New Year's Evolutions

I'd like to set myself some goals and guidelines for the coming year. I don't want them to be too concrete. Resolutions like "I will go to Bermuda on spring break and drink umbrella drinks" aren't open to the dynamic and unpredictable nature of life. But I need them to be specific enough that I can evaluate whether I'm meeting the goals.

Things I will do in 2006:

• Be gentle with myself. I continue to get better at giving myself a break from an insane pace of life. I want to continue to recognize what I need and to do my best to take care of those needs in constructive ways.
  
• Have social fun on weekends. Two of my four weekends per month should involve plans to do something fun with people. Biking the mountain alone doesn't count.
  
• Stay active. Nothing should come between me and burning calories.
  
• Take more pictures. I ought to photo blog once per week, at least. I got away from it towards the end of this year, and miss it. I now carry my camera in my work bag.
  
• Learn social pro-activity. I'm doing well at "saying yes" and putting myself out there. By the end of the year I'd like to see myself having learned to create social occasions.
  
• Blog truth. As I continue to navigate that odd boundary of people crossing from my real life to blog awareness and vice versa, it gets hard to always write what I think for fear of hurting someone's feelings. I'm going to hold the rule: the blog is "read at your own risk". To that end, though, I think I'm going to be a bit more quiet about the blog in the future. I've been lucky that nothing bad's happened so far.
  
• Cook adventurously. Once per month I should cook something I've never made before, preferably a recipe from Food & Wine magazine with an ingredient I've never used before. I have like 18 issues at home, and I rarely do anything but flip through new issues for 2 minutes before directly filing them on the shelf.
  
• Read. I'm rather out of touch. The reason the blog's become all about me and not about much else is because I'm rather tuned out of current events. I plan to steal my employer's copy of the WSJ to read on ferry rides home at the end of the day. It's only going to get thrown out. And books. I have lists. I'm open to suggestions. Books will be good.

Nice to have's

• Complete my first triathalon
• Ski with my brothers
• Learn how to ask for a date
• Learn how to date
• Learn how to clearly but kindly let someone know I'm "not that into them"
• Get some decent furniture
• Make good use of a national parks pass