You Guessed It! (Insert Obligatory New Years Resolution Post Here)

Well, you should have come to expect this from me by now. Every year I list the same resolutions with newfound resolve that I really will lose weight, and save money, and read for 2 hours a day, and save the world, and learn to fly, and on and on and... bleh. I actually decided a few weeks ago that I wasn't going to do that again this year. I was going to keep it simple. So here you go:

2011 Resolutions:

1. Obtain and learn to play a ukulele

2. Don't make bad decisions

Seems pretty easy, right? I thought so. The first one is pretty self-explanatory.

The second, however, has drawn some controversy from the few folks I have disclosed this to. They immediately struck back with the "rules" about making a goal measurable, and trying to define it, and bla bla bla.

Yes, I thought about that. And I thought that my resolution would be easier to apply. For example: instead of saying that I want to lose 10 lbs, and limit my ranch dressing consumption, and go to the gym 3 times a week, I will instead say that I'll try not to make bad decisions. I already have a pretty decent gym routine established; skipping would be a bad decision. I'm not dumb, I know what a healthy meal is; gorging myself on buffalo wings and ranch and tacos and whatever else I can find is a bad decision. So instead of always staring at the scale or the mile count or whatever measurement I can find and feeling lost and disheartened at my apparent lack of progress, I can instead manage this on a micro level, and (hopefully) gain some more confidence. And a side effect of this whole process would be losing 10 lbs or whatever the heck is the underlying thing I'm trying to get at.

And it can apply to other things too. But that's between me and a future blog post, and whomever I may or may not text message in the wee hours of the morning. wait. what?

At any rate, I wish myself luck. I appreciate any help/encouragement from friends (as well as being called out when I DO make bad decisions, because I already know a few of them are coming....). So. Here goes nothing!

Back by popular (?) demand

First off, the main reason for my writing today (other than the fact that I can't sleep) is that someone actually asked why I haven't updated my blog in a while. You like me! You really like me! Anyway....

Today started off on kind of a bad note. I texted mom to see when xmas #1 was. It's usually the Sunday before the 25th, but sometimes it changes if regular xmas is on a weekend like it is this year. So mom informed me that it was today, and also that she already told Grandma I wasn't coming. Except she forgot to inform me. Until that point, of course, which was an hour before the party started. And given that it was a 2 hour drive and I was still in bed, well, you can see why this is becoming less and less possible by the minute. So I was bummed that I missed out, but me and sis can go see Grandma next weekend.

But then, as I continued to stumble through my Sunday routine (i.e. drag myself out of bed and move to the couch), my friend and former (x2) coworker Andy made a wonderful suggestion: SNOWBOARDING! I know by this point that if you're reading my blog and are unaware of the fact that I love snowboarding, you must be lost. I suggest you navigate away from this page immediately, or better yet, just walk away from your computer and find a book go read. You'd be much better off.

Anyway. Yes. Snowboarding. We went to Cascade. It wasn't too full, which was nice. And here's a fun tip: If you get there after 3:30 (which we did), lift tix are only $26! Since Andy and I both love being cheap, this was truly a wondrous discovery. So we bought our tickets and took a couple of pulls of Jamo out of the flask on the lift on the way up and had a grand old time. Conditions were pretty good, and all the runs were open. I also would like to point out that I haven't been to the gym in a week, and I haven't been lifting nearly as much as I have in years past to prep for snowboarding, but I still think I did pretty well. I only actually fell once, and it wasn't even from catching an edge... it was from going too slow! hah!

And so, for today, I have declared myself the winner.

Other updates: work... is work. I'm excited for our white elephant exchange tomorrow. I usually suck at these coworker gift things quite terribly, but I think that at least part of my gift will be appreciated, in some strange demented way. I'm also looking forward to New Year's so I can start on my resolutions. I'm sure I'll have another meaningful blubbering post about those come 1/1/11, because I usually do. I suppose if you're looking for something regular about this blog, you can always count on a new years resolution post, and another one for lent complaining about how I've been sucking at my new year's resolutions for the last 3 months and i'm giving myself a do-over.

ALSO. Since I think I'm far enough away from Halloween to be out of the woods: I have gone the entire length of the Halloween season WITHOUT CONSUMING CANDY CORN! Not a single one! I'm really proud of myself because said corn is usually responsible for about 2 lbs of life-ruining "holiday cheer." So go me on that.

