Sleep is Elusive... So I Write

I don't know that I have anything of value to post today but I can't sleep so this is what is going to happen. No sleep for me means random blog post for you and your eyes to read.

I make no promises that this will be coherent or entertaining. Only that it will be.

First of all I feel the need to thank those friends that after my post last week reached out to me. You're all beautiful flowers and I love you.

Now onto the random ramblings of a slightly crazy, sleep deprived person!

Today my world was spinning. Now you're probably thinking to yourself... "Ericka, every single person's world spins! That's what the world does. It spins. Duh! We learn this early in school my friend." And well... You would be right. However today my world was spinning in the this-is-going-to-fast-and-I-don't-want-to-ride-on-this-ride-anymore way. So I did what any sane person would do in the same situation and I sat at my desk and cried for a minute (maybe more than a minute). These are things people do, they let their feelings out, it's not a big deal. Okay?

I'm not going to go into why I was upset, mostly because I don't know... But also because I don't really feel like sharing all the crazy that goes on up in my head. It's mine and you can't have it, so there. You probably have your own shit you're not dealing with, so don't look at me with those judgemental eyes either!

Back to the spinning. I'm not sure when it started and I don't mean to make it sound like I'm hanging on for dear life or anything like that, because let me just tell you it's not that dramatic, but when I start to think about all the things I should be doing compared to the things I'm actually doing the scales begin to tip and the overwhelming feeling of YIKES! starts.

Now I should probably say that I know the expectations that I put on myself are MUCH higher than anyone else could ever put on me... unless you think I should rule the wor-- Actually no, the expectations I put on myself will always be 175% more than anyone else ever could. So the list of "should" is not anywhere close to realistic, and my rational mind knows this. But lets be real. Irrationality is where it's at, bro! 

So bring on the guilt! (Though side note: The guilt trip I lay on myself will be much more than anyone could ever lay on me, so that's a thing.)

So where does this leave things?

Oh, I'm sure I have no idea.

But it does feel better to write about them.

It feels nice to get random thoughts out into the world, so that's what I will continue to do. Maybe you will read them and something will resonate with you and that's cool. Maybe that won't happen, and that's cool too. 

Either way I'll probably keep doing this when sleep is elusive.

Now for something COMPLETELY different. Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" is probably my favorite thing in the whole world right now. And Jasmine Thompson's cover of it is hauntingly beautiful. You're welcome.

Much Love.

E

Photo Adventuring!

It's September.

The time of PSLs, sweatshirts, turning leaves, and crisp air.

So please explain to me why I'm sitting in a tank and cotton pants with my air conditioner going sweating balls...

Now I know that summer doesn't "officially" end until the 21st or whatever, but this sudden heat wave with added humidity is disgusting.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Not too hot. Not too cold. Nice breeze. Perfection! I don't think I could have asked for a better day for my photo adventure.

Oh let me tell you about my adventure! 

Early last week I decided I wanted to go out and take pictures, but I wanted a partner. I called up my good friend Amanda and we made plans to take an adventure on Sunday. We started off with one place I wanted to go, a church in a field. That's pretty much all I knew about it, I had been there earlier this year for a service and I just thought it looked so amazing inside and through the windows into the farm and fields next door.

On the way to said church we ended up lost more than once because even though I thought I knew where I was going, I was clearly wrong. (Worst navigator ever.) But we finally made it and the church was closed... worst news ever. But we were still able to take a few really great pictures of the farms and fields and even a few through the giant windows on the side of the church... why yes, yes we were being creepers.

Our next stop ended up being GUERRILLA PHOTOGRAPHY! What is "guerrilla photography" you ask? Well I don't actually know if it's a real thing or something I made up in my head... to me "guerrilla photography" is driving along, seeing something amazing, pulling over, and then BAM! Photos! We ended up in a weird parking lot with some pretty sweet typography on a building. There were also some trees so I took some creeper photos of Amanda. (Yes I'm a weirdo.) It was a good time.

We tried a couple other places, got lost again (Worst navigator ever.) and finally ended up at Palmer Park on one of their nature trails. If you've ever been there you know there are many, many, many nature trails in Palmer, we ended up on the boardwalk through the woods and by the creek. There were so many amazing photo opportunities throughout nature walk we ended up on. I also found my love of dead trees. Is that weird?

