Hey Hey Its A Resolution

I usually don't make New Years resolutions. I used to but quickly learned that many of the things I hope to do or change simply weren't realistic. Hence, years of not making resolutions but rather trying to live my life as I wanted to. Last year I toyed with making them but with yet another move on the horizon and all of the logistics and upheaval that entailed, I held off. But this year I'm going to once again give it ago. We're settled; probably the most settled we have been or will be for quite some time. So it just feels right. Do I think I'm going to accomplish them all? Probably not but I'm going to give it my best shot. And as I found out during November's NaBloPoMo, if I say I'm going to try to accomplish something, I'm more apt to complete my goal.

So here I go with my top ten goals for 2015:

• I'm going to write more. Not just for my blog but I'm going to get better about submitting all of those articles I've written but are just sitting in files on my computer. They aren't going to get published by sitting there. And if I make a dollar or two off of my efforts, all the better.

• I want to finally learn how to make a proper pie crust. I can cook and I can bake but making one of those tasty and picture perfect pie crusts continues to elude me. Other people do it and so can I. And while I'm at it, if I'm feeling really ambitious I might also take a cake decorating class. That would make those birthday cakes and class parties so much easier.

• And finally I want to learn about wine. Not just which varieties and vintages I like to drink but I want to be able to buy it, order it and speak about it with a bit of knowledge.

• I will return to yoga class. Its been too long but when I went I enjoyed it and more importantly, both my body and my mind thanked me. Enough said.

• I want to master the French language. Ok, maybe not master it but speak enough to move about comfortably. Or at a minimum keep up with my five year old.

• I want to Facebook less and read more. My Kindle is loaded with books that I want to read yet it has been months since I've even turned it on.  So less reading of status updates and more of literature.

• I want to be a better mom. Instead of being the parent at the playground sitting on the sidelines reading my iPhone I'm going to get out there and play with Sidney. (The yoga might come in handy for this).

• I want to be a better wife. This means nagging less and perhaps making more of an effort to make peace with my in-laws. Enough said.

• I want to be a better friend. This means staying in touch with people both far and near and touching base just to say "hi". When is the last time you received an email (or better yet a hand written note) just saying hi? It is pretty nice.

• I will be more patient in 2015. I will stop, take deep breaths before reacting and be better about giving people the benefit of the doubt. It will make everything that much easier.

So here's to accomplishing a lot in 2015.

Oh The Places We Go

When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up? Me, from the time I was in elementary school right through high school I dreamed of being a famous writer. I have no idea what inspired this idea in my child's mind but I had this fantasy of sitting with my trusty electric typewriter (yes, this was back in the days when owning a personal computer was pretty much reserved for only the biggest techies) and typing out a great novel. At times I'd be living in Paris or Italy--places I had only dreamed about at the time--the location varied but my dream didn't. I spent the summer between my high school graduation and heading off to college typing away on my portable word processor (I had upgraded by then) writing what was going to be my debut novel. I finished it but come September I packed it away in a box and headed off to college.

Once in college I was overwhelmed by my class and career options and despite the plethora of writing classes that were offered, I never actually took one. My pages of my "novel" grew dusty and yellowed over the next four years as I switched majors, pondered my future and somehow graduated with a history major, no job and a vague plan to attend law school in the "future". I still thought about writing, dabbled with keeping a journal for awhile but focused my energies on a series of jobs that would keep a roof over my head. When I went back to graduate school I toyed with getting a masters in fine arts with a focus on creative writing but opted instead for the much more logical and marketable masters in public policy. And as they say, the rest is history.

I've come a long way since I had those young school fantasies. I never made it to law school but instead have found meaningful work in other venues. I've married, had a child and moved. A lot.  I've travelled the world and seen places that I only read about in books. I've visited countries that didn't even exist when I was in school and lived in one that most Americans never contemplated visiting let alone living in. I've discovered that I have a knack for cooking and can whip up a decent meal with limited ingredients and less than ideal conditions. The enjoyment I find in dabbling with watercolors and photography are recent discoveries but ones that I will definitely explore further. And through all of this I am still writing. Its not a novel (yet) but I have stories to tell and ideas to share and thanks to the Internet (yet another thing I never imagined when I was a child) I am able to easily do so to as many or as few people as choose to read what I produce. None of these are things I even contemplated as being possibilities way back when.

And now, I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. Will I finally write that long dreamed about novel? Or perhaps open my own bed and breakfast on the ocean where we grow our own food and everything from the furniture to the snacks are homemade? The possibilities of what the holds are truly limitless. So only time will tell what happens next.