Thursday, December 29, 2011

2011 Resolutions

On January 1st of 2011, I made some resolutions goals. I wanted to accomplish things that had nothing to do with healing and were not remotely pain-related. Here were the things I came up with:

11 Goals for 2011
1. Read 52 Books
2. Write 11 Meaningful Letters
3. Learn to Use a Sewing Machine
4. Kayak the Pittsburgh Rivers
5. Go on 12 Date Nights (One Per Month)
6. Take A Class
7. Learn To Play a Song on the Guitar
8. Work My Way Through Rosetta Stone: Italian
9. Learn to Like Black Coffee
10. Run Under a 10 Minute Mile Pace
11. (This is For Flirting with My Husband - No Internet Details Needed)

Now that the year is almost over I am checking-in and see how I've done...

11 Goals for 2011
1. Read 52 Books

Last year I almost got an e-reader but felt bad because I has sooo many unread books that I owned. So I promised myself that if I could read 52 books in a year, I deserved a Nook. (Where did I get this idea? Bartering for dummies?). Well I did it. This year I read 72 books, in fact. Thats right 72. Remember that when you see how I've failed at the others...

2. Write 11 Meaningful Letters. I didn't count thank you notes and I didn't count emails. That left me with a sad, sorry 5 letters. (Did I mention I read 72 books?)

3. Learn to Use a Sewing Machine. Thanks to my dear friend Kristin, I can say yes to this one. However I feel I still would need her close-by to fix my inevitable screw-ups. Things I made with new found skills: two small bags. one scarf. (so watch out Project Runway)

4. Kayak the Pittsburgh Rivers. I choose this goal because I long to own a kayak, but I fear I'll be a kayak owner that never uses it. This experiment is proof because I never went, not once. 

5. Go on 12 Date Nights (One Per Month). Our rules were as follows - it had to be just the two of us and it had to be somewhere at least one of us never ate before. I'm guessing it was because this one involved eating - we never missed a month! It was also nice because it meant we saved money by only going less.

6. Take A Class. This was one of my favorite goals. My mom and I took an Italian cooking class, where we learned to make pasta and then we ate a lot of pasta. I wish I could say it was more complex than that but it wasn't. 

7. Learn To Play a Song on the Guitar. It's still in the case. fail.

8. Work My Way Through Rosetta Stone: Italian. I don't know whether to check this one off or not. I made a little over half way through the course. I know enough now to know that the Italians opt for the dolce vita (sweet life) over studies and that's what I did this year. Soooo half success?

9. Learn to Like Black Coffee. You never know when you'll run out of creamer and you're head hurts too much to run to the store. Or maybe you want to impress someone in the wild west so you say 'I take my coffee black'. These things happen. So I switched to milk and reduced my sugar bit by bit until my brew was as dark as the night. Sure i still prefer it with a little sweetness, but I can handle like the real men can. 

10. Run Under a 10 Minute Mile Pace. When the year began I was running an eleven minute mile and to lob off another minute seemed impossible. In this year I kept running and training and if you can believe it I got faster. The picture below is of us Orbins at a 'Black Tie 5K' - I ran the 3.1 miles in 28:20. If you're counting, that's a 9 min 8 second mile! And if you're really counting, that was done in a skirt and evening gloves and pearls! And if you're really really counting (and apparently I am) that was done on a morning after a long night on Bourbon St - where the last stop was actually called 'big ass beers' 



11. (This is For Flirting with My Husband - No Internet Details Needed) - check

So my grand total completion rate is  6.5/10

Pretty soon I'll make my 12 goals for 2012 and I'm taking suggestions. (should I carry over my failures or start anew?)

What are your resolutions?

1 comment:

  1. I'd probably start new. I'd recommend learning about foods, one year I made a resolution to learn about different cheeses & it was great... gave me the opportunity for fancy cheese & wine nights.

    ReplyDelete