Let me try to explain. I'm not sure WHY I think this dynamic is amazing, but I love when everything around is green and alive and wonderful and in the midst is the forgotten tree, the dead tree, the broken tree. The amount of photos I took of random dead, broken, fallen trees was insane. It's just beautiful to me.

Me and my favorite dead tree by the path (Taken with iPhone):

We decided to head out to another park to get some sunset pictures and on the way I made Amanda pull over to watch this and we ended up in another church parking lot and there were SO MANY DEAD TREES!

My dead tree forest (Taken with iPhone):

After I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of this wooded area we ended up at Millennium Park for the sunset. It was gorgeous and amazing and I think I got some great photos for sure!

Sunset (taken with iPhone):

I can't explain how excited I am about photography. It's such a creative outlet and with digital photography "film" is unlimited. How can you go wrong?

The ride home was another adventure because I got us lost another 2 or 3 times (Worst navigator ever.) but Amanda was a great sport about it.

This is why I like hanging out with Amanda. She's so easy going and she just goes with the flow. It's good stuff and with so many people in my life having schedules and making plans it's refreshing to have a day where you just go where you end up.

Thank you 100 times over for adventuring with me Amanda!

I can't wait for Thursday night dinner and photo review with friends. (I love getting feedback on my photos and Kendra's husband Chris is kind enough to give it!)

Much love

E

Surprise!

I'll say I hate surprises, but that's not actually true. I want a surprise. Surprise run in with an old friend. Surprise party thrown in my honor. Surprise present "just because". Surprise me!

But make it a true surprise. Make it something that I have not even the slightest of inklings about.

Don't tempt me with little details here and there.

That kind of surprise drives me crazy!

For example, let's pretend it's my birthday month (I'm really digging deep into the depths of my imagination for this scenario) and you know what a friend of mine is getting for my birthday. Don't tell me I'm going to love it. Don't tell me it's the greatest ever. Don't tell me it's perfect for me. I don't want to know.

Anything.

At all.

I don't even want to know that someone got me a present until it's literally being put in my possession.

Then you can tell me all about how you knew I would love it. 

Just leave the suspense out of it.

This might be why I hate suspenseful movies... I don't want to anticipate. I don't want to wonder what it could possibly be. I just want to know... and I want to know NOW!

Yes this might make me the slightest bit of a brat... 

I'm okay with that because it's just a tiny flaw and it's one of the more lovable ones, right?

Oh also... You can take your horrible surprise that will make me hate everything about everything and shove it. I don't even want that in my life in any way.

This has been your daily uplifting message about hope and love brought to you by Ericka...

Okay really I'm not even crabby today. Today was a good day. I just really wanted to share my aversion to surprises and I thought today was the day to do it.

The real kicker?

I absolutely, positively love love love to surprise other people! HA! Isn't that just the most ridiculous thing even. It's probably because when I'm surprising others I am "in the know". And by golly I just love being "in the know". Overload me with information. It's good. I can handle it. In fact, the more info you have on something, the more I want!

Much love

E

To be clear, this is not based on real or true events that are currently taking place in my life. Just a rant that needed to happen.

Sick Days

Sick days are the worst. I hate them almost as much as I hate being sick.

Today I woke up with a wicked headache. PAIN!

I thought taking some pain meds and getting a bit more sleep would help out so I made the call to my boss and told her I'd be in for the afternoon. And I meant it. That was the plan. So much so that I was determined to carry it out. So after sleeping a few more hours, taking a shower, and getting ready I headed to work. As I was driving in I started to feel nauseous but I figured it would pass, but then as I walked in the door I realized this was not going to be the case. I walked straight to my bosses desk and she was unfortunately in a meeting so I went to find Jamie and Cassie let them know I was out of there and I hightailed it out of the building and to my car in an effort not to blow chunks all over the office. I even made it a couple miles down the road before having to pull over...

After I made it home I changed back in the ol' pjs and laid on the couch for about 2 hours.

I finally started feeling better around 5pm which was great! My headache had finally abated and I felt like anything I put in my body would actually nourish me instead of make me miserable.

So again feeling much better... worried about how behind I'm going to be when I go into work tomorrow, but everything should be fine... I'm just hoping this headache stays away and I'm not developing another illness.

Only tomorrow can tell.

Much love

E

Distractions

OMG! Not again!

