Post 4: Goals for 2013!

Hello void!

So here they are, my 

Goals for 2013!

They're ambitious, yes, but if I can accomplish all this, I will have so much fun!  This will be the best year, and we will be so happy!  I think by doing these things, I really can improve my life, give myself more clarity, energy, and fun.  I threw in the laundry item because I realized today I haven't done laundry in 3 weeks.  I hate laundry.  It has to be my least favorite chore.  But with a good plan, it doesn't have to get out of hand, and that's the idea!  I may edit these later, but I thought this was a good start.  Now, I just have to figure out a way to implement them.  Hurray!

Short Term Goals

Feed the Engines

• ·      Read one book a week
• ·      Listen to one new album per week
• ·      Listen to MPR every day
• ·      Listen to podcast every day
• ·      Write creatively 5 days per week
• ·      Write for blog 4 days per week
• ·      Go to community events (book club, poetry reading, parade) 1-2 times per month

Health

• ·      4x10 pushups per day
• ·      Physical activity every day (cycle, hula hoop, walk, run)
• ·      Use Clean Eating cookbook once+ per week
• ·      Wash face before bed
• ·      Floss

Order

• ·      Do laundry every week
• ·      Don’t leave dishes in the sink
• ·      Simplify possessions

           (I realize I may be behind the trend a little bit, but have you all seen this?  http://theproject333.com/getting-started/  It's a project where you wear only 33 items of clothing for 3 months.  It's a lesson in simplicity, and apparently people come away satisfied with less.  It sounds like a great idea, though it may be a tad ambitious for me.  Part of this project I'm working on is because lately I have been focusing on external wants rather than growing myself, and this would put a cap on my desire for stuff.  I may try it, but would have to ease into it.  I love the idea though.)

      Future

• ·      Apply for 5 jobs per week until a good one is found
• ·      Build a portfolio
• ·      Ace classes

Relationships

• ·      Remember birthdays, send cards
• ·      Plan celebrations
• ·      Talk to M/D 2-3 times per week
• ·      Talk to Steph once+ per week
• ·      Talk to out of town friend once per week
• ·      Have adventures with Sam twice per month
• ·      Visit friends out of town every 2 months

Year-long goals

• ·      Find a good job
• ·      Join a writing group
• ·      Join a reading group
• ·      Build a portfolio
• ·      Become a jogger
• ·      Simplify possessions
• ·      Learn guitar
• ·      Read 60 books
• ·      Improve relationships
• ·      Write a novel
• ·      Start a blog

      And one more thing.  In the spirit of letting good things into our lives, here's a poem.

THE WASPS 

      David Constantine

The apples on the tree are full of wasps.
Red apples, racing like hearts. The summer pushes
Her tongue into the winter's throat.

But at six today, like rain, the first drops,
The wasps came battering softly at the black glass.
They want the light, the cold is at their backs.

That morning last year when the lamp had been left
    on
The strange room terrified the heart in me,
I could not place myself, didn't know my own

Insect scribble: then saw the whole soft
Pelt of wasps, its underbelly, the long black pane
Yellow with visitants, it seethed, the glass sounded.

I bless my life: that so much wants in. 

               http://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?item_id=3739

Post 3: Holidays

Hello void,

So, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want in life lately (which of course, is the purpose of this blog and the sand in my oyster).  The last few days particularly I’ve been thinking about the holidays, past and future.  This is our first Christmas as a married couple, in our own apartment.  We have a tree, and a brand new Sufjan Stevens Christmas album; at work I’ve been listening to Christmas music since the day after Halloween; and yet this year I’m just not feeling the “Christmas Spirit.” It’s about the passage of time; no other date combines such identical elements every year; next to the tree, the music, the gifts, the tiny nativity set, it’s easy to see the changes in your own face and in your family.

One thing that I’ve recently discovered is that I really care about holiday traditions.  Not just Christmas, I mean ALL holidays; New Years, Easter, Halloween. I crave that childish fun, I want to light fireworks and hide candy and dress up.  In the fall, I want to go to corn mazes and apple orchards, and carve pumpkins, and I’m disappointed each year when I fail to make these things a priority. 

So we live and we learn.  This year, to bring more fun to my life, I’m going to be the planner.  In the past, I’ve always just tagged along, because I haven’t known where to begin with such things, partially because I’ve had no experience to draw on, which of course just extends the cycle.  Other people may not take these things as seriously as I do (a friend recently told me I was the most nostalgic person she knew, if that’s any indication of what we’re dealing with.) so instead of thinking “that would be fun”, I’m going to try thinking “that Will be fun, and when’s my next day off?”

I’m a sentimental person; it’s not a crime, so let’s watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” on repeat and make some cookies.  Also, this.

And to leave you, here’s a poem. 

Poppies in October

Sylvia Plath

Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts.

Nor the woman in the ambulance

Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly ----

A gift, a love gift

Utterly unasked for

By a sky

Palely and flamily

Igniting its carbon monoxides, by eyes

Dulled to a halt under bowlers.

O my God, what am I

That these late mouths should cry open

In a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers.

http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/sylviaplath/1422