onward to 2013

We already a week into 2013!  I must be getting older by the second because time has started slipping away from me at a deeply accelerated rate.  Without further ado,  some goals for myself for 2013:

1. Take a real vacation and go somewhere I've never been before.  I haven't been on a get-on-a-plane vacation since I left California.  I haven't been on a real vacation where I get away from everything that's familiar and learn, explore and recharge in I don't know how long.  I love going to Maine for long weekends and taking day trips but I need more.  Money is going to be tight this year, but I'm hoping that by my birthday that I can go on an actual, real vacation.

2. Learn to take better pictures.  Without instagram I would be a total crap photographer.  Actually, with instagram, I am just a giant hack!  I'd like to learn to take better pictures; I know I can do better.  To do better, I need to take more pictures, more often.  Thanks to digital photography, I predict photo improvement!

3. Be more comfortable with myself in front of a camera.  I hate having my picture taken.  I hate it, hate it, hate it.  I am not comfortable with how I'm aging, how tired I look all the time or the weird face that every camera captures.  I don't think I am ever going to love seeing an image of myself, but I can figure out my "good" side and practice, practice, practice.  In a related note, I got a full length mirror for Christmas.  It's the first time I've had one in over a decade.  It's in my kitchen at the moment so I'm seeing myself all the time, as though it were the first time.  I am getting used to myself. :-)

4. Evaluate my job by the end of the year.  I like my job.  I work for a non-profit with a great mission, and everyone I work with is really nice.  But, it's been just two months and I am bored.  Bored and frustrated by the lack of autonomy, lack of responsibility and lack of variety.  There's lots of work to be done and I never feel like I can keep up, but it's all the same and the research isn't all that difficult.  I know I can do more.

5.  Evaluate my housing situation by the end of the year.  I've lived in my condo for three years.  In some ways, it's exactly like every other apartment I've ever lived in - noisy, crowded and disappointing.  I'd like to move on to somewhere I can make noise freely, grow a little garden and tear down walls.  I'd love to have a little house of my own or a condo in a two family house.  This may be a long way off, but I need to start dreaming about it.

6. Get back into yoga.  I miss it!  I've been doing a couple very basic poses while my hamstrings heal and I feel good, if extremely tight.  I'm running 6 minutes, three times/week so my hamstrings are healing.  I feel like with more time, I'll have healed completely and then I can get back to yoga again, though maybe with not the intensity that I practiced before.

7. Take care of myself and not think the worst.  There's going to be a big change in my life this year, one that is going to hurt like hell.  My goal is to not retroactively take all the blame and not to think the worst about the future.  (This is vague, I know.)

I guess I'm not feeling all that ambitious this year, as that's all I have.  I'll add the usual goals to the list: deal with my hair constructively, get more sleep, continue to expand my cooking repertoire, explore more, love more, and be kinder more often. 

Happy 2013!