Friday, December 31, 2010

New Year's Resolutions

Let's be all stereotypical and write a New Year's Resolution post, shall we?

2010 was a whirlwind of life changes. In May, I graduated from grad school, in June I was hired for my first teaching job, in August I moved to a new town and started the job, in November I met a boy.

Well, gee, when I put it that way it doesn't seem all that exciting. Nonetheless, it's been pretty crazy, especially the last half of the year.

I really have two New Year's Resolutions for 2011....

1) Be a better teacher. Not that I think that I'm a bad teacher or anything, but teaching is something I'm incredibly comfortable doing, especially considering I'm a first year teacher. And especially since my weird medical issues started right before Thanksgiving, a lot of the effort I was putting into teaching has gone more into just making it through the school day while trying to ignore the pain. (More on that in a moment)

2) Run again. That's right, I didn't say MORE because that would mean that I've been running and I haven't. In fact, in 2010, I think I could count the number of miles that I ran on my fingers. The picture above is of me running 10 miles in one fell swoop...something's wrong with this picture. I will not be running to lose weight or to break any records, except my own. I inadvertently lost between 10 and 15 pounds when I started teaching, I guess because of the constant walking around the classroom and the fact that when you're teaching, there's no time for mindless snacking. Both of those things are good things, and at the beginning of the year I was doing yoga (while still at JMU) and end of the year I also started attending a Boot Camp class, which was awesome. The only problem is that I now pay a monthly gym membership which I won't admit how few times I've gone since I joined in August. As soon as we figure out these medical issues, this will change!! Time to be a runner again!!

Medical issues - the Friday before Thanksgiving I woke up with intense pain in the lower right abdomen. Pain so bad that I took off from work and went to the doctor fearing appendicitis. Since then the pain has not gone away and I even spent one night in the ER because the pain got so bad. Ultrasounds have ruled out an ovarian cyst, CT scans have been done, and I've been to my primary care doctor 3 times and two specialists. So far, they have not found the source of the pain. Next Friday I go to a GI doctor and I really hope that he can find a better solution than continuing a regimen of Tylenol with Codeine when it hurts. Anyway, this has caused countless days and nights of pain, three days off from work and did not make for the ideal Thanksgiving or winter breaks. Also, it's caused me to go on survival mode both at work and in life -- doesn't let me be a very good girlfriend (although because I have the best boyfriend EVER, he's stuck with me through all of these even though it's still the very very beginning of our relationship), haven't worked out since all this started, and I just feel all around pretty crappy. Six weeks is way too long to be in pain with no answer, especially when you are no closer to an answer than when you started. So, there's a third resolution, but it better take like just January of 2011 and not the whole year --- GET BETTER!!!!

So, there they are, my resolutions... one for work, one for me. Reasonable, right??

