Resolutions.

1 January 2003—What a nice surprise, looking back on the resolutions I made a year ago and realizing that I achieved most of them, some more long-lasting than others, but hey, I made progress.

2002 resolutions and their results:

Stick to the novel timeline. Well, pretty much failed that one. On the plus side, however, I did put a fair amount of work into other writing, most of which appeared here.

Remember birthdays better. I think I did pretty well with that, but I know I could do better. Now I have a PDA, though, so that should make it even easier. Note to self: remember to put the birthdays into the PDA.

Eat more fruits and vegetables. I’m actually much better about that now than I used to be. Could be better about fruits.

Drink less soda. I was very good about it during the summer, but I’ve kind of fallen off the wagon, so to speak. Maybe I should rededicate myself to it, though sometimes I just feel that there are worse vices in the world.

Use the gym as much or more. Work those abs. I did way better with this than I even thought I might. At one point I was going three times a week. Never mind that I haven’t gone in a month; it was just a little break. I’m going this weekend, I swear. Dude, shut up—I’m going this weekend!

Cook more. This past summer, when Sarah and I were intensively trying to lose weight, we did a lot of cooking because we wanted to control what we were eating. So there was definite improvement there. Of course, while we were neck-deep in house reworking, it was pretty much a revolving door of take-out and delivery, but all that is over now. I still reserve much of my cooking energy for events and dinner parties (last night was a doozy—those recipes are coming soon), but it’s fun to whip up something simple for a weeknight dinner.

Go dancing with Sarah at least once. Hopefully, you’ll count the dancing at the five weddings we went to last year. I sure am. I don’t know why I’m so not really into dancing — both my parents were avid folk-dancers. My friend Richard is now teaching salsa once a week. Maybe we’ll take some of his classes. (I already tried learning salsa once, but my partner and I really weren’t on the same page, so it wasn’t very fun. Could be better with Sarah; one never knows.)

Write short Mastication pieces sometimes. Yeah, I did that. I tried some different kinds of entries, and I got some positive feedback on them in the form of lots of links from other places, so that was gratifying. Still, I kind of ended up feeling that I wasn’t letting myself write with the same kind of depth that I’d originally set out to do. As much as I’ve enjoyed writing the lighter pieces — and I will continue to write them — I feel like I sometimes need to go back to the types of essays I was writing earlier on.

With that, here are the things I aim to achieve this year: read more; write more; be smarter; finish a draft of the novel; start and finish another during NaNoWriMo; get our nonprofit moving forward; get outside more; and enjoy a simpler, less hectic life with Sarah and Zoe in our beautifully redone house.

I hope this year is a happy one for you. Thank you for being my reader.