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2012 Resolutions


photo credit


Personal Finance

  • Save $1,204 in the Gift Fund for my parents. This will get me to a balance of 3,000.
  • Contribute $2,000 in a Roth IRA for 2012. In 2011, I resolved to max it out but it was way too difficult with my current paycheck.
  • Make $3,000 outside from full-time job income. Last year I had this goal and reached $1800+. This goal’s purpose is to inspire creativity.


Leisure

  • Try 10 more Vietnamese recipes. This is a repeat goal from last year. Maybe this time I’ll tackle pho.
  • Complete 10 sewing learning projects. This is another repeat aspiration.
  • Read 50 books. I read 41 books last year so I’m pushing for 50 in 2012.
  • Read one Neil Gaiman book.
  • Build a fort.
  • Blog at least three times a week per blog.
  • Finish Sketchbook Project 2012 in time.This will be a source of stress this month. I think the deadline is this month and I have 4/32 pages done.
  • Visit two new states.
  • Go to Marfa, Texas with Kim. This is really Kim’s dream but I’ve never traveled with her and Marfa sounds magical.


Relationships and Well-Being

  • Visit my sister in Pennsylvania. I haven’t seen her in 17 years.
  • Volunteer 10 hours outside my commitment to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America.
  • Work out at least once per week. I’ve exceeded this my first week of the year! Strong start!
  • Write my morning page at least 120 times this year. The idea is that maybe I’ll stumble onto a path with more self reflection.
  • Buy myself flowers four times. Goal inspired by Bree.


Questions: What are some reoccurring goals of yours? Why do you keep making them?

Weekend Recap

On Friday, I cooked dinner for Selina and we had our first one on one time in at least a year. She treated us to cupcakes from my favorite cupcake place in Austin.

Saturday, I woke up super early to drag my little from Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America to a We Are Girls conference. It was a great experience and I learned a lot in just three workshops. I hope to hammer out a recap this week. There was a lot of information I want to help spread out into the world.

Then I did some Christmas wrapping.


And finished the evening doing #WinetoReach with my VEDA (Vlog Everyday in August) friend, Treavor. He was visiting from Dallas! We had our first date not too long ago where I introduced him to bubble tea. This weekend, I asked him if he was down for crepes and when he said he had never had crepes, I knew in my heart that we were about to start a tradition.

On Sunday, I woke up super early again and “ran” the Susan G Komen’s Race for the Cure 5k.


Brittany then suggested we go to Juan in a Million (a local favorite) and when she told me she never been, I couldn’t get us there fast enough.

It was a treat to see most of the people at Juan in the Million were wearing their Race for the Cure t-shirts too. We felt like we were part of a community.

Not pictured from the weekend:

Walking another 3 miles in the afternoon with my friend Brandi and my dog. (Leaves me quite sore this morning!)

Picking up the boyfriend from the airport. Just in time! I was missing him.

A few episodes of Felicity.

Lots and lots of chores.


Question: What are your weekend highlights?

Never seen it that hot before

That’s from my car dashboard. I’ve never seen it that hot before. Seriously, I start sweating as soon as I’m outside. That’s Texas heat for you.

Happy weekend :) You’ll hear from me Sunday or Monday.

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Ten Honest Things about Me

Selina tagged me on her blog and I’m supposed to share ten honest things about me.

Here’s my list.

Ten Honest Things about Me

1. I think home school kids are kind of weird and socially awkward. I last talked about this with Alan, his roomie, and his roomie’s girlfriend. Roomie was worried about society and all the possible negative and scary influences it could have on your child, he wanted to home school. The rest of us tried to discourage him. I used to work in a indoor playground in college, and I couldn’t help but notice the home school kids were usually socially awkward. So I have this stereotype I’m not proud of, but it’s there. Home school kids are kind of weird. I guess ‘unsocialized’ is a more diplomatic word.

2. I love Oprah. I have an inside joke with my buddies but mostly with myself that starts with “Oprah says to…” Actually, as I’m typing this I’m watching Disc 4 of the 20th Anniversary Collection of Oprah. I borrowed this from Jamie ages ago.

3. I love PostSecret.com. Love. I’ve been going for years. I remember when he didn’t erase postcards weekly and you can just flip back and back into the past entries. I have all four books. One of my favorite memories is going in February (my favorite month) a couple of years ago to Frank Warren’s book signing with Kim and Si Nae.

4. Some crushes for you. Some of these are childhood crushes so you must forgive me for odd/poor taste: Captain Planet, Ralphael the Ninja Turtle, Jim Carrey, Ted Danson a la Cheers, Tu Pac, Jamie Foxx, Fifty Cent, Brad Pitt before affair a la Meet Joe Black, and Cary Grant. ROBERT DOWNEY JR. Just to name a few.

5. I have a deep love affair with food. Deep! Love! I think it’s a little apparent through this blog. This reminds me I haven’t had dinner today.

6. I notice girls with pretty backs. Because I have a scarred, marred up back, I envy and notice girls with pretty backs. I also wistfully admire backless gowns.

7. I wish the Ally McBeal show would go on DVD for me to buy and rewatch over and over again. I’ve rewatched Sex & the City at least 8 times in its entirety but I’m sure I can easily beat that with Ally McBeal. I think this is one reason why I know I can keep Kim in my life forever. Since she loves Ally McBeal. It says something about her that I can completely relate to. (That’s just one reason of many why I love Kim.)

8. Some of my favorite bonding time with Alan involves TV shows. We each have our regular TV shows we follow but I love the shows we both equally enjoy. Briefly we had Moment of Truth. Now it’s Lost and Desperate Housewives. One of my favorite memories of him is “sharing” a pint of Bluebell’s Pistachio Almond while watching Desperate Housewives.

9. My daddy is my hero. We have a few similarities that I cherish and wear like a badge of honor. Our love for reading. We’re very prideful. We both think we’re funny even if most would disagree with our cheesy humor. We’re a little stoic. Actually, he’s a lot better at that than me. Seriously, everything that I can see passed on through me that comes from him, I cherish and keep with so much love.

10. I talk to Mary Ellen/best friend/FFB (friend from Boston) every single day. She lives in Boston. We talk for hours on average every