Thursday Thirteen

It's a new year, and thus it's time for New Year's Resolutions. What do I hope to do with myself in 2011?

1. Go back to college. This week, I enrolled in two courses at Hollins University in hopes of finishing up my Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) degree. I can be finished by December with a little luck.

2. Along with the return to school comes the writing of a thesis, subject as yet unknown, though I have some ideas. Fortunately I won't have to deal with this until September.

3. Write more.  Write more blog, write more articles, write fiction, write poetry, write in my journal. If nothing else, consider it all practice for the day when it's real again.

4. Reduce clutter. I have been slowly trying to rid the house and our living space of stuff, but it is an ongoing fight. Seems like the drawers and cupboards and closets are magnets for things and, like critters with feet, the items keep finding their way back onto the shelving.

5. Work on websites. I have several websites that I piddle with and this year I would like to do more than just mess with them; I'd like to get serious about utilizing them as money-makers without compromising my integrity. This is harder than it sounds, especially the integrity part.

6. Learn to cook better. My idea of cooking tends to involve removing frozen somethings from the freezer and heating them up. I do a few decent dishes "from scratch" but I'm the first to confess I am big on convenience cooking. A few years ago I did a "new dish every month" and enjoyed that so I will try that again. Surely I can manage one new recipe a month.

7. Return to counted cross stitch. A very long time ago, I learned how to do this bit of crafty work and enjoyed it. I found it comforting and calming, not to mention productive in a less frenzied sort of way. I have a few pieces that are in a basket awaiting my attention and I hope to pick them up soon and begin working on them.

8. Lose weight. Notice this isn't high on the list. I do wish I could figure out how to get my diet under control but I seem to have very little willpower. My neural pathways are simply designed so that putting food in my mouth is the thing to do, apparently. This is a long-term project that will require a great deal of work.

9. Along with that weight loss comes exercise. I already spend about three hours a week on a treadmill but need to increase that. I would like to take up yoga in earnest and improve my Tai Chi (which I do about 20 minutes a week), too.

10. Get a mammogram. Yep, it's that time again and I'm a little overdue, so I need to fast-forward it to the top of my git-er-done list.

11. Keep my blood pressure under control. After struggling with this for almost two years, I don't want to lose my momentum and let this slide, knock wood.

12. Read more. I already read a lot but would like to increase this. I think 60 books sounds like a doable number; that's just over one a week.

13. Worry less. I am a compulsive worrier who worries about everything under the sun and then what's under the dirt and what's in the heavens and everywhere else. I would like to stop this and worry less and live more. To do this, I probably need to take up meditation and prayer with conviction instead of playing at it. Perhaps a little attention to the spiritual side of life is in order for this resolution to see progress.

There you have it. A list of things for me to work on in 2011. I wonder how I'll do?



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here.  I've been playing for a while and this is my 172nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.