I would also like to tell you that I had an all-Milwaukee dining weekend. Dinner Friday was the Lakefront Fish Fry with Jason, which was delicious as usual. Our server, Max, was quite awesome and deserving of 3 high-5s. Saturday's dinner was Cafe La Scala at the Italian Community Center, which I had heard rumors of but had never witnessed until this day, and let me tell you, it was AMAZING. Definitely undervalued within the city of Milwaukee. Thanks to Tony and Ross for being my hott dates. I will surely be back. (And stop calling me Shirley!)

Other stuff: I don't deal well with change, but some of it seems to be looming on the horizon. Does anybody have a "how to suck it up and deal with change for dummies" book I can borrow? And no, it's not the fun exciting new car type of change either... grr...

Anyway, it's an hour after I got in bed and I'm still pretty much wide awake. I suppose falling asleep might be more easily facilitated if I'd actually close my laptop and turn out the light, but I'm not sure that will work, given how last week went. Oh well.... here goes nothing!

On Making New Friends

First off, I apologize. I had 2ish somewhat "regular" posts and then nothing for two weeks. Anyway, I'm back now and have a few life-changing concepts staring me in the face, so hopefully I'll get my act together one of these days, and hopefully one of the positive offshoots of these life-changing concepts will be regular blog posts. You best keep your fingers crossed.

Anyway...

Have you ever thought of how you actually made friends? Like what moment or common appreciation bonded you with another being? I have been thinking about this a lot lately:

1. I had the one-year anniversary of meeting a now very dear friend of mine at Bastille Days a few weeks ago. I remember the exact moment I first saw her come into my line of sight (and the day about 6 months earlier when she warned me not to go into a treacherous closet). We now have regular discussions of cat-lady-ness and trips to Target, not to mention a shared love of Buffalo Mac (mac and cheese spirals + buffalo sauce + some variation of meltey gooey cheese product).

2. I distinctly remember the first time I met a second now-dear friend, which was supposedly the same night that I met the friend listed in #1 above, though neither he nor I can remember meeting on night #1. Instead, we both remember meeting a week later at The Garage, where I attempted to cast him in a movie, but he refused to take off of work.

3. I told the story earlier tonight of how I should have been serial killed (yes, this is a verb) by a third now very close friend whom I met on twitter. Please note that I am not currently, nor have I ever been a zombie. Buy me a beer sometime, I'll tell you the story.

So what brought all of these thoughts and memories about tonight? I was invited to a very lovely Girls' Night by a great person who had decided to plan a monthly get-together as one of her New Years' resolutions. She knows a lot of people, and thinks they're all awesome, and decided to get them all together and rock out. It was awesome.

You know how you meet new people, and you go through the formalities, like where do you work, and are you originally from here, and strain to find some common ground? I did not strain a single bit to find conversation topics with these folks. They were all AWESOME. I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to hang out with them tonight, and will be patiently waiting for the next 29 days until the next Girls Night. yay.

As far as updates on the rest of my life, here goes:

Vegas is HOT. It's a desert. Yes, really. I was there during an "Excessive Heat Warning." That meant that it was hotter than normal in the desert. Why people willingly go here in the middle of summer (which is fairly pleasant in most other parts of our great nation) is beyond me. I liked it, but I will not go back until November, when it is palatable (and the overnight low is less than 89 degrees).

Goals: I'm bringing these up again. Not so much to bore you all, but more to nag myself. I had my wellness assessment today (annual health screening that my company gives us for free) and I'm not terribly thrilled with the results. The diet [re]starts tomorrow. Seriously. Monroe Cheese Days might get skipped this year. I have 1.5 bottles of ranch dressing that might find a new home in the garbage. Deep fried cheese, I love you, but we may have to take a break. This week/end is a wash (mostly because of that ugly pile of wash that keeps growing), but next week I will make my triumphant (?) return to the Downtown Y. (If you want to see something funny, watch how red my face gets after I work out...). I'll also be attempting to do at least a few push-ups every day. Today I did 15. Yes, they were the girlie ones.

Other than that, all seems pretty good for right now. Bridgi touched down at O'Hare today from Deutschland and I'm more than a little excited to see her. I bought hazelnut coffee and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce to welcome the ex-pat and her bf back to The Good Land.

Speaking of The Good Land, I'm still pretty much infatuated with this city. Are two Milwaukee tattoos too many? I'm beginning to get a very vague idea of what my next tattoo will be, and kind of want to incorporate "The Good Land" into it somehow. Maybe. Putting that one back into the circular file.

