New Year's Resolutions

Well, we are now 9 days into 2012, maybe the last year on earth if the Mayans got it right, and I have yet to post some new year's resolutions. I realize that many pooh-pooh such resolution-making, pointing rightly to the short-lived nature of most resolutions or the arbitrary nature in chosing the new year for such decisions. However, I am a firm believer that anything you can do to evaluate your life and make better choices is usually a good thing. So, here's my public list of resolutions (some more serious than others).

1. Pick a grad school to attend. I know I will have to do this either way, so it may not seem like much of a resolution, but I would like to consider all of the factors and pick as wisely as I can. At this point, I'm finding location weighing more heavily in the decision. We shall see.

2. Spend less money going out to eat. This resolution is as much a new year's tradition for me as the dropping of the ball in time square. I have to say I've gotten slightly better at this towards the end of 2011, and I would like to take that momentum and run with it in 2012.

3. Listen to more classical music. I really enjoy certain classical music, but I've never attempted to be a student of it. This year, I'm going to be more systematic. January's baroque month, and we'll see where we go from there (insert "baroque" pun here). This will be supplemented with more trips to the CSO/Lyric to listen to live music because that is how God intended music to be listened to.

4. Try to eradicate my use of the word "borrow" when I mean "lend." Every time I say, "Will you borrow me a pen/book/fill-in-the-blank," a grammarian angel loses its wings.

5. Fight my own cynicism. I know people say, "Cynicism is the last refuge of the idealist," but I think cynicism is more a dangerous and (ultimately) unsuccessful way of trying to avoid pain, which in the end usually just makes one jaded to all types of true feeling besides the cynicism that seems to feed on itself.

6. Eat better. This is sort of tied to #2, but I need to add more fruit and vegetables to my life.

7. Continue running outdoors. My goal was to run outside all through winter. That has been fairly easy over the past two months, but I know February's going to have some tricks up its sleeve. We'll see if I'm up to the challenge. I could fuel my desire to run with my burning hatred for dibsing parking spots by running through the streets throwing lawn chairs and all other paraphernalia back up into yards. I think I'm on to something here!

8. Figure out how to spell "paraphernalia" on my first try.

9. Practice piano at least four times a week. Since Andrew has started coming to ResCov (which I am ecstatic about), my piano skills have atrophied. Then, when I have to play, it sounds like I'm trying out prosthetic hands for the first time or something.

10. Read good fiction. I don't want to get stuck reading my liturgy/theology books and forget my love for good fiction and the way it refreshes my soul.

And I want to listen to more songs like this (I know, I know, I already posted it on Facebook, but it so good I don't care).