New Year, Ready or Not

Now that we’ve made it over the first end-of-year Holiday hump, my belly a food lump, I’ve decided that some things have to change next year.

This year has been a good run – a fun one, not a rat race, of sorts. New city, new jobs, no job, what now?

On the chopping block for change:

The word “just.” Just read this article, ok? http://read.bi/1MZDXiO

It turns out that one of my “most-used words” on Facebook (and probably elsewhere, too) was “just.” Granted, this may be attributed to a different usage: “I just won the lottery!” or some such (I WISH that phrase had entered my vocabulary this year, but alas. One has to buy lottery tickets to win, gah!) but in reality it was probably just that hedging word, “just.”

So, in light of this, I will make a conscious effort to reduce the frequency of that word in my everyday use, and especially in my writing. Also, “sorry.” That one’s got to go. I will not use that word unless my mother sits me down in a dining room chair facing my sister, with no prospect of picking up a book or a colored pencil until that word escapes my mouth. So there.

Sleeping in. I know, I know, what a horrible sound that chopping blade makes. I just can’t handle it. If I sleep in, I sleep all day. And then take a nap. And then stay up all night drinking my “morning” coffee, and it all makes adulting very difficult. I’ve also read many articles on the benefits of waking early. Therefore, no more sleeping in. And I don’t mean I’m going to get up at 5:30 am. You know, 7:30, 8-ish will do. Good luck, me.

And now for items to be added to the new year:

Books. I did a reading challenge last year (see my collage here) and it was marvelous! I read books I loved, novels I loathed, tomes I never would’ve picked up otherwise. I would love for my 4th-grade bookworm self to re-emerge, in some way. So, I am gearing up for an (almost) completely new challenge in 2016. Who else is doing a reading challenge? Find me on Goodreads, comment below or here to join me next year.

Running. This summer I did really well – my boyfriend and I had a pact that for every day he didn’t smoke, I would run a half-mile. This lasted almost 3 months. Then he quit quitting, and I quit running. But now that I know I can run without dying, I am going to try this again – with or without Smokey the Bear!