My home in San Francisco is finally complete. On Sunday, I happened to notice that Cost Plus was having a year-end sale on all of their furniture - including the tiny little kitchen table that I have had my eye on for, oh, the entire 4.5 months we have been here. So Neil and I took a little bus ride down to check it out, found that it was $20 off, and rented a zipcar to haul it home. I now have a kitchen table. It's so exciting. Another place to put things in my tiny kitchen and to possibly start up my metal work again. A perfect start to 2009.
And speaking of 2009, I have big plans for this year. Although I have never made "resolutions" per-say, this year I do have some goals. I like the idea of goals rather than resolutions, because resolutions come with the connotation of being broken - no one actual keeps a New Year's resolution, do they? Goals, on the other hand, are not just some vague, flippant idea that you throw out there on a whim because of a certain date. They are something tangible to work towards throughout the whole year. This year I will have goals. And what better way to achieve goals than to tell others, so that they can give you a guilt trip when you start failing to achieve your goals? So, without further ado, here are a few of my 2009 goals:
1. Run the Avenue of the Giants half marathon in July.
Yes, folks, that is 13 miles. I am really going to need guilt-trip help on this one. I started running again yesterday and boy, was it painful. I think I actually stopped making forward progress at one point, even though my legs were still moving. There may, or may not, have been a hill involved. Actually, I think not. But I have a plan, and I have a goal that I have shared with the world and I am counting on you all to shame me into running this race. Next step - actually sign up for said race. I'll keep you updated.
2. Manage my money more wisely.
I know, I know... you are all thinking - you're an accountant, you should be very skilled at managing your money. No, no - actually I am very good at managing other people's money. So you should all give me all your money. :) I have grand plans for our life that include owning a house at some point before I am 60, returning to Europe before I am 60, and many other things to do before I am 60 that require savings. So, my goal this year is to stop wasting money on frivolous things.
3. Start working on artwork again.
This one was facilitated by the purchase of the kitchen table. It's much easier to work on artwork when you have a flat surface. Prior to the kitchen table, we really didn't have a flat surface in our house that I could work on. End tables are not so conducive to drawing, metal-work, etc. So "start on artwork" again is a pretty general goal, but I have two specific things in mind. First, I brought some of my metal-working tools back to S.F. from Thanksgiving and want to start doing what I can to work with that again. I don't have my torch, so it will all have to be cold-connected (aka no soldering), but that just makes it an interesting challenge. Secondly, I used to make lamps in my earlier days out of bamboo cane and paper that I really enjoyed making. Unfortunately, I would build them with hot glue and not a lot of forethought, so most of the time, they would disintegrate before too long. So my goal here is to find a way to construct the lamps in a way that will make them more durable and useful for more than a month. I already have some plans... and a kitchen table. :)
Three goals seems good for now, right? Nice, round number. I have so many other things that I would like to do/accomplish in 2009, but I think focusing on these three and actually accomplishing them is important, rather than just dreaming about doing many, many things.
Things have been pretty quiet since we made it out of the blizzard of 08' in Portland. It almost feels colder here in S.F. than it did in Portland, even though it's appx. 15 degrees warmer. I don't know if it's the wind coming straight off of the bay, or what, but it feels colder. Our apartment has been freezing lately, and we have been huddling around the heat dish. I got the day after New Year's off as a holiday, and so we had a four day weekend together. We went to a brunch in Berkeley on Friday - banana pancakes and homefries are delicious! - and then visited the U.C. Berkeley art museum, which was nice. It was the first time we'd been to Berkeley since we moved here, and it looks very cute. Saturday, I cleaned the house, which felt SO good. Took down the christmas tree and started the year off on a clean foot. And Sunday, we bought the table, and explored Polk Street, which is very close to our house, but we didn't know it existed until Sun. Very cool little shops and restaurants.
I meant to start on the artwork goal last night, but after my excruciatingly slow, painful run, I was down for the count for the rest of the night. I read about planting vegetables and amending my soil, instead.
One goal at a time might be enough.
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