101 year-end progress

Thank goodness I copied my 101 in 1,001 list into here. The dayzeroproject website has disappeared and who knows if it's gone for good? The good part is that I did put the list into my blog, the bad news is, the notes that I was putting on that website are now gone so some of my progress will have to be guessed. For example, I had watched almost all of the movies necessary for #12, and with the addition of Netflix a few weeks ago, I know what I've watched in the last few weeks, but that one may be off by one or two movies.
Anyway - my progress will be noted on here, we'll call this the year-end post, I don't THINK that I'll finish anything else in 2010, unless I watch X-Men before midnight tomorrow. Anything crossed out, I have completed, anything with an asterisk is in progress.
1. Donate hair to Locks of Love Children with Hairloss - Had to change to an organization that takes color-treated hair
* 2. Run a half-marathon - Registered for the Virginia Wine Country 1/2 Marathon
3. Run a marathon
4. Run a Disney race
5. Adopt a dog
6. Cook a Thai dish - This was attempted, not quite palatable -- will probably try again.
7. Cook an Indian dish
8. Eat at an Ethiopian restaurant
9. Eat real sushi
10. Visit California
11. Use my passport
*12. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet- I have R and X left
13. Make 10 new friends
*14. Complete a 365 day photo challenge- Day 133... missed one day because I was sick, but will just extend one day at the end to make up for it
*15. Read 100 books
16. Influence a person to make a day zero list
17. Complete a coloring book
18. Buy a car
19. Go to 5 different museums
20. See a drive-in movie
21. Get over my fear of riding bikes
22. Take my parents out to dinner and pay - Dad's birthday 2010
23. Eat breakfast everyday for a week
24. Ride on a motorcycle
25. See a shooting star and make a wish
26. Attend a midnight movie premiere
* 27. Visit Georgia to meet Jack- plans actually were made, plane ticket was purchased, and then I got sick. Plans are in progress again!!
28. Make Christmas cards for my friends and family
29. Research/start investment plan; start retirement fund
30. Make a gingerbread house
*31. Do one thing a month I have never done- August 2010, went to a movie by myself; September 2010, adopted a dog; October 2010, finished my first nine weeks of teaching; November 2010, cannot remember now that my notes were deleted but I'll come up with it!!; December 2010, bought and put up my own Christmas tree!!
32. Visit a national park
33. Go to a fireworks show on the Fourth of July
*34. Try 20 new restaurants- I believe I was at 16 and went to another new one tonight, bringing me really close to finishing!
*35. Live by myself for a year
36. Go a whole day without saying anything negative
37. Donate money to charity
38. Carve a pumpkin for Halloween
39. Get an aquarium
40. Learn to decorate cakes
41. Take surfing lessons
42. Go to an amusement park
43. Go for a whole week without using Facebook
44. Get Water Safety Instructor certified
45. Coach a swim team
46. Buy a work of art
47. Attend a photo exhibition
48. Make a blanket fort
*49. Listen to 26 bands I've never listened to starting with each letter of the alphabet.- again, I lost my list, but I pick up the free iTunes singles from Starbucks when I remember and download iTunes free singles every week which helps this one.
50. Find a poem that means something to me
51. Sing in the shower
52. Write down every dream I have for a week.
53. Dance in an elevator
54. Make homemade ice cream
55. Read ten literary classics
56. Take a trip to NYC
57. Be a member of the audience in a TV show
58. Go to trivia night at a bar
59. Send a handwritten letter
60. See a musical
61. Stay at a B&B
62. Do the 200 squats challenge (www.twohundredsquats.com)
*63. Attend 10 concerts- Sugarland in Sept. 2010 and will be seeing Jimmy Eat World in Feb. 2011
64. Spend one whole day at the cinema
65. Finish writing another 101 things list by the end of 1001 days
66. Visit a brewery
67. Go to a flea market
68. Do something for charity
*69. Listen to Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time- lost my list so will probably start over
70. Host a cupcake party
71. Take a zumba class
72. Visit at least 5 states I haven't been to before
73. Go on a vacation
74. Go to an art gallery
75. Build a sandcastle
76. Write a short story
77. Go to a winery
78. Get a new pair of glasses
79. Go to the cinema on my own
80. Pay off all credit cards
81. Eat a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich
82. Go to a food festival
83. Blog at least once a month- already failed on this one :(
84. Have a little red dress
85. Get CPR certified
86. Learn to play poker
87. Make bread from scratch
88. Finish a crossword puzzle
89. Complete the 100 pushups challenge
*90. Go to a Redskins game- Joel gave me tickets for the final game of this season vs. the Giants
91. Learn to drive a stick shift
*92. Regularly update regular blog about dayzeroproject
93. Go camping
94. Do something adventurous- although this year has been full of adventurous things... new job, new town, new friends, new love... I'm going to hold off on saying this is complete. Nothing screams "adventurous" enough, yet.
95. Visit Sea World
96. Make tiramisu
97. Send a secret to PostSecret
98. Become a vegetarian for a week
99. Get a more visible tattoo
*100. Put away $2 for every goal completed
101. Create a budget and stick to it

14 "in progress"
15 completed
Plenty more to go, but I am 5 months into a 2.75 year project and pretty happy with the results so far.

The 365 project reminds me everyday of this list and the things that I set out to do. It's awesome that I haven't just forgotten about it and also that I haven't gotten annoyed or sick of the fact that I actually made a physical list of the things I really want to do. Today I registered for the half marathon, the first step to actually running it. It's been a year and a half since I ran the Baltimore 10 miler and I haven't run much since then, I miss that feeling of being able to call myself a runner. It will be great to be able to track my training progress and feel like I am getting closer to another thing on this list.

Also - in case anyone is keeping track from my last post, things are going well in the dating department, all it took was quitting the online dating scene and trusting someone I hardly knew to match me up with someone. Someone that I enjoy spending so much of my time with!! :)