I’m not usually the type to be short on resolutions, but considering the fact that I haven’t even gotten around to thinking about them in any sort of depth until January 11 is pretty indicative of where I am right now. Tonight, I read through old journal entries to review some of my past resolutions and get inspired. I know that doing this (thinking about past resolutions) is supposed to get us down because it seems to be the American experience that they summarily fail, but it actually made me feel good about how far I have come. Here’s an abridged recap:
2006
1) Graduate from college and complete honors thesis.
2) Move to San Francisco (specifically Hayes Valley). Doing so required landing a job in advance of graduation so that there would be a seamless transition with no indeterminate stop over at Mom & Dad’s. Job was acquired by March and apartment located in late May. I live in the same place today and, as predicted, the neighborhood keeps getting better. All subsequent roommates have worked out wonderfully.
2007
1) Get a new, career-type job. I was ready to move on relatively quickly after the first job, but it taught me a great deal about what I should have been looking for (there’s no way I could have achieved such lucidity without that experience). The new job was such a great fit that Rashel, one of my best friends from Stanford Urban Studies, joined the company in early 2008. There are always frustrations with the obligatory exchange of time for rent money, but two years later, there is a very real, very physical product of my labor which will be open to the public before the end of 2009. As my father wrote in an email recently, “Will be something to be able to ride past it 20 years from now and be able to say you [helped build] it.”
2) Start dating again. Because of the overwhelming combination of adjusting to working life and being new to the city (not knowing many people or the neighborhoods all that well), I spent most of the second half of 2006′s liesure time with Netflix. Fortunately, after several months of Netflix fidelity, my queue had started to dwindle, and I unexpectedly ended up in two somewhat short (3-5 months) but significant and formative relationships. I took the proactive step of joining Match.com though nothing actually amounted from that experience other than the fact that the confidence of knowing I had options carried into other social interactions.
3) Work out. Everyone knows this is a stupid and consistently failed resolution, but I did better than I had the previous year when being healthy was not even on the radar.
4) Independently purchase my first car (city-appropriate, as green as possible, preferably with service warranty). This resolution was made later in the year when I had returned to the less than ideal automobile commute. I ordered my MINI Cooper in June, and it arrived in late September. It still makes me happy when I see it, and, even more than the better-than-average gas mileage, I’ve loved how compact it is.
2008
1) Financial: Pay off MINI Cooper within a year of purchase (accomplished in June) and start a 401k which would save tax money and be impossible to spend away (started in July).
2) Take a serious travel vacation without my family. In July/August, I went to Barcelona (on a whim), London (to visit Amaya), and Paris (because I could). I fell in love with Barcelona and have promised to return, though it can’t be added to the new resolutions just yet because there’s more I have to accomplish at home in San Francisco first.
3) Create a to do list with miscellaneous small tasks:
- Establish a garden on my back patio. Accomplished, though it needs some work now that the winter weather has deterred me from keeping up with maintenance.
- Start composting. This was a failed experiment, especially once I ended up in a relationship and was not home reliably to manage the stink.
- “Local” travel: LA, Tahoe, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Portland. I made several visits to LA since my cousin Henry now lives there and Dan’s family is in Orange County. I also made it to Tahoe three times in the winter and two in the summer, which reignited my long lost love of skiing. I stopped in Santa Barbara on the way home from Orange County after Thanksgiving and had one of the most amazing Indian dinners of my life. Portland is scheduled for Valentine’s Day weekend this year (Christmas gift from Dan), but Seattle hasn’t been planned yet. I could either go with Rashel since her family is there or hold off since Denise could end up in graduate school there.
- Reading: I think I barely (if even) made my 5-book goal, but life is busy and I read a lot online.
- Post on myurbanrevolution.com an average of once a week (check).
- Get glasses because I can’t see (check).
- Finally get a naval piercing. I chickened out so this is still an open item.
- Get a small dog or bird. Aside from a pet making future apartment searches nearly impossible (one point for owning your own place), this was temporarily taken off the list due to aforementioned relationship which would have left my poor pet neglected.
2009
So far for 2009 (not yet organized):
1) Continue to get rid of useless clutter around my house (and my parents’ house) that I don’t need.
2) Save a specific amount of money so that I will one day have a down payment ready after the market has completed its tailspin.
Filed under: Daily Life
