Resolution Madness

I have a thing about New Years. The Eve part of it? I really despise it. I've had some rather awful NYE experiences and, quite frankly, the good ones aren't so great. It seems like a rather stupid holiday, I don't enjoy celebrating it, and that's that.

But New Years' Day? With the lazing about and the dumplings and the resolutions and the year in review-ing? Yeah, I love the sh*t out of New Years' Day. This years New Years was even better, given that (now that I'm a mother) I no longer feel guilty about staying home and playing Angry Birds and Phase 10 and 10s and 2s and drinking Diet Dr. Pepper and not leaving the house.

My favorite part, besides looking back at the HowDidIGetSoLucky awesomeness of 2010, is resolving to do things. I love that, at this time of the year, so many people are focused on making themselves into better people. I love, love, love making goals and, when I manage to achieve them, I'm pretty damn excited to cross them off my list.

So what's in store for 2011? As if you could stop me from sharing...

1a) Color me original, but I plan to lose the rest of the extra poundage that I'm carrying around. Yes, this is the same resolution I had way back on January 1, 2010, but in all fairness to myself, I did manage to lose 30 pounds in 2010 and, most days, I'm very proud of that fact. Not only have I gotten smaller, but I've gotten stronger. I trained my butt off for a two day, 150-mile bike ride in August and...training while working and taking care of an infant? That's no joke. I've also become a regular at my gym (shocker) and, between the gym and my Kinect and my basement gym equipment, I've become quite the exercise junkie.

And it's not just the exercise that I've really gotten down. I've focused much of my last year on learning to cook even more healthy food. Just this evening I roasted some chickpeas and broccoli and garlic and ate it over brown rice, last week I baked some falafel, and let's not even get started on the salads. I think I'll finally achieve my # goal, once and for all, and I don't really give a damn if it takes all year.

1b) Furthermore, I want to make sure I (continue to) get healthy for real reasons, and not focus on the superficial crap that is so easy to focus on. Watching the declining health of those close to me makes me more and more appreciative of my own strength and good health, and I want to teach Barrett to focus on all of the amazing things that his body can do rather than worry about what it looks like. To this end, I want to get stronger. How will I know I'm stronger? Well, come December 31, 2011, I want to do something I've never in my life managed to accomplish. I want to do one assisted pull-up. And I want to finish that 150-mile bike ride this year. No excuses.

2) Second, I want to spend more time with my family (my original one). I find that when work heats up, trials loom, Bearbot is teething and miserable, I'm exhausted, or life gets hectic, I rarely manage to spend time with la familia and, it must be said, I've missed the hell out of my mom lately. I really want to make the effort to be a better daughter, granddaughter, and sister this year.

3) Finally, in an effort to make the world a better place, I want to dedicate at least 40 hours to volunteer/community service activities. I'm not talking about baking cookies for the PTA bake sale, I'm talking real work for those who need it the most. I really hope to find an organization that I can get behind and dedicate even more time to in the future. I will not, however, be volunteering at the foodbank again, because I cannot...CANNOT...spend another morning portioning lunch meat. If I won't cook it for my son, I'm not putting it in individual baggies whilst it leaks all over me, I don't care how hungry the old ladies and children are that will be eating it.

There they are, my Official 2011 Resolutions. Let me tell you, I really pared them down. I wanted to commit to about a dozen other things, but I realize that going to culinary school, learning Spanish and Russian, reading a book per week, learning to play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano, and teaching myself how to knit all while taking care of my family and trying to become a decent lawyer and, let's be realistic, killing zombies, just might be setting myself up for disappointment.

Seriously, though, I can't have asked for a better 2010, and a hell of a lot of time has been spent in the last couple of weeks taking stock and being so...grateful...that most of the time my happiness has had no choice but to explode out of my eyeballs when I can no longer contain it. I know that so many people haven't had the best year, and my hope, for them, is that 2011 is happier, brighter, and maybe a little bit easier.

Happy New Year.