. Operation Pudge Nudge: I will lose 60 pounds. - Close but no cigar. I lost about 20 odd pounds and went from a size 20 to a 16. Not bad at all. I'll finish this task in 2007.
   
   
4. I will get shelves put in my basement so that I can
   
   
5. Get organized once and for all. - Hmmm sorta. We got some resin shelves for the Marine this past weekend. Oh who am I kidding? My basement is still Canada's answer to Mordor.
   
   
6. I will pay off one line of credit. - Does throwing it on a mortgage count?
   
   
7. I will garden more. - DONE. The garden didn't soar, but it didn't look like ass either.
   
   
8. I will sing more. - Oh. Hell. Yeah. Wait until you hear what the clairvoyant said!
   
   
9. I will complete a short story and enter it in the Toronto Star Short Story contest. - NOPE. Had one drafted that still needed a lot of work to get it to where it needed to be. I was too exhausted to get it in by the end of year deadline.
   
   
10. I will complete another short story and attempt to get it published elsewhere. - You know something? I'm funny.
    
    
11. I will finish the first draft of my children's book. - Uh.Yeah.
    
    
12. I will eat a pomegranate. - DONE. And I don't think I'll ever do it again as I have a life.
    
    
13. I will stop buying so much frozen breaded crap from the grocery store and do more home cooking. - I had a salad four more times than I did in 2005.
    
    
14. I will finish at least five chapters of my novel. - Yes, the reach definitely exceeded the grasp on this one.
    

Obviously the big lesson learned this year is that I am working way too hard. Way too hard. There are a number of reasons for this but the reality is that my current job situation is out of my control to a degree. Great company, lovely people, but just too much damn work. I'm going to see what transpires in the New Year as I know the situation is being addressed. But I am not three people and I have to get my life back. As the song says, I'm tired of waking up tired.

So for 2007, the writing goals still stand. In addition I will:

1. Start singing in earnest - this is partially accomplished. I restart my lessons after a four + year hiatus on Saturday!
   
   
2. Exercise more - I'm seeing if I can still take advantage of our company's corporate fitness rate at a local centre. When the original email came out I didn't really have the mental space to deal with it.
   
   
3. We, well to be specific, the Marine will renovate our basement this year.
   
   
4. I will endeavour to whittle down even more the amount of breaded crap in my diet
   
   
5. And just throwing this out there, but I'd like to start taking dance classes, but I'd need to feel more comfortable with my pudgerydoo status before embarking on such an enterprise.
   

That's about it. I think I need to actually develop a plan for all this and carve out time in my schedule. Otherwise I can't see how I'll get it all accomplished.

So who knows what the year will bring? I hope for all of you [particularly those of you who had a brutal 2006 - you know who you are] it is a year filled with blessings and progress.