Happy New Year and Happy Old Year

It's New Years Day which means, as is tradition, I'll probably watch the rose parade... for about 5 minutes and then switch to watching some cable channel that's having a movie marathon, but also, since it's new years why not make some New Years resolutions...but since resolutions are kind of a passive way of dwelling on things that you don't like about yourself and would like to change, I think I'll also make a list of accomplishments from last year that I am proud of lest I continue my steak of always writing negative things. So here I go...

I lost weight... I feel like its so shallow and such a cliche that the first thing I think of is weight loss(here I go with the whinging and downer stuff), but fuck it, I feel healthier since I've lost the weight, I think I look better and I've wanted to lose weight for a long ass time, and I'm doing a pretty damn good job of it I'd say (20 lbs in 2 months...), so as a result of all of that I feel more confident and for the most part I think I'm happier in general 'cause when I was eating a lot of crap I would get sugar lows and that obviously is not a good feeling. Now that I'm not eating so many sugary things I dont get those lows, plus I'm eating less which save me money on buying food, and I fit into some of my old clothes from high school and college which means I get to give my worn out fat me clothes a rest for a while and wear out some other stuff and that is nice too... so yeah weight loss is just an all around good thing.

I got promoted at work this year to office manager, and that has made working for Shamrock soo much more tolerable than it was when I was in the San Francisco dungeon and having management experience and working my way up in the company is going to look good on my resume. Plus I'm making more money and saving money since I dont have to ride the train. Plus Since I work close enough to my office I can ride my bike and I enjoy bike commuting... its good exercise and its actually an envigorating way to start the day.

I started an IRA account and put about $7,000.00 into it this year so someday when I'm old and stuff, if my stocks do well, then I can retire and not starve.

I helped Tony to get rid of his icky PT Cruiser and get a nice eco friendly Prius. So that made me happy 'cause that is good for the environment, It was also a nice thing that I could do for Tony... and on a selfish note I thought his old car was ugly as shit so it bothered me, and now I don't have to be bothered by having a boyfriend with an ugly car.

I made new friends... or at least Tony and I are laying the ground work for that. We met Shane and Victoria at Tony's friend's birthday party and we have hung out with them several times now and they are such nice and cool people and they seem to like us so it is very exciting to have new people to hang out with. Plus I also met Theresa this year and she is the best co worker I could have I think 'cause she is very sweet and nice and I think we have pretty similar personalities, so it's good to work with her.

I ran half a marathon... and hardly walked any of it... who the hell would have thought I could do that?... maybe someday I could even do a full one... I bet I could definately rock a triathalon... so yeah with the half marathon and the biking I'd say I have gotten back to doing athletic things this year and it feels good... except when I hear my knees grinding away... but hopefully glucosamine will take care of that.

I had a couple of perfect dentist check ups, and I actually went to the dentist twice in 2007... I can not rememmber the last time I went to the dentist twice in a year. My parents would be so proud.

I finally started following the news.... somewhat... I've always wanted to know what the hell was going on in the world, but like it's all like some weird ultra violent soap operah that is just hard to come into in the middle, but I've finally managed to jump in...or at least poke my toe in the water so that I have a vauge notion of some of the major conflicts and crisis and political things that are happening.

Uhm... yeah there are probably more good things about last year, but I want to move on to looking forward to next year 'cause nobody really likes to read long lists and not even I will probably want to look through this if I just let myself keep prattling on.

Ok, so next year I want to lose more weight (gotta get the cliches out of the way first). To be exact I would like to lose 20 more lbs so that I will weigh 125 lbs... and I want to keep that weight off... FOR EVER!

I want to save money and stick to a budget... I've decided that $24,980 would be a realistic amount for me to put aside as savings ( not including contributing $4,000 to my IRA.)

I want to finish a story... preferably the one I am working on about Kara and the Shadow guy thing, but any story would do... even a short story... I just want to write something that I can be really proud of... and possibly can publish... oh it would be so sweet to be able to sell a novel and take a year off of working or put a down payment on a house or something... ahh sweet lust for money, you do so drive me...

I want to learn more spanish, so I'll know when the guys at work are saying fucked up shit about me without having to have Theresa translate for me... stupid Roberto... I am way hotter than your dog wife.

I want to update my resume and continue my search for a more fulfilling job.

I want to take some sort of a class... like a creative writing class or a cooking class or both... I miss school. I miss learning and I miss having classmates.

I want to go ballroom dancing with Tony... or maybe not ball room exactly but I want him to take me somewhere where I can wear my prom dress and slow dance with him. I love my prom dress!

When I am at work this year I want to use my free time in a more productive way. Not necesarily more productive for Shamrock, but if not for them then for me... I want to work on writing stories or things like that while I'm there... reading news articles is good, but thats only about 20 min of my day.

I want to start doing daily writing exercises (I'm sure there is a website that can give daily tasks like: "write a paragraph about the color orange" or "listen in on someone's conversation and come up with a story to go with it". I want to spend at least half an hour a day writing.

I want to go camping in Big Sur.

and I want to win a real life poker game.

I want to make a new friend.

... and that is all I can think of for now, but it seems like a pretty fair amount of stuff to get started on.