So, two weeks into the new year and the question still remains: How well did I do with 2009′s resolutions? Let’s break it down, one a day for the next 5 days. Before I delve in though, how about a recap?
Sarah’s 2009 New Year’s Resolutions
1. Clear my inboxes down to zero and then keep them clear.
2. Stop falling asleep with my makeup on.
3. Take more pictures.
4. Join a gym and get in shape.
5. Get a financial life.
So, after a year of working at it, how well (or poorly) did I do in these 5 areas? First up, my inbox.
Well, I’m proud to say that my struggles with overflowing email inboxes are over and my work at this resolution has been a total success. After years and years of feeling overwhelmed by hundreds and hundreds of emails just sitting there yelling at me, I finally took the bull by the horns. I developed a better labelling and filing system for my email, did a lot of kamikaze deleting of old stuff and unsubscribed from A LOT of useless newsletters. After that, it was all about slowly but surely reading through more emails every day than I received, till I had finally whittled it all down to zero.
And this doesn’t mean that I’ve become a compulsive email checker, either. I don’t answer every email as soon as it hits my inbox, or anything crazy like that. Instead, it’s more of a once or twice a day thing, generally morning and evening. And if I notice things starting to pile up, I nip it in the bud before it can balloon into an even bigger problem simply by blocking out some time and dealing with it.
So I guess that makes the score so far Sarah – 1, Bad Habits – 0. Not a shabby start.
Tomorrow, Resolution #2: Falling asleep with my makeup on.
Well, my baking bonanza was a success. I spent the better part of 3 glorious hours in the kitchen, cutting out shapes, drizzling icing and sprinkling coloured sugar. It’s a good thing I had prepared and refrigerated the dough on the weekend when Melissa and Carvill and I had a cookie-baking day of our own. Otherwise, I might have been in that kitchen for at least a couple more hours. I did, after all, make a double batch.
But all of my efforts were worth it. These cookies were gobbled up by my coworkers and at the end of the day when I went to check there were maybe 5 remaining in the tin, which I left for the night crew to enjoy. (Whoever got their hands on one before they were all gone, anyway.)
After my busy day on Wednesday, I was glad to be working from home yesterday and today. I definitely needed the peace and quiet. And Daisy was definitely missing me while I was gone too. She followed me around on Wednesday night from room to room, where ever I went, keeping an eye on me and cuddling me whenever I sat down.
To think that this is the same dog who was so independent and spurned my attentions when she was young, only to grow so attached to me in her old age. I can’t believe she’s gonna be 13 in February. Has it really been 13 years since I was 16, demanding that my parents let me buy her with the first earnings of my first job? Wow. It really is incredible how fast time flies.
 {a little blurry, but I don’t mind.}
Christmas is almost upon us. Ten days to go. And the solstice is on Monday, which is definitely a special day for me, personally. I’ve spoken about my thoughts on the seasons before, and Yuletide is one of the major points on the wheel of the year. That blackest of nights that gives way to the promises of brighter, longer days to come. Though we still have the brunt of winter to get through, we can take comfort in knowing that every day now will be just a little bit longer. Until finally, we reach the promise of spring and a world reborn into new beauty.
But back to the topic at hand: Yule and Christmas. I unfortunately have to work on Monday and Tuesday next week, but after that both Dave and I have the rest of the month off, heading back to work in January. Even though I don’t have Monday off, I do want to do something special with Dave. Maybe something just the two of us. I’m picturing candles, but I haven’t gotten much beyond that yet. Either way, I can tell the solstice is close. As I write this, the sun is already going down and it’s barely 4:00.
I still haven’t finished my holiday shopping either. Dave is stopping at a store after work to pick up another gift, but after that we still have four people left to shop for, plus stocking-stuffers. I used to find Christmas shopping a lot easier and more enjoyable, but we’re on a much tighter budget this year, saving for the wedding and all. We’re trying to make it work but it’s made gift ideas a little harder to come by and the whole shopping experience seems a bit more tense. Once that’s done though I think I’ll be able to start enjoying myself the way I normally do at this time of year. Because usually, I’m that annoying person in every family that loves the holidays SO much, despite the fact that everyone else around them seems to be a giant grinch. As proof, I submit my Christmas Music playlist, currently standing at 100+ songs in length. It has been on heavy rotation in these here parts ever since the Santa Claus Parade.
ANd tomorrow is our office’s Holiday Lunch. My workplace is too poor to afford an actual Christmas party, so they have some catering brought in for us one day instead. That generally translates into not a lot of work getting done, which is fine by me. I’m planning on baking sugar cookies tonight to bring in as my contribution to the “party.” Sugar cookies with a drizzling of royal icing and sprinkles on top. What do you think? And I’ll try to remember to take pictures of my baking bonanza this evening, during which the aforementioned playlist will again be put to very good use.
T-minus 10 days and counting!
* Eating 10 pounds of sugar in the form of smarties, jub-jubs, cookies, etc. makes for quite the sugar-crash headache the next morning.
* Living in the moment seems a lot more fulfilling than freaking out, spending so much time planning for the future. Kyrie seems to do it pretty well. I think I should read her blog more often.
* It might be nice to try knitting a hat, but that might require me teaching myself how to knit in the round. Do I have time for that before Christmas?
* It is miserable outside. I do not like going outside when it is miserable. I have to go outside today.
* My camera is broken! Well, my good camera is broken. All I have now is my point-and-shoot. Sniff. No hand-shake minimization. I wish I could replace it with this but there’s no way on earth I could afford it. Double sniff.
* There must be an inverse relation between how much fun you have spending an evening baking cookies with friends and how much suckage there is cleaning up the kitchen the next morning. Sigh.
* Have I mentioned my good camera is broken? Whimper. Maybe I can look into buying a used DSLR….
Well, I’ve definitely decided that telecommuting is worth giving another try. Though it is gonna take some getting used to, finding a new routine. I’ve been telecommuting for a few days now, but inevitably I’ve been spending the whole day in my PJs and feeling out of whack because of it.
Today I’m trying something different. Attempting to ignore the pressure to begin work immediately upon waking up and instead starting when I’m good and ready. (Read “showered.”) I think part of the reason why the transition has been so hard and why it didn’t work before was because I’ve been trying to keep my hours up. But for me, working from home can’t be about putting in 40-hour weeks all the time any more, or I might as well be working in the office.
Changing one’s mindset is hard. And it’s harder than it sounds, acting as though you already are the person you want to be. Maybe I’m half way to pretending. Somewhere near that mid-lifechange point. There’s still a lot of prep work to be done and routines to be hammered out and some definite cleaning of my apparently neglected apartment to wade through, but perhaps once those things are in place it will be easier to wake up believing that I already am who I want to be. I just need to give myself more time. Time to settle in, time to clean up and time to focus on making plans for actually starting my career. Time to enjoy Christmas would be a nice bonus, too. And keeping crazy hours at my current job is not gonna help me with that.
So really, what this is is time to let go. I don’t have to be the best at that job anymore because now, I’m learning to be the best at something else.
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