Ahead of the Game

So I’m starting my New Year’s resolutions a little bit early. Okay, so I really don’t ever actually DO New Year’s resolutions…but there’s a first time for everything, right? I’m the type of person who needs a goal or some sort of challenge to motivate myself. I think I get bored too easily… or maybe I just get distracted. For instance, if I have a project to work on for school, I can usually find at least ten other things that must be done immediately, such as re-organizing my canned goods, trimming individual split ends with a fingernail scissors, or cleaning my dog’s ears to make sure they don’t smell like sweaty hockey equipment. You know, really important things. In my defense, however, this only happens when it’s something I really don’t want to do. Give me a task I’m excited about and I’ll work that bitch over into the wee hours of the night until it’s done.

But I digress.

I have some plans for this year. Some of them big, some not so much. Here goes:

1) Finally get my bachelor’s degree. I’m only three classes away, and I’m taking two of them this spring. I’ll do the last in the summer- I work full time and don’t think I can handle all three at once.
2) Get straight A’s in aforementioned classes.
3) Spend as much time as possible with my grandma. She was diagnosed with kidney cancer literally out of the blue last spring. No symptoms, no pain, nothing except a slight abnormality in her urine. It was already at stage IV by that time, which means it had spread to the lungs. Kidney cancer doesn’t respond to chemo or radiation, so her only option was to try drug therapy with a shot 3x/week. She has been incredible during the whole thing… very brave and her attitude is outstanding. We have been exceptionally close since the day I was born, and I can’t imagine a world without her in it.
4) Start going to church. I’ve been saying this for a long time, and I think it’s something I need to do.
5) Workout regularly, 3x/week. I’ve been doing okay on this, but I still need a little bit more consistency. I’m going to Cabo in March so I’ve got to be bikini-ready by then!
6) Make a better effort to slow down and manage my time and stay in touch with the people who really matter in my life. Hubby and I have been going literally non-stop every weekend since May and I just can’t deal anymore! Being busy is good, but come on, people! That’s just too much. I need to prioritize and say no when I don’t want to do something instead of feeling obligated. The last few weeks we’ve had something going every night of the week, and I’m so damn tired that I could probably sleep for 24 hours straight.
7) Work with my dog to combat her anti-social dog-hating tendencies. Now, let me just say that my dog is most likely the cutest, sweetest, cuddliest dog ev-ah, but she does not like other dogs. Loves, loves, loves people but when it comes to other mutts she’s all “Hell, no!” I adopted her from a shelter when she was a year and a half old, and I don’t think she was ever socialized as a pup. In fact, I’m quite certain she was neglected and possibly abused. She did learn to get along with my other dog (who outweighed her by a good 75 lbs) but she has regressed back to her old ways in recent years. Yes, I know-- it’s fascinating stuff.
8) I need to figure out my marriage. I’ve been married for a little over a year and a half, and things just haven’t gone as I expected. I can’t say that anything really bad has happened, because it hasn’t… there’s just this lack of something and I need to get to the bottom of it. Things need to change or else I don’t know what will happen… not to be cryptic, and there is more to it, but for now let’s just suffice to say that it’s on my mind all the time.
9) If #8 gets cleared up, I’d like to start a family. I’m not getting any younger, and I hope and pray that motherhood is in my future. Everything else needs to be squared away first, though.
10) Start volunteering at an animal shelter or in a literacy program for English as a second language.
11) Along those same lines, brush up on my Spanish so I can be somewhat conversational.

So there you have it. My to-do list for 2006. The last year has been full of ups and downs, but I really can’t complain. (Well, I can, but that would make me a whiny bitch and we don’t want that… at least not today)

Here’s to looking forward instead of back!