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Happy 2007!

I don't really make resolutions for the new year; there are so many things that can happen in a year to change my life and my decisions about it, and making a resolution is far too concrete for such a fluid situation. But I do have a few plans for 2007:

- I do want to lose some weight. By the end of the year, if not sooner, I'd like to be below 200 pounds, the further below the better. Weight has been my big bugaboo for the past couple of decades, and I don't really hold out a lot of hope that this year will be any different from all the rest, but hey, I'm gonna try. Hey, I made it to the gym today...

- I want to spend this year applying myself hugely at work. I've had some triumphs there in the last year, but it's not enough. I want to live up to my potential.

- I want to write more. Writing makes me happy, and I'm good at it. By the end of 2007, I'd like to have done a lot more of it, and perhaps have sold some of it.

- I don't want to lose track of the other things I love to do, either. Music's gonna be huge in 2007; I better restring my guitars and regrow my calluses. I want to stretch myself a bit more, knitting-wise. I want to start drawing again. I want to cook more.

- I want to suffer fools less gladly. I am way too nice to people who are not nice to me. In the past couple of years I've become much more assertive about the kind of treatment I expect from others, but it's still true that I put up with far too much. I don't need to raise my expectations; where they are is fine. But when someone doesn't meet them, and shows no desire to try, I need to cut the ties much faster and more cleanly. Anything else just causes more pain for all involved.

- I want to read stuff I haven't read before, good stuff. I have this habit of reading the same books over and over again, like comfort food. To this end, I've begun getting rid of a lot of my old favorites, the trashy stuff that is, and I've been reading books that I've never read before.

- I want to (re)learn chess. I learned how to play chess when I was pretty young, but like a lot of things that I learned when I was young, my relationship with chess was very unhealthy and I associate it with a feeling of stupidity and inadequacy. I need to realize that nobody starts out being good at chess, and I could stand to stretch my mind in this way. I don't play well, and I won't for a while...but maybe eventually I will.

I think that's enough stuff to work on for the next 365...

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