2012 Resolutions

I think I'm ready to commit on the things I'd like to do in 2012 to make it the year that I think it can be (and just in case those Mayans were right, some of this is stuff I've wanted to do for a long time).  Twelve resolutions (plus my off-the-record career and financial ones).  Possibly in order of importance, which is cool.  If I succeed on the first several, I'd consider it a good year. 

1.  Complete my first (and likely last) weighted marathon.  I'm aiming to run the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon on March 25 in New Mexico. 

2.  Travel to one new-to-me country.  The current plan is that the country will be China and this will happen in October, but if things change, I still want to go somewhere new in 2012 -- I need to keep broadening my horizons and experiencing new cultures. 

3.  Stairs at work going up every Tues-Wed-Thurs that I'm in the office and it's not raining.  I am on the fifth floor, and the parking garage adds one more flight.  I'd love to try to do it on Mondays too, but with working from home on Fridays, sometimes I'm really loaded down with my laptop and too much other stuff on Mondays.  So Mondays I'll play it by ear, but Tues-Wed-Thurs, game on.  And if it's raining, then I'll take the stairs from the first floor instead of from the parking garage (I think the stairwell is outside).  But this resolution doesn't go into effect until Jan. 5 (since I need to make sure I know where I'm going and my co-worker to show me isn't back in the office until Jan. 4).

4.  A 10k or shorter PR.  A little more flexible than last year's resolution to get a 5k PR.  I could very easily get an 8k PR, but there aren't tons of 8k races around here, and that wouldn't really be fair since my 8k time is from 2007.  But most of my other PRs in that distance range (5k, 4m, 5m, 10k) will take some real work to beat.  I'd also like an 8 mile and 15k PR, but that's just getting greedy. 

5.  Entertaining at home.  Again.  At least 6 occasions feeding friends with home-cooked food.  At least 3 of those occasions must include people who haven't been part of this resolution last year or the year before.  I think we're going to have two parties -- one next week for some friends who live in Sweden now and are back visiting, and one in April for the anniversary of our rehearsal dinner. 

6.  Yoga.  One month of heated yoga, and then yoga at home once a week minimum or 48 times in the year (not counting the month of yoga in January).  I think it's relaxing and good for me.  It may help me be more patient, more fit, more calm. 

7.  Emptying our magazine rack.  This should be so easy, but I want to actually flip through everything that's in there before throwing it away.  I'm down to two magazine subscriptions in 2012 -- Vegetarian Times (a Christmas gift from my brother and his new wife), and a Texas running one. 

8.  Finish our wedding scrapbook.  We've been married since April 2009, and my memories of the day aren't getting any fresher.  I'd love to make progress on some other photo albums, but the wedding scrapbook is most important to me. 

9.  More quality time with my two female best friends.  One lives in Virginia but I am planning to see her more this year, and I'd like to call more too.  And one lives here in town.  She had a tough year last year and we didn't get to spend as much time together, and I miss her terribly.  Whether we spend the time running, going for ice cream, working on puzzles, watching bad tv, doing yoga, whatever, I just want to spend the hours together. 

10.  Maintaining a list of the books I read this year and reading at least 20 books.  I used to read so much more, and now I just feel exhausted when I fall into bed, but I need to add it in somewhere since I enjoy it.  I'm torn as to whether I should count books that are currently in-progress (I think I'm reading about 3 right now).  I think I will.  An incentive to finish them. 

11.  Learning at least 100 Mandarin Chinese characters.  One of the blogs I enjoy reading, AlmostFearless, had this statistic recently:  Full fluency is 3000 characters, but with 100 characters, you're already 42% fluent.  That would be lovely!  If I could get to 200 characters, I'd be at 55%.  Now I'm no Joseph Needham, and I know it will be tough, but I would think I could learn 100 characters in 10 months.  Maybe.  I hope.  It will be fun to try!  If you don't click on the link, 1500 characters is 94% fluent, so it's really diminishing returns at some point. 

12.  Closet purge continued.  Alter or donate most things that do not fit.  I might try that old trick of turning all my hangers backwards to see what I actually wear, but I think I do wear most of the clothes.  It's just more than I need.  How many black tops does one person need for example?