2009 was a very dark year for me. I’m not going to go into the details. If you know them, you know them. If not, well, I don’t want to re-live the moments by writing about them, and besides, reading about it would just depress you.
I’ve never been one of those people who does the New Year’s resolution thing. The demarcation of a new year is just so arbitrary. So we say that January 1st is something new and wonderful in comparison to December 31st – so what? A day is a day is a day. Why should December 31st be so different from January 1st? Except that I feel different about it this year. 2009 was such a terrible black hole, and it’s only now that the year is ending that I finally feel like I’m clawing my way back out of it and into the light. And believe me, I want to stay in the light.
As such, I’ve decided to make some New Year’s resolutions.
1. Eat better. So much of 2009 I spent eating things that came out of the freezer and were microwaved inside of their packaging. Blech. And the times I wasn’t doing that, I was eating things which were cooked for me, by someone with a preference for hormone-laden, oversized chicken breasts. The goal is to stick to foods that contain fewer preservatives, are home or locally grown (when possible), and which are actually cooked (not merely nuked) by me.
2. Get janekeeler.com back in order. I used to obsessively design and redesign my website. While it’s gone through several incarnations this past year, none of these versions was ever finished. Such as what’s online over there right now… a pretty shell with no content. Must straighten that out.
3. Blog often. For someone who blogged obsessively for years, 2009 was… what? Blog burnout? Writer’s block? Unwillingness to write about the nastiness of my day to day existence? Inability to write about things that were secret and/or confidential? Yeah, all of those. Time to work past that and get back into this blogging thing again.
4. Finish all the paperwork and file for 501(c)3 tax-exempt status for Brierpatch Cats. I’m actually pretty close to done with all the paperwork, although it’s a rather tedious slog. I get to the point where I’d rather be playing with kitties than typing up all the necessary forms, but at this point, I need to stop slacking and get the paperwork finished and turned in.
5. Number 5 is predicated upon Number 4: Get Brierpatch Cats up and running, including working on the facilities out at the land, getting started on grant-writing and fundraising, and working on community outreach and education. But Number 4 has to get finished first.
6. Clean my car.
7. Work on my house. Specifically, get the front part of my fence installed, get the gate fixed, pull up the carpet in my bedroom and put down vinyl flooring, paint the door to my carport, and paint the interior rooms. (I think I’ll put off tackling the bathroom and its myriad of problems until 2011…)
I’ve never been one of those people who does the New Year’s resolution thing. The demarcation of a new year is just so arbitrary. So we say that January 1st is something new and wonderful in comparison to December 31st – so what? A day is a day is a day. Why should December 31st be so different from January 1st? Except that I feel different about it this year. 2009 was such a terrible black hole, and it’s only now that the year is ending that I finally feel like I’m clawing my way back out of it and into the light. And believe me, I want to stay in the light.
As such, I’ve decided to make some New Year’s resolutions.
1. Eat better. So much of 2009 I spent eating things that came out of the freezer and were microwaved inside of their packaging. Blech. And the times I wasn’t doing that, I was eating things which were cooked for me, by someone with a preference for hormone-laden, oversized chicken breasts. The goal is to stick to foods that contain fewer preservatives, are home or locally grown (when possible), and which are actually cooked (not merely nuked) by me.
2. Get janekeeler.com back in order. I used to obsessively design and redesign my website. While it’s gone through several incarnations this past year, none of these versions was ever finished. Such as what’s online over there right now… a pretty shell with no content. Must straighten that out.
3. Blog often. For someone who blogged obsessively for years, 2009 was… what? Blog burnout? Writer’s block? Unwillingness to write about the nastiness of my day to day existence? Inability to write about things that were secret and/or confidential? Yeah, all of those. Time to work past that and get back into this blogging thing again.
4. Finish all the paperwork and file for 501(c)3 tax-exempt status for Brierpatch Cats. I’m actually pretty close to done with all the paperwork, although it’s a rather tedious slog. I get to the point where I’d rather be playing with kitties than typing up all the necessary forms, but at this point, I need to stop slacking and get the paperwork finished and turned in.
5. Number 5 is predicated upon Number 4: Get Brierpatch Cats up and running, including working on the facilities out at the land, getting started on grant-writing and fundraising, and working on community outreach and education. But Number 4 has to get finished first.
6. Clean my car.
7. Work on my house. Specifically, get the front part of my fence installed, get the gate fixed, pull up the carpet in my bedroom and put down vinyl flooring, paint the door to my carport, and paint the interior rooms. (I think I’ll put off tackling the bathroom and its myriad of problems until 2011…)
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