Okay.

But really!?

I made a commitment today. I was going to write up my post early and post it with no problems. It was going to be well thought out... not written by the seat of my pants... or something like that. Yet here I am after midnight furiously typing away in order to not miss ANOTHER day this month. 

*CLEARLY* That did not work... 

Damn you social media and the pull you have on me.

Just as I was settling in to start this post I first posted my video link onto Facebook... that was the mistake... I ended up scrolling through the never ending feed and found a link to the Ashton speech the internet was all a buzz with so I clearly had to watch that.

THEN I remembered I needed to post my link to Tumblr because how can you not, and Tumblr is the devil... It sucks you in... You're lucky to get out with your life! I ended up on the Women of YouTube/Female Vlogger tag and there are just some really talented women out in the world. 

Much love

E

Brain... Not... Braining...

Exhaustion has taken over my life. The lack of sleep and insomniatic tendencies I have been experiencing are making for incoherent thoughts and a complete lack of anything worth while to say.

This is has been my day.

Tomorrow marks the half way point for this month.

Holy moly.

Also that means it's almost my birthday.

This makes me happy.

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Much love

E

Expectant Expectations

Sometimes I just want to lay in bed, eat truffles all day, and play on the internet.

This is not a thing that I can do on the regular.

This is not even a thing I can do on the random.

But... it's something I would like to do.

Sometimes we have to make choices that are not necesarily the most fun... but they are the choices that make you a functional member of society.

Sometimes I don't want to be a functional member of society.

Sometimes I would like to just be mediocre.

The mediocre don't have expectations thrust upon them.

Oh expectations.

There are the expectations that are thrust upon by ourselves and outside sources. The battle is finding the balance between the two. I've heard many times, and I've even said before that I don't care what others think of me. And to a degree that is absolutely true. But on the other hand what other people think of you and what their perception is of who you are dictates different aspects of your life.

It's quite the tight rope walk.

Much love

E

5 Things I Like About Wisconsin

Why, you might ask yourself, is Ericka writing about Wisconsin?

Well, there are a multitude of reasons truly and I've decided to share 5 of them with you. 

1. I lived in Marinette, WI for 3 years when I was just a young lass. Marinette is right next to the border of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and my mother actually worked in Menominee, MI at the YMCA as a swim instructor and life guard.

2. Leinenkugel Brewing Company. I love me some Berry Weiss. Oh and the Lemon Berry Shandy is just delightful.

3. Wisconsin's state bird is the Robin which was voted on by school children. How cute is that!?

4. Green Bay is the toilet paper capital of the world. This is fact. This is funny. How can you NOT love this?!

5. CHEESE!l Like seriously. Cheese. DAIRY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD! I just really love me some cheese. 

My love for cheese is the reason I'm not a vegan. It's the line in the sand.

I just really thought you all should know how much I like cheese and what better way to tell you then through a list of other things I enjoy about the dairy capital of the world?

Much Love

E

Another late night post...

I'm so glad it's Friday... 

This week has been super draining. Nothing particularly crazy or nutty happened. I wasn't overly stressed at work. I just felt like this week took forever. Like it was more than 5 days...

Okay, yes I know weeks are 7 days, but clearly I'm talking about the work week.

Anywho, we're 9 days into "Ericka does ALL THE THINGS August" and so far I've kept up on everything fairly well.

Sure the blog posts might be after midnight.

And maybe one or two videos have been uploaded a little late.

Okay, yes and I'm consistently a day behind in my photo a day...

Hm...

Alright. Maybe I don't have it quite together!

Good news is I still have plenty of time to rally. And I am good at the rally.

This weekend is going to consist of yard work. I am dreading this slightly. But I'm excited about having it done. Right now the yard is shambles. Maybe I'll take some pictures or a video tomorrow and you can see the transformation! Biggest projects are the patio and a retaining wall/garden bench. The wall/bench is a gift from my parents, so I'm pretty excited about that. :)

More on that tomorrow I'm sure!

Much love

E

Shopper's Remorse

As I sit here in my bed typing out yet another late night post, I'm reminded that a few weeks ago when visiting my friend Meredith in Novi that, while shopping at the ever popular IKEA, I wanted to purchase a lap desk.

