Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!

I welcomed in 2010 up on the mountain in Vermont; my uncle has a cabin in the woods, where 23 of us crowded in for a couple days to sled, ski, snowshoe, play board games, enjoy each other's company, and ring in the new year. I had a great time playing in the beautiful snow. Pictures will have to wait until I get back to Hawaii, because I can't stand how long it takes to upload photos from my parents' house.

Well, there's nothing like the start of a new year to remind you of everything you wish you'd been doing the previous year but failed miserably at. Here are my little resolutions for 2010. I hope that by nailing them to the wall here, I'll be more inclined to keep them. We'll see how that turns out.

Exercise
Probably one of the most common New Year's resolutions, but I need it anyway. I was better at exercising on the East Coast than I have been in Hawaii. How wrong is that? Nature is a gorgeous tropical playground year round, so I have no excuse not to be getting some aerobic exercise. Step away from the computer, tie on your sneakers, and go for a jog. I guess I'll have to buy new sneakers first (I still haven't replaced the ones that came apart in the mud at Manoa Falls). But I can also go out swimming, surfing, and hiking. Yes, I will be much more active this year than I was in the past year.

Cook more
I have this whole book of my mom's favorite recipes that she uses quite frequently. Two years ago, I decided I'd master one of my favorite dishes in the book--clam linguini--so I'd feel comfortable whipping it up any time I wanted. I have long since mastered it. Now it's time to move on. I need to choose other recipes to learn, master them, and move on again. I want to diversify my foods without relying on the Housemate's Indonesian cooking. He does more real cooking than I do, and that's not fair. I must do my part.

Recycle
As much of an environmentalist as I am, I have not been recycling since moving to Hawaii. I know, it's appalling (admitting it here feels a bit like how it must feel for people to admit they are alcoholics). We get trash picked up at our house, but not recycling, even though the recycling truck goes right by the road we overlook behind our house (I think it may have something to do with us living on a narrow dead end street). I showed initial interest in figuring out how to recycle anyway when I first moved in, but since my housemates and I were all pretty lazy, it never happened. Throwing out plastics and glass (I have so far avoided trashing recyclable paper) was painful at first, but I've kind of started getting used to it. That is bad. I will look up where the nearest place is where we can dump our recyclables, and coordinate with my housemates how we're going to do it. I can't throw out milk jugs anymore.

No nagging
I've had a boyfriend for how long now and I'm already sounding like my mother. I hate it. Main issues are his driving (You should start slowing down for the red light earlier!), correcting his grammar (not sure how much I can help that...), and telling him to do his homework (very obnoxious, I'm sure, but I do it when I'm worried I'm distracting him from his work too much). Anyway, I will try not to be so annoying. He's a wonderful Housemate and I don't want him to tire of my nagging.

Four resolutions. That's not bad, is it? I was thinking of saying "Work more, surf the internet less" in order to improve my habits in the office...but that just wouldn't be realistic. It's a new year, not a miracle-maker.

3 comments:

Eleni said...

Wow, my blog's second spam comment. Sneaky. It was in Chinese, so I guess it's possible it was actually a thoughtful commentary on my post, but I can recognize a few characters, it did have a few Roman letters (e.g., "dvd"), there was some strange repetition in it, and it doesn't make sense to comment on that particular post in Chinese. I feel very confident in my conclusion that the comment didn't have anything to do with the post.

Sebastian Anthony said...

Ah, nagging... I've had to whine at my mother recently for getting worse and worse. She seems to be behaving... for now.

You kind of skipped to the 'having a boyfriend' thing rather suddenly. I thought you were flip-flopping on the idea...!

Does this mean... er... you're... like... making out?

Eleni said...

You're right, I talked about being cozy at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf two months ago, but I haven't mentioned our relationship specifically since then. I guess it has happened gradually enough that there hasn't been anything to suddenly inspire a post. But yes, I am willing to say he's my boyfriend now. There is making out, but we've been taking it slow. Don't get too many ideas.

I was considering doing another post on the Housemate... We'll see when that happens.