The path for 2009

Every year when the calendar flips I have to do one very specific task. That is to create a new Word document for my writer’s journal. Back in the days before the blog (going all the way back to the dark days of 1998) the writer’s journal was meant to be just that but in the end it focused more on the journaling than the writing. Since I started the blog the two have essentially merged in that I write my posts in the journal first and then upload them. This does mean that yes, I do have grammar and spell check running as I type but yet I still don’t bother to pay attention to them. It also provides me with a rough word count and I estimate that I wrote over 200,000 words (or the equivalent of about three novels) in 2008. That is pretty impressive, I think.

But the biggest thing about starting up a new journal is that I am beginning on page one. Everything is new and fresh. Keeping that in mind I have decided to post my New Year’s Resolutions tonight in the hopes of making myself keep them given that I have publicly proclaimed my desire to do so.

Resolution # 1: Learn how to juggle: I feel that it is vitally important to have one skill that is completely and utterly pointless and would only serve to entertain a six year old niece. Also, this would provide me with another possible career path if I ever decide to run off and join the circus.

Resolution # 2: Get my weight under 190 pounds: A few years back when I weighed 215 pounds I looked in the mirror and wondered how the skinny kid who literally weighed 145 pounds in college had suddenly become someone who, for all effective purposes, was overweight. I’ve since cut my weight down to 200 pounds but I would like to break 190 because then I will officially be within my official range on the BMI charts. That should at least keep the doctors off my back for a while. This is tied to some of my overall fitness goals in terms of working out, lifting weights, and dreaming of running a 5K in a time that is less than my age. I’ll focus on the weight as the only way I will get there is through exercise.

Resolution # 3: Learn how to actually cook: I once told someone that I took pride in the fact that as a single male I could cook for myself as opposed to ordering takeout every night. She looked at me, shook her head and said “Chris, you don’t cook. You heat.” A sentiment that is sadly true. My culinary skills pretty much max out and defrosting a chicken breast, sprinkling it with spices, and tossing it on my Foreman Grill. Either that or taking one of those bagged pasta meals, pouring them into a large pot, and stirring occasionally. At some point I would like to actual be able to make a meal of multiple ingredients. It just feels like something I need to learn how to do.

Resolution # 4: Increase blog readership: So as many of you know my favorite new toy is the little map thingy on the right side of the blog. It tells me a) how many unique visitors I received yesterday and b) that for some reason someone in Latvia decided to visit my site. On a good day I can get between 20 and 30 readers, which is a lot more than I ever thought I had. But I really think I can top that and now that I have a reliable metric I am going to do my best to try. My initial goal is a 50 reader day. That means I will, gasp, have to promote my blog a little more to the rest of the world. Nothing will change, I just want to see how many people I can bring over to my side of the world.

(Side note: last night I went through a few years of old blog postings and I saw just how much my writing has improved recently. The jokes are funnier, the writing is tighter and there seems to be a lot more purpose to it all. That is the benefit of writing five nights a week for four years straight. You are bound to get better.)

Resolution # 5: Focus on the positive in my life: Yep, this one is going to be a challenge. As some of you know, I’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch as of late and the vast majority of it is due to circumstances outside of my control. I have an incredibly hard time coming to terms with things like that because I never like to admit that there are things that I just can’t fix. I always think “well maybe if I just work a little harder or if I become a better person the universe will change to my liking.” But things just don’t work that way. Add to that moving to a place where I am a complete stranger and dealing with the sheer fact of being 35 and it makes for a few trips to the dark corners of my soul.

So to combat it I am going to make a concerted effort to focus on the positive. Surround myself with people who make my life better. Remember how blessed I am and all of the amazing things I’ve accomplished. Yes, I’ll still be cynical and sarcastic but I want to have an upbeat twinge to it. Once I get a few wins under my belt everything will be better.

Resolution # 6: Get back into the concert going scene: Do you know that I have not seen a single concert since I moved here? Ok, that has to change pronto. I need to get back to being the guy in front of the stage. It just makes me feel alive.

Resolution # 7: Complete the Best of the Blog: This gets much easier if someone realizes that being my editor would require, you know, editing. The idea is really simple. I’ll go back through the first 4 years of the blog and pick out the best bits, clean them up so they at least resemble English, add in a few of the pieces that I have written that have never found a proper home and self-publish the result. It would give me a book on my shelf that I wrote as opposed to a stack of print outs and computer files. In a perfect world (meaning I get started on this on Sunday) I could be done by end of June. If not, sometime later. But this is something I really want to do even if it means rereading 1,000 posts just to find one funny Lindsay Lohan joke I wrote in 2006.

Resolution # 8: Reader’s Choice: Yes, I am opening my New Year’s Resolutions up to public debate. Put in what you think I should do for the new year in the comments and I will choose the best (or the funniest) to be part of my official goals. Anything is fair game.

Resolution # 9: Take a real vacation: Do you know how often during my five years at Sprint that I took a full calendar week of vacation? Once, and that was when I went to New Orleans as a volunteer and spent the entire time tearing down moldy drywall. I think I had entire years where all of my vacation was used on trips to Chicago and South Bend. No wonder I got so burnt out on my job. I need to take advantage of the fact that I have time off and just get away. Don’t know where just yet but I need to drop myself in a new environment every once in a while.

Resolution # 10: Meet the woman of my dreams, fall in love, and get married: Hell, got to have something to strive for over the course of the year.

Have a good weekend everyone. I’ll try to post another story from the KC dating scene on Saturday in which I discuss the biggest dating mistake that I have ever made. Worth reading if just for the cringe factor.