Remember this post? It was my very first two years ago on January 1st. God, i was a little blogging baby, then, i had no idea how to format a picture or link things or anything. Not that i really do now, (no thanks to Squarespace’s format, by the way). Anyway…
Its New Years resolution time, my fine feathered friends. Here goes.
1. Be more considerate to my friends and family that don’t live in LA. I’m good with my friends that are near me because i’m reminded about them constantly. But my friends/family in Portland, Utah and New York get neglected because i’ll forget their birthdays or their kids birthdays and they get a phone call and maybe a late card, but not the proper attention they deserve. And while birthdays are not important to me and you can forget mine any time, i have to remember they are important to others and simply a card in the mail means a lot. And you know what stops me? not having the card, address near by, or stamps. So i have a whole system now – pretty stationary, stamps, and list of birthday dates and addresses. By next year they’ll be throwing parades for me and calling me ‘Mother Theresa’. Trust.
That’s my stationary this year – pretty linen cards (different colors) with the Martha Stewart heart punch hole thing. It’s simple, pretty, doesn’t look cheap (but is), and is totally me. Feel free to copy – as long as you don’t send to my friends and family, too. That would be embarrassing.
2. Spend more quality time with Brian. This is probably our last year without kids, so we need to take advantage of it. Watching 4 episodes of ‘Breaking Bad’ in a row, does not a ‘date’ make.
Us on New Years Eve – wearing an unnecessary amount of New Yearsy parafernailia. (crowns, beads, hats, horn things… and my spell check really doesn’t like how i’m spelling yearsy or parefernalia…which leads me to another one: care about grammar more – you are a paid writer at times, for eff sake, maybe use spell check….)
3. The three usuals: floss, facial care, keep car clean. It’s like asking Snookie to tan less – sure she might at first – invest in some self-tanner, etc – but the girl is going back to the booth by february. Whatever.
4. Don’t commit to things that you can’t realistically accomplish without nervous breakdowns unless you are getting paid a lot. I think you all know what i’m talking about.
5. Talk about work less, others lives more. It can be annoying and uninteresting to others – or so i’m paranoid about it being. So lets just reign that in a smidge, eh?
6. No more buying weird art unless its incredibly special. I don’t care if its $10 – unless i would also pay $100 for it, its not coming into the house.
7. Mostly original content on the blog – less posts probably, but i want them to be purely original photos, etc. This makes me excited.
8. Stop beating yourself up for not wearing matching socks – whoever came up with this conspiracy to NOT make and sell just two colors of socks should go down. Why, oh WHY do they have to match when all my socks are different and no one really sees them? It’s like a daily panicky hunt. So stupid.
9. Find a charity to work with closely. After long consideration i’ve decided that nothing makes me consistently sadder then children growing up without people properly loving them – regardless if its direct family or not. We fostered kids growing up and while I didn’t understand why at the time (I remember thinking, ‘isn’t 6 kids enough?’) i obviously do now and i see how my parents just couldn’t sit back and watch. So until we can afford the time and money to do the same, i want to at least be raising money for and helping a respectable program thats helps foster kids have a chance at a healthy and happy adulthood. If it was in L.A. that would be ideal so i can potentially makeover spaces, but if not, that’s cool, too.
10. Read less books with the teens, vampires, hunger or games. We are starting a book club so that should help. First up is Jeffrey Eugenides ‘The Marriage Plot’ and already i’m like, ‘Woah, right…this is what reading is’. Any and all suggestions are good. Each friend is choosing a book that month so hopefully we’ll have a big variety of fiction, non-fiction, classic and new. Girlfriends gonna get smart again this year (meanwhile, who watched The Bachelor premiere last night? Jenna was my instant fave, but my lord she is a sensitive little blogger isn’t she?)
I could keep going and going. I’m obsessed with self-improvement, sometimes. I used to make Brian tell me my flaws (he really really didn’t like this game) so i could work on them. I would practically take notes and be like ‘YES…interesting….i see that now…. good point’. He was always convinced i was being passive aggressive, but truly i was just curious how i’m perceived by others. Its’ always the same thing: ‘slightly self-righteous, really impatient and messy’. So i’ll work on those, too.
What are your resolutions? Anybody have any of the same as me?