this little life of mine

To remind you of the way this works, here’s how to play:

First — post your list of New Years’ Resolutions in a post at your blog (or in the comments here, if you don’t have a blog).

Second — every week, on Wednesday, write a new post about how you’re doing with each of your goals … you’ll have to list them, again, each week, as people won’t remember what you’re working towards, otherwise. Be brief in your updates, as there may be several blogs to visit! ((come give a quick update here at Should Be Reading, if you don’t have a blog)).

Third — after you’ve written your update, come back to Should Be Reading, and share your link so that we –the other New Beginnings participants– can stop by your blog and encourage you!

Important! … It would be absolutely great if you could visit at least ONE other participant’s blog  on Wednesdays and leave a comment on their post to share some encouragement for their efforts! Show your support! That’s what this event is all about — standing by each other to finally reach our goals!

NOTE:It's the middle of the year already and I was inspired by a recent post from our New Beginnings hostess MizB to reevaluate my 2010 goals/resolutions. So, I've made a newish list. It's slightly less complicated and will hopefully be easier for me to follow.

1. Health and Fitness
o   Get down to size 14. According to my previous goals, I should be a 14 by now, but I'm not, and there's no way I'd make it to a 12 by the end of the year, so I'll just try to get to a nice, comfy 14 by December 31st! 
o   Try three new recipes per month (one of which will be vegetarian). I didn't cook anything new or exciting this week.
o   Hit the gym four days per week. I skipped Monday because it was a holiday and because I was going to see Eclipse with a couple friends from work. (Movie was awesome, btw!) I did go to the gym Wednesday and Thursday, and boy did my trainer make up for missing Monday! I haven't been that sore the day after a workout for MONTHS!! 

2. Writing (removed the poetry section since I probably won't be writing any poetry at all this year, and I'd rather not stress out over it)
o   Write 1st draft of a novel. This is one of the goals I've changed. I was having too much trouble figuring Falcon's Gate out, so I'm going to set it aside and work on something else; I just don't know what yet.
o   Write a(nother) complete novel during NaNoWriMo. Begins November 1st and continues through November 30th. 

3. Photography
o   Take more artistic photos. Not done.
o   Spend more time composing photos rather than just “point and shoot”. Nothing new here. I just haven't been inspired lately.
o   Go "old school": take some pictures using film with manual 35mm camera. Not done recently.
 
4. Homefront
o   Organize stuff. My stuff is pretty well organized right now, but who knows how long that will last.  
o   Reduce clutter. Sold a few things on eBay last week and added three new things this week. I also took some clothing items down to a local consignment shop, and got rid of about 30 more CDs on secondspin.com.  

5. Fun Stuff
o   Go to the beach. I was hoping to get to the beach this weekend, but it just didn't pan out. Next weekend, though, for sure because a friend of mine is visiting and we're planning to meet up at Avila! 
o   Get new ink. Still working on this one.Might actually be getting TWO tats this year if my BFF agrees to get inked with me! Right now I'm still trying to decide for sure what I'm going to get done when I'm in Vegas next month.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week I'm reading The Year Without Michael by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I received it as part of a giveaway she was having with some extra audiobook versions of This World We Live In, and while I'm excited to read another of her books, it's a hard read because it's so. freakin'. sad! (According to my mom, anyway, who read it first.) I have found myself having to put the book away when reading on the bus because I'm afraid I"ll start crying, so I think she's right about it being a sad book. Anyway, here's my teaser for the week:

"And don't be late for supper again," Jody called out to him, as Michael started walking towards Jerry's house. "Mom got real mad last time."

"I won't be late," Michael called back.

This week has been SO insane with end-of-the-month stuff at work, intense workouts at the Club, mostly sleepless nights, and a feeling of general malaise and grumpiness and blah, that I hadn't even noticed my Midas Touch rose bush is blooming!

Like, in a massive way, blooming! I really think this is the most roses that have been out at one time since I planted it a couple years ago. Sadly many of the blossoms are already faded and will need to be dead-headed this weekend, but there are many new ones coming up to replace them:

And, really the week hasn't been ALL bad. I'm reading an awesome book right now, So You Think You Can Dance was AWESOME this week - I mean seriously, did you SEE Alex and Twitch's hip hop routine?!? -  tomorrow is Friday/payday/the start of the 3-day-weekend, and on Saturday I'm going to see Eclipse with a friend (maybe two) from work, so yay! I just feel icky and tired and generally just ... blah, but then I heard a Ken Davis spot on the radio on the way home reminding me that “...today is a day that God made. I will rejoice and be glad in it”, and that just put everything into perspective and made me feel a lot better!