Looking forward, I'm going to be in DC for the weekend. I'm pretty excited to see my friend Joe and to (finally) check out the Newseum, and may also have an impromptu reunion with my old car dealership boss from 2004. That's a looong time ago. Still looking forward to it.

As for now, I need to go to bed. I hope I don't have any crazy dreams about trippy 90s triangle carpeting like I had last week.

Any ideas on how to avoid deep fried cheese and ranch dressing are welcome, as are any thoughts/memories on making new friends.

Having Less Stuff

Ya know how good it feels to clean out your closet/drawer/desk and get rid of a bunch of stuff you don't need anymore?

Well, I'm pretty OK at getting rid of the junk I don't need. But what to do with the stuff I have some ridiculous emotional attachment to? Like the 300 t-shirts I own? I went through a year ago and got rid of a whole bunch... but now I'm down to the shirts I really like (and still wear a fair amount). Like the 2001 Wisconsin State Track Meet shirt, or the Washington, DC one I got when I was there in 2005, or the Sweetwater Surf Shop shirt from Wilmington Beach, NC that I got on Spring Break in 2003? I'm kind of in love with all of these shirts.

I went through about 6 months ago and got rid of all of my notebooks from college. Apparently at one point in my life, I thought that I'd need (no really, need) to reference my Meteorology 101 notes, and my Business Stats notes, just to name a few. I have taken these treasures (?) to 2 post-college abodes with me. I got yelled at really bad by the friend who offered to carry the box of notebooks up the stairs for me (in my defense, I was fully willing to carry these myself). Well, the notebooks have long since been recycled, but I still keep a few shelves worth of books that I've read. I enjoy lending them out to folks (ok I've done that like twice), and there's that accomplished feeling of having a shelf full of books that I can lay claim to. But... do I need them? Related: Have you seen this amazing site? (That might have something to do with my problem...) Also related: My new blog background is A BOOKSHELF. I might have to admit defeat on this one.

I finally got a (working) paper shredder, and about 3 years ago I switched all of my mail/bills/statements to electronic delivery so now I just get emails instead of phone/internet/credit card bills, but I still have SO MUCH PAPER sitting around my apartment! I don't know where it comes from! It's just always there! I go through everything and throw out tons of stuff at a time, and then the next day, it just comes back. I have two portable file things for important stuff like school loan documents, health insurance and 401(k) info and car insurance stuff, but what the heck? Theoretically that's all the stuff I would really need, but still! So much paper!

Does anyone have any tips for clutter/stuff control? Or for getting rid of t-shirts because I have an entire massive drawer full of them? Or for just being more awesome in general?

May Day, a little late

And so, again I find myself here, staring at the New Blog Post screen, tapping out some resolutions for what I have somehow calculated to be the next step in my life. And so, on my last Monday of unemployment, here is what I intend to change for the next however long this stage lasts:

1. Go to the gym. No, really. I went and talked to one of their peeps and got my rate reduced (even though theoretically I would go more if I was paying more... or something).

2. Start (and this time actually finish) Couch to 5k. I know 8 people who have done it, so I can do it too, right?

3. Have a routine. Starting the new job will help with this, which will in turn help with #1 and therefore #2.

4. Discard. I've been doing pretty good at going through my closet and donating stuff I haven't worn in a while, but I need to keep up on it, as there is still a lot of stuff that I don't really need.

5. Eat better. Less stuff that comes in a box, more home cooking. Jason has a really great recipe for this super simple beef/noodle/bok choi dish that I need to get from him when he comes back from his month-long South American adventure. I need to be more mindful of bar food (and my weakness, buffalo anything), and make a better effort to plan when/where I'm going to eat so I can avoid convenience food. And maybe I can finally get to work on seasoning and using my cast iron skillet and dutch oven. Sounds easy, right?

6. Read more. I WILL read for 30 mins a day at least 3 times a week. I have a whole mess of books that I really want to read but haven't touched. I keep collecting them. They look so inviting, with their covers and their word-filled pages. But do I open them? No. That will change.

That's all I've got for now. Anybody have any tips on actually accomplishing stuff?

To Read or Not To Read

I have long felt it important to finish what I start. (Unfortunately, this does not hold true for the scarf I began knitting something like 4 winters ago.) Wow, that sounds really depressing and makes me look quite bad. Do over!

