I am perpetually setting goals, making wishes, and working towards dreams. Here are a few for the new year:
1. Take another step towards true vegetarianism by finally kicking seafood to the curb. I ate fish or shrimp a few times a month throughout 2011, and now feel ready to leave it behind. I might occasionally eat oysters, scallops, or clams (I have fewer moral qualms about eating bivalves), but hopefully not often, if at all.
2. Donate platelets 10+ times. I managed 5-6 donations in 2011, and it’s getting easier every time. I really want to get to once a month, and then in future years, maybe twice a month.
3. Leave the house more. More theater outings, more visits with friends, more new experiences in LA and other places. More travel unrelated to my writing career would be awesome. In short, more adventures.
4. Find a way to work fewer hours in general, so I have more time for writing, reading, and spending quality time with myself and others. Can’t burn the candle at both ends forever.
5. Enjoy my book release and enjoy having a book out. This one is much harder than it sounds, as it’s so easy to get mentally embroiled in sales and marketing and Internet buzz…or the lack of all those things… and slip into dark places. Although it seems as if it will take Herculean effort, I want to let the bad stuff slide away and revel in the good.
As for wishes and dreams?
I hope the people I love have more ups than downs in 2012, and that the downs are manageable and the ups are breathtaking.
Yum. I love you, my friend.
Likewise. :)
These sound like reasonable goals! Number five is going to be hard, yeah, but you can do it, enjoy those pellets and say the hell with everything else. The FPI makes achieving that goal extremely difficult. Though I have to say, I admire your ability, so far, to stay on an even keel about it all.
LOL, I haven’t felt particularly even keeled so far, but I’m really going to work at it. Really, really! You can expect a lot of me leaning on you this year.
Worthy goals and I know you can handle them! Maybe we can try to get together once a month and write again? That would be fun…
Listen to the bacon!!
I hope you achieve all your goals. They’re good ones. You and Chris need to come to Iowa. Possibly at the same time :)
See? Bacon is always right.
I keep trying to convince Chris that we should move to Iowa! I use dinner with the Prineii and evenings by your fireplace as lures. Sadly, he remains unconvinced.
Great goals, Jenn! I don’t know how I am going to do it, but my goal is to reconnect with friends.
Lisa, I look forward to reconnecting! Sometimes we need to do our own things for a while, but rest assured, I’ll always be there for you when we’re ready to start hanging out again.
These all wonderful goals! My favorites are “more adventures” and “enjoy your book being out.”
: )
Thanks, Rachel! Not sure how successful I’ll be, but I’m going to give ’em the ol’ college try. :)
Wonderful goals, Jenn!
And, best of luck on the gentle farewells to seafood! When I was doing that in 1985, during college, I went out with friends to a Chinese restaurant, and ordered kung pao shrimp as my farewell dish. I ate my last shrimp ever, we toasted, and that was that.
You can do it! :-) And the easiest way to do it, is to never say never — in other words, tell yourself that if you really want to, you can always eat those things tomorrow. And then when tomorrow comes, you tell yourself the same thing again… :-)