I don't know why I let myself get talked out of purchasing said lap desk (by myself, no one talked me out of it but me... I'm my own worst enemy or something like that). We passed many different styles and colors. And yet when I walked out of that store I had bed slats and a salad spinner.

So I guess I don't have "buyer's" remorse so much as I have "wish I had bought it" remorse.

The bed slats are great, my box spring had been broken for years due to my brother jumping onto my bed to wake me up shortly after moving into my house (such a brat), and the salad spinner has come in very handy! But as I prop my iPad on two pillows and position it just right so the keyboard registers, I find myself in a very non-ergonomic position trying to keep everything balanced.

I think the stupid thing was only like $10, which makes it even more ridiculous that I didn't just "splurge".

I do really enjoy the bed slats though... that was such a good purchase.

Much love

E

Juicing is Still a Thing, Right?

Today I ended up at Cassie and Brooke's new house.

Brooke was out of town for work so Jamie and I decided to go keep Cassie and baby Cole company. What ended up happening was an epic night of epicness. I made a recipe that was posted on Doorganics blog (www.doorganicsgr.com) which consisted of baked zucchini and parmesan cheese, Jamie brought cookies, and then we broke out "The Juicer".

Now this wasn't just any juicer. This is the big daddy juicer! Jack freaking Lalanne's juicer! (That's a juicer that means business.)

I went a little overboard with the celery but overall we ended up with a pretty decent juice! Apples, a mango, and plums. Who knew?

I already told Cassie I was looking forward to the next juicing adventure!

It's late and I'm tired.

SO MUCH EXCITEMENT! 

Much Love

E

Damn You, Candy Crush!

Hello.

My name is Ericka.

And I'm addicted to Candy Crush.

PHEW!

That is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I mean like... I feel like I've been carrying that one around for awhile.

I'm sure no one noticed that I spend every spare moment (when I've replenished my lives by waiting precisely 2.5 hours from the first death...) trying to beat level after unending level. Like seriously it never ends... And every time you get closer to the end they just add more sadistic levels to taunt you with.

Alright, alright. I see you judging me through your Words with Friends loving eyes, but I bet you're a closet Crusher, aren't you?

I wasn't always this way. Once upon a time a person whom I thought was my friend that shall remain nameless to protect his - or her - innocence *cough* mattpete *cough* talked about this weird game called Candy Crush that was "totes all the rage" (that's totally how Matt talks too... I mean I'm not exaggerating or making any of this up) and he talked about it non-stop, like incessantly, until one day he downloaded it on my phone. (Now clearly I had to put in my game center password... but it's really his fault... don't take that away from me.) At any rate I went home without opening the game and told my roommate about it.

"Do NOT play it. Seriously, don't do it."

I did not heed her words of wisdom as one who had already been sucked in.

Alas,here I sit before you, 178 levels in, hating chocolate, especially self replicating chocolate... which should never be how someone feels about chocolate, especially self replicating chocolate. IT'S FREAKING CHOCOLATE! SELF REPLICATING CHOCOLATE! I cross my fingers for a move that results in a continuous barrage of points. I scream and growl at my phone when I just need ONE MORE MOVE! I cry out in rage and swear like a sailor (although swearing like a sailor is something I do even when I'm not playing CC so that might not be a good example).

I am completely sucked in.

It's also the reason why, yet again, I am writing a blog post at 11 PM when I should be sleeping.

This is my life.

Much love

E

Pretty sure some lives have replenished at this point... I might be able to beat it this time!

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where you are pretty sure no matter what you do or say it's going to be wrong.

You know... one of those days...

Today was that day for me.

It's left me feeling uninspired and more than a little underwhelmed.

So instead of droning on and on about how horrible everything went today, this post is going be super short and sweet... And I'm going to try to bring on some positivity.

Today I am grateful to good friends who will meet you for a drink because you had a crappy day and instead of judging you or trying to fix you they just listen. Even when a quick drink turns into hours of sitting and listening to venting on top of more venting that probably (ok definitely) sounded like whining at times they just listen.

Do you have someone like that in your life? I'm lucky to have quite a few good friends like that. So there's your positivity.

I'm going back to being grumpy now, but tomorrow will totes be better, right?

Much love 

E

A New Doctor

Today was a big day in the Whovian fandom.

