The New Year

For 2010 I wimped out and came up with a bunch of resolutions I was sure to keep. For 2011, I'm going to add a few more..perhaps throw in some that might take a little work.

So here goes...

1.  It's time to buy a new camera. If you looked back to my last year's New Year's blog post, you'll notice the exact same adorable picture of my dog, Chi.  My camera broke and I'm going to buy a new one. Yep. It's lame. I'm going for the low hanging fruit here. But you gotta start somewhere and the next two resolutions are harder. 

2. This year I'm going to finish things I start. For example, I'm actually going to apply the anti-wrinkle cream. Having an vast assortment of fancy jars jammed into a cabinet is not enough.  According to the manufacturer's instructions, for it have even have the slimmest chance of working you actually have to put the stuff on your face. 

And the same thing with all those green leafy vegetables. You don't get any points for going to the store, selecting the perfect greens, carting them home, stuffing them into your refrigerator, and then leaving them to turn limp, soggy and yucky. You should! You really should!  Just like you should get points for sitting in front of the TV and watching an exercise video (even if you are shoving popcorn into your mouth and curled up in a blanket). But alas...that is not the way.  You actually have to eat the veggies and do the exercise.

They say the last miles of a marathon are the most grueling. Those final steps are the hardest to take. Look, I'm not promising that I won't get blanketed up to watch another tai chi/martial arts video or find yet another unopened jar of some outrageously expensive magical face cream or discover some moldy gray green thing in the back of my refrigerator that began life as a lettuce leaf (if the last part of this sentence went into the too much information category, I apologize), but 2011 is the time to do more of the hard stuff and take those final steps.

3.  I'm a tea-drinking librarian who writes middle grade books and reads a lot. Sometimes, I'm way too attached to my comfort zone. It's time to chase down some fears. Meet new people. Have new experiences. Be reckless.  (FYI, my definition of reckless is pretty tame, but it's a start). Besides, I learned the hard way that playing it safe doesn't keep bad things from happening. It can, however, keep you far away from your dreams. Successful people take chances. Creative people take chances too. 

 If you're making resolutions, good luck with them. Have a happy, healthy 2011