Whether or not I have said it out loud, I have been a firm believer in following through with what I set out to accomplish. It's how I learned to snowboard, lost 10 lbs (still 15 more to go) and why I canceled my cable.

That being said, I am at a terrible crossroads. I am reading a book that I have absolutely no desire to finish. I've been working on it for about a year (though the canceled cable resolution has definitely helped spur it along in the past few weeks). The "bookmarks" are a bike rental brochure from last summer's camping trip to the Apostle Islands and an Amtrak ticket stub from our Nov. 4 adventure to Grant Park. I believe I purchased it about last May, as I remember discussing with a friend at our Memorial Day camping trip that I was going to start it.

That Memorial Day conversation may have been the beginning of the end, because my friend told me that he didn't like the book at all. But I started it anyway, because he thought that I may like it, after all, it is quite a popular book. I got a few chapters in, it didn't seem so bad. Then I set it down for a bit and came back to it while on the Apostle Islands trip, where a second friend mentioned that he didn't like it either. Darn. (I will admit, I got a bit mad, at 2 of my friends telling me they didn't like it, that they were just setting me up to fail and they should have just let me read it and make my own decisions.)

At any rate, the book was set down and picked up several more times over the next few months until I've reached the point where I'm at now, about 3/4 of the way done and absolutely no desire to finish. I don't care about what happens to the characters because they are not people I would care about in the first place. Three quarters of the way into the book and there is no interesting hook or plot synopsis for me to care about. I feel that the author has failed to engage me, and it took me 3/4 of his book to figure it out!

So what to do next? Do I stick it out to the painful end, with the hopes that something amazing will happen and make me glad I read the book? Or do I accept defeat and put it back on my shelf and maybe gather it with a bunch of other books in 6 months or a year to sell to Downtown Books for in-store credit?

Given the recommendations of my friends, I think the answer will be to accept defeat. It's going to go back on the shelf and I'll pick up the other book that I've only partially started (though the story behind this one is far more exciting... this book is called Istanbul, and I purchased it while in Istanbul in 2007. And the story is interesting too!).

Wish me luck, dear friends, as the list is only more exciting after this!

In no particular order:
The World is Flat (Friedman)
And The Band Played On (Shilts)
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (Adams)
American Gods (Gaiman)
The Audacity of Hope (Obama)
I Was Told There'd Be Cake (Crosley)
Bowling Alone (Putnam)

Also, I kindly ask that you don't share your opinions on these books until I've had a chance to read these books, as to not set me up for the dismal failure mentioned above. Many thanks, Lars.

Debt Free: The First Step

Today I canceled my cable. I met up with Nikos at Mayfair Mall and waited in line for about 20 minutes and turned in my cable box. When asked by the Time Warner employee why I was doing it, I recited that all of the shows I watch I can find online for free. He gave a somewhat-knowing half-nod and began asking me for my account information. 5 minutes later, I was cable-box free.

But not so fast. Right before I left, the TW guy pointed out that I was still subscribed to Road Runner "Lite" which is not suggested for viewing streaming video online. (I would like to note that I have had very little trouble using it so far, and attribute most of the problems to my 8-year-old computer and not to the speed of my connection.) So I asked the price difference - it is $19.95/month to stay with my Lite connection, or $46.95 to upgrade to the "standard" Road Runner service. Of course, as an existing customer, I do not qualify for any 'introductory' rates, so I told him I'd stick with what I had. Heh.

At any rate, This will net me $80/month extra (or $50/month extra if I upgrade to 'standard'), which can be used in one of three ways:

1. throw at my debt snowball, of which I expect to have the first credit card paid off in about 4 months;
   
2. save up for my upcoming Euro Trip this June (details to follow)
3. save up for a new (and sorely needed) computer

Of course, the most logical would be... the first one. Although it is the least amount of fun. I guess I'll see what I do with myself.

Additionaly, the cable-cancelling was supposed to help me clear my mind, read more, write more and spend more time keeping my apartment/life/closet in order. However, I got home and plugged the cable linr in to the back of the TV and discovered... that I still have about 100 channels of basic cable. I do miss the DVR and the "guide" option, but maybe I'll have to stick with the "step down" program. And maybe I'll have to wait and see what happens if they DO actually decide to cut the cable that I will no longer be paying for.

All in all, I'm optomistic about what lies ahead. Wish me luck!