Now I don't usually post about the fandoms I am a part of. I didn't particularly know why, it might have been because I hadn't quite found my voice in which I'm comfortable speaking about the things I love... Now I have posted videos here and there offering an opinion on the boy wizard, and I seem to remember posting a video about John Green and my absolute love for his books. But on the whole I'm not one to tout my feelings about something fandom related.

Today's announcement was something I was excited about and I didn't want it to go by without offering up my opinion. BUT! I look back at the first line of this post and feel the need to amend it. Today was a big day in the Whovian fandom... to me.

And there in lies the reason I tend to keep my opinions to myself. Let me explain.

I am generally late to the party. I was extremely late to the Harry Potter fandom, the only book not out at the time I found myself hopelessly devoted to Harry was Deathly Hallows (book 7 to those not in the know). I will probably continue to use HP as a way of illustrating my point... Anywho, being late to the party I felt that I wasn't allowed to have an opinion. The HP fandom is HUGE and it's PASSIONATE and it's more than a little intimidating to an outsider. So instead of diving in feet first I gently waded in. I stopped myself from branching out in fear of being judged for not being a "real fan". Now having gotten over that (for the most part) I have had the opportunity to attend LeakyCon twice, I started a YouTube channel in which I have embraced my geekiness, and I've supported various independent musicians and YouTubers professional endeavors. And with all that I'm still nervous about writing an opinion piece on Peter Capaldi and the new Doctor.

Because again... I'm late to the party.

I didn't start watching Doctor Who until last summer. I'm a "New Who" fan, meaning I haven't watched any of the original series and because of that it feels weird to have an opinion.

This announcement about The Doctor is the first announcement I've been around for and the first regeneration that I will be watching in real time, with the rest of the world. I'm loving the hype. I'm loving the reactions. I love everything about this.

Now... How to get more involved... Am I right?

Anywho, I am really excited about this casting choice. I've read a few articles and there are definitely mixed feelings, but I think it's going to be a whole new adventure (I am all about adventures this month) and I can't wait!

Since Eccleston (who was legit a fantastic choice for the reboot) The Doctor has gotten younger and and younger with each regen and going for an older actor is a great decision. I'm really eager to see the relationship with between him and Clara... Assuming Clara is staying... I didn't even THINK about that!!!

...

Hm...

...

This gives me something else to think about...

Much Love

E

Skittle Distribution

Have you ever stopped and thought about the color distribution in a bag of Skittles?

I don't usually dump the bag of Skittles out and separate by color but today my brain was fried and it was pretty much all I could handle. So because I was a little crazy I ended up realizing that there were less of some colors... and they ended up being my favorite... saddest of days... saddest. of. days.

Anywho! Tomorrow is The Color Run! I'm so excited and still trying to figure out how I'm going to not ruin my phone when going through the color zones. Because I can't... like... NOT take my phone... ... ... Oh technology...

So have I told you everything I've decided to do this month? Besides BEDA, I'm also participating in VEDA (August edition), and I'm doing a Photo-A-Day on Instagram. I don't know how I could pack more into my days, and yet I probably will... HA!

And now for something totally different!

A few weeks ago I started getting local produce delivered to me every Monday. It's been pushing me out of my comfort zone to try new recipes and eat different types of produce I normally would not buy and I LOVE IT!

It may not seem like much to others, but this was my dinner today:

The starting point:

The end result:

It's zucchini, summer squash, and heirloom potatoes in olive oil with garlic seasoning and cheddar cheese. It was SO good! (Also I wanted to post pictures in my blog today)

Looking forward to more experiments throughout the month!

YAY Adventure!

Much Love

E

The Subtle Difference Between Comfort and Anxiety?

The smell of the dentist office is both comforting and anxiety inducing.

It's a smell from childhood... it brings to mind Highlights magazine and picking a prize from the treasure chest. Who doesn't love picking a prize? Oh! Then you got to pick out a brand new toothbrush in whatever color you wanted which was always awesome. And floss. Your very own flavored floss. Woot! Those were the days, eh?

It's also the smell of cavities being filled, which brings to mind drills on teeth and that plaque scrapper and the taste of fluoride. Oh and having to bite down on that stupid X-ray card that cuts into your gums. 

And the numbing. 

I remember when I was younger getting my cavities filled and being numb for the rest of the day (I react quite strongly to Novocain).

It's a weird line between happy nostalgia and painful nostalgia. Even weirder when talking about the dentist.

