Friday, December 28, 2012

2012 Resolution Recap

As we approach the new year I figured it would be a good time to feel guilty about  review my 12 New Years Resolutions for 1012.

They're listed again below, along with my report... (spoiler alert, it's a good thing I picked 12 cause when I didn't nearly do them all, I could still hang my hat on a few)

 12 Goals for 2012
1. Eat in 12 New Restaurants in Pittsburgh
2. Learn how to fix a bike
3. Continue blogging through this year. 
4. Learn to cook with 12 new fruits or vegetables
5. Run a 5K in under a 9 minute mile. 
6. Watch 12 movies I've never seen from the AFI Top 100 Films list
7. Read 12 books I've never read from the BBC Top 100 Novels list. 
8. Learn how to make beer. 
9. Volunteer with 12 different events. 
10. Don't purchase any new clothing. 
11. Don't purchase any new books
12. Save $___ (a specific but secret amount)

1. yes. New Restaurants we went to this year: E2, Sausalido, Park Brugge, Ibiza, Mercurio's, Le Brew House, Industry, Conflict Kitchen, Pig and Chicken, Biddle Escape, Bites and Brews, and NOLA.
*Even though Biddle Escape is more of a coffee shop, I'm counting it. We loved just about all of them, but our favorites were Industry and NOLA. The only one we won't be going back to is Pig and Chicken.

 
a private party at the excellent Sausalido


2. no. I don't want to use a brain abnormality and subsequent brain surgery as a crutch for these resolutions, but riding a bike was something that gave me great head pains and it was off the table during my months of recovery - thus I did not try to learn how to fix a bike. Maybe next year I'll have a fresh interest in the sport.

3. yes. Despite a few weeks lost here and there, I feel I've been consistent about blogging. I did this practice even when I hurt and couldn't focus. I did this to help my concussion.... I'm not sure if I'll continue now that the resolution is finished, or how often I'll post. (thankfully it would be because have a newly exciting life to jump into)

4. yes. Cooking with new fruits and vegetables was the easiest one. I exceeded the number half way through the year and then stopped listing, but here's some: okra, rainbow chard, garlic rabe, butternut squash, acorn squash, bok choi, radish, beets, kale, pumpkin, celery root, fennel, rutabaga, and a strange pear/mango hybrid . My favorites being the fennel and the garlic rabe.

 
fennel made into a pesto with couscous and tomato


5. almost. I ran a 5K doing 9:02.6 minute miles (so close!). Then I started going fully numb and getting black outs when running. I still did races afterwards but couldn't push myself. Then learned of the arnold chiari and the risks and thought, maybe I'll shelve this one until next year.

my fastest race was in May, running 28:06

6. yes. I was the most disappointed with the 12 classic movies. Maybe its because I already watched all the ones that piqued my interest, leaving me with many a western to sit through (not my thing). Here's what I viewed: Annie Hall, Schendler's list, The Searchers, The Graduate, On the Waterfront, Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chinatown, Easy Rider, Grapes of Wrath, Its a Wonderful Life, and Psycho. My favorites were Annie Hall and The Graduate

7. yes Technically, I read 12 classics this year. However, I found myself veering from that BBC list for a few of them. (I mean how do you really argue that "The Princess Diaries" is more of a classic than "For Whom the Bell Tolls") so here's my adapted list: The Wind in the Willows - Grahame Kenneth, Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett, On the Road - Jack Kerouac, The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood, Sidhartha - Hermann Hesse, Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Wolf, The Road - Cormac McCarthy, The Picture of Dorian Gray -  Ocsar Wilde, Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence, Passage to India - E.M. Forster, For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway, and A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. The best in that group were The Road, Sidhartha, and Handmaid's Tale.

8. yes. This year I learned how to make beer several times over. Neil brewed (and I observed/helped a bit) a model of "Fat Tire", light citrus ale, an orange ale with light hops, a pumpkin IPA, and a vanilla porter. All of which I adored...but the pumpkin IPA was really tops.




(the process is basically: boil, wait, siphon, wait, sterilize, pour, and cap)

9. not even close. I'm so ashamed to say that I only did 2 of my 12 volunteer aspirations. If you count places to which we donate money, we would be over that number, however I set out to give my time not our money. So this one won't get checked off the list.

10. no. This one I was SO close to doing. I made it to late August when I bought two pieces of clothing (mostly helpful for my recovery)... then I made it another stretch until November when I bought 4 more things (mostly to dress appropriately for occasions when my old clothes didn't fit). I won't beat myself up for this because I didn't anticipate losing weight this year.

11. yes? Um, technically, I didn't purchase any books. But I received 4 books as gifts this year. The idea was that I'd make better use of book sharing and I would utilize the library. Since I read over 40 non-purchased books this year doing what I set out to do, I'm allowing it.

 
Not buying books was tough (I have a problem with this) so the ones I received really made my day!


12. no. So does it count if you do save the desired amount of money, but then you spend it? Probably not. But again we had unforeseen events. We paid off Neil's car, and brain surgery is also quite costly. At least our thrifty ways put us in a place where we could afford those things and we could also end up with more in our savings at the end of 2012 than we had in 2011. (half victory?)

this leaves me with a grand total of 7/12

I got a lot of value out of these resolutions, even the ones I almost completed but fell a bit short on. I like choosing goal that can focus my time and efforts without feeling like punishment, does that make sense? Anyway, if I look at it that way, I can say it was a good year.

Do you make resolutions? What are yours for 2013?

Any suggestions for my next year - Should I recycle some past ones I didn't complete? I am trying to come up with 13 of them right now and could always use input!

3 comments:

  1. I think that's a great list! I want to learn how to fix a bike too! I have an e reader but is it just me when I say that nothing replaces the feel of a real book with real pages in your hand??

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  2. I agree about holding a book. The smell, the folded pages, the weight... its irreplaceable. Plus with real books you can easily pass them around. I will say I used my e-reader a bunch for electronic library books that I wouldn't have otherwise wanted to own. Something about not borrowing a book that someone else probably read on the toilet and just downloading a rental is really nice.

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  3. 7/12 is very good plus you were the best beer brewing helper I could have asked for!

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