2002-01-02
New Years Resolutions, posted at 4:05 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Second entry of the day, but the first detailing my New Years Resolutions. Here they are:1) Get down to 180 lbs. I once weighed 285. I'm now down to a fluctuation between 205 and 215. I seem to have plateaued a bit, and my workouts have been dramatically decreased in the last month - both before my ankle sprain and after. I can't skip mornings anymore. I need to join in on Jason's program. I had a great workout this morning - even running a mile with my formerly sprained ankle with a hefty brace on it. I need to continue to do this. I feel lousy when I'm not working out everyday and my self-confidence just drains away. So I need to do it today.
2) Read more. Reading Jonathon Franzen's The Corrections - the first book I've read in a long time for pleasure that wasn't a book on tape/cd - reminded me how much I love it and miss it. Next semester, I'm going to have my kids read silently for a half hour every week a book of their choice. I will model good reading habits to them as well, and do it myself. As an English teacher, I shouldn't just be reading the curriculum - I should be reading outside of school too. There's really no excuse not to.
3) Be better with finances. Not necessarily to save more, but to be a better recorder of when I spend money. Like, write it down when I write a check. Or use my debit card. This will prevent myself from getting all stressed out at the end of pay periods and allow for better money management. I have not yet figured out a system for keeping track of expenses (what, do most people carry around a ledger balance sheet all the time, for both debit card use and check use? that seems so unwieldly...). But I'll figure it out, and do a better job at this.
4) Get my stuff for class for the day ready during my planning period before I check e-mail and diaryland. There have been too many mornings when I have scrambled to make my copies, and it just adds stress to my life that doesn't need to be there.
5) Continue making progress on the dating scene. Maybe have a... relationship?
6) Train Holden better. Buy a good dog book and figure out why he jumps on people and won't stop playfully nipping people when they come over.
7) Join a class or a club of some sort in the community. Perhaps a swing dance club or a sports league or a book discussion group or a film discussion thing or something like that. Something to get me to meet people outside of work.
8) Continue getting to know the city more and more - explore the (many) areas I haven't explored yet. Then start to explore DC a bit - go to a show at the 9:30 Club, for example.
9) Keep my desk and classroom clean. Students will respond to what their environment tells them to. A classroom in disarray will lead to a class of disarray.
10) Be a mean bastard with my new kids from the get-go. I'm only half kidding. I was far too nice this semester. I need to set more specific rules and be anally consistent. I need to expect more from kids.
11) Purchase an adult sort of coat/jacket (I've never had anything but a ski jacket), a piece of cardiovascular exercise equipment that I will use everyday, and look into my upcoming puchase of a car in November 2002.
12) Make this diaryland page look nicer. I'm sort of wanting a new sort of design for a change (this one, which was designed by the wonderful Yelnad, has been up for more than a year), but I'd be happy just getting back the cute looking pictures on the left. I also want to figure out what happened to a number of my entries from the end of summer. They're probably somewhere in my computer. I just gotta find them. I just bought a gold membership, and made "Cast of Characters" and "About the Author" entries that hopefully will be linked from a new design. While I certainly don't write this page for others, I do enjoy the communication/community aspect of having a number of readers, and not as many moved over from my old page as I would have hoped. I'm hoping that having banners for this new page will draw some in. I just want to get my page fixed up before I submit a banner to start running. So I just need to sit down and spend some time figuring out some html or a design that I like, or make something on Dreamweaver and figure out how to convert it over.
13) Go to the independent movie theater more often Wow, a baker's dozen. I've got my work cut out for me. Anyhow, Wish me luck! :)