Today was quite the day. Dentist in the morning. Race packets in the evening.

I'm so excited for the color run this Saturday! It's going to be fantastic. Absolutely fantastic! 

New Adventure!

One of my favorite things to do is write.

Writing is calming.

Writing is cathartic.

Writing is... well it's just wonderful.

This year I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo for the second year (and hoping to win this year) so I was looking for ways to get into the habit of writing every single day.

Then!

I remember BEDA! Really I remember Kristina Horner talking about BEDA in a video once upon a time, BINGO! I've got my answer.

What better way to get into the habit of writing than to Blog Every Day in August. It's literally perfect. Literally!

So tomorrow starts my latest adventure in blogging and I'm more than a little excited about it!

I'm a little nervous about this commitment... but so incredibly excited!!

Wish me luck!

Nostalgia... Or Something Like It

Again with the best of intentions I fall flat.

My plan had been to write like a mad woman last year. Write until my fingers fell off. Write until all of my thoughts were outside my brain so I could think of new thoughts and keep writing.

Alas.

It's now been over a year and while I have written quite a bit in the last 13 months, I did not write anything here.

So what did I write you ask?

I don't so much know what to call it. I participated in NaNoWriMo last year and wrote 16,250 words which I believe is the highest number of words I have written on my own in 30 days. And truly I only wrote for 20 days because then I got distracted and I ended up just letting the whole project fall to the wayside.

I'm not so much happy with the writing I did, I think looking back on it, it was sloppy and jumbled and not very well put together. However! I am VERY proud that I even attempted the project AND I'm pretty excited to try again this year. (With a week of vacation scheduled during the month of November I should have plenty of time to write!)

So while reflecting on the past year of non-writing I started thinking about the writing I used to do. Remember Myspace? Yea... me neither... Ok just kidding. But really I hadn't logged onto Myspace in AGES and I wondered if all my blogs had disappeared into the great abyss that is the interwebs. There's a good two years of my life documented there for all the world to see!

So I started looking... it took me awhile to find them but I'm happy (and slightly embarrassed by the content) to say I've found them! And I'm posting a link to them which seems like a good thing to do, just in case anyone has feelings of nostalgia like I did and just wants to remember a simpler time...

We've come to the part of the blog were I share with you my new commitments. (Although I'm tempted not to share them in hopes that keeping them secret will make me follow through with them more.)

• Starting now I am committed to updating this blog once a month with new content. 

• In August my plan is to participate in BEDA, however I'm not completely committed to this one... I'm about 94.3% sure it's happening.

• This April I will be participating in VEDA, and will be posting a new video each day to my YouTube Channel. I'm pretty excited about it because I've missed vlogging in my 3 month hiatus since my last video on January 31st.

• November as I've already said will mark my 2nd attempt at NaNoWriMo.

• June I will be traveling to Portland, OR for LeakyCon for the 2nd year in a row and vlogging the trip.

There's a few other things I'm pretty excited about this year, but they will have to wait until another day because I've got places to go and promises to keep.

Much love to you,**MUAH**

Oh yea... Here's the link to my Myspace Blog in case you truly do want to relive my life from 2006-2008.

2012 Year of the Nerd

Oh man... so I apparently am not very good at keeping up with my blog.  I had such high hopes as well!  HAHA

Anywho, I have decided that 2012 will be my "Year of the Nerd" which I mean really is just phenomenal if you think about it.

So why have I made this declaration?  Great question!
Too often I shy away from things because I'm afraid I will look like a nerd.  Well this year, I don't care!  HAHA

I'm going to Leaky Con 2012 in August.  I started a YouTube Channel.  I stopped apologizing for the music I like and the hobbies I enjoy.  I guess that last one doesn't make me a nerd, except it was always the nerdy things I was apologizing about!  HAHA

This year I made some resolutions and so far I've stuck to a fair few of them!
One - Create a YouTube channel and post videos regularly. (So far, so good!) My Channel
Two - Use my blog. (Not so successful, but this is an improvement.)
Three - Read 25 books.  (Yes this may seem like a low number to those of you that know me, but it's the end of January and I've only read one book... so I'm already playing catch up.)
Four - Be healthier. I've made the choice to become a vegetarian, and I've joined a gym. (So far, so good.)

I guess that's all I've got for now.

DFTBA!