Checking In

Well, we got back from our fabulous NYC vacation yesterday, which also just happens to be my birthday. This trip was our co-birthday gift to each other, so we didn't really do much of anything yesterday except grab some Chipotle on the way home. And Josh didn't complain when I watched America's Ballroom Challenge while we ate. I'll have more to say about our trip later, once I've edited some of the 500+ pictures I took. I wanted to do an end-of-the-month update on my resolutions and goals, to try and help myself keep up with everything.

• Read one book per month. I sort of missed this mark, but just barely. Actually I read an entire book during airport/airplane time yesterday, and I almost finished a second. So I'm counting the first one as my January book, the second will be my February book, and then maybe I'll even fit 2 books into this month!
• Open a savings account. Done, although we haven't made any deposits past the first one yet. Once we have established where we stand financially after all this vacation spending we can probably chuck some more in there.
• Learn more about photography and new camera. I read up on my camera settings, highlighted the things that seemed important to me, and am now taking better pictures because of it. I didn't say great pictures, but better. I need to learn more about photoshop (ahem, Carissa), and what makes a good picture better, but I've got a truckload of opportunity with all our trip photos.
  
• Have friends over once a month. Had Steve, Meri & Cory over in January for a goodbye game of Scrabble. Need to find time for guests this month.
• Work on learning French again. This one started, sputtered, and stalled. I'm gonna keep working at it though. Anyone have any jumper cables?
• Try 4 new restaurants. Josh and I had some awesome burgers at Kincaid's a few weeks ago. Obviously I could mark this one off completely considering I ate at all new restaurants in NYC, but that would be cheating. So I'm keeping this to a local list, leaving me three more places to try.
• Keep up with Newsweek subscription. This one was waning too, but I was able to catch up on two weeks worth during our flight last week. I just gotta make it a priority from here on out. It was hard because a lot of this political stuff has been getting me down. I hate falling for a candidate only to not have them make it through primaries and have to go with your second or third choice, so I tend to get sick of it all pretty quickly.
• Get physical. Boy, oh boy, I was pretty much failing at this one. Unless you count a turn around Target as exercise. However, I feel that I confidently made up for it by walking the equivalent of a 10K while traversing Gotham City this weekend. Now I'm so sore I KNOW that I need to get more exercise.
• Visit the 3 major museums once this year. We went with Steve, Meri & Serge to the Picturing the Bible exhibit at the Kimball. Need to hit the two others and if possible explore more of the permanent collection at Kimball.
• Vacuum once a week. I think it's been a little more bi-weekly, but it's still an improvement. Gonna keep working at it.
• Improve wardrobe. Bought a cute jacket and 2 cute tops at H&M this weekend. Bigger and better improvements are in the works.
• Use money program weekly. Again, more bi-weekly, but trying to be better about it.

Things yet to start/accomplish:

• Eat healthier through the weekend.
• See a play.
  
• Create a list of life goals.
• Go to the zoo more often.
• Take shoes to be repaired and clothes to be altered.
• Do one thing related to each interest every week.

Hopefully be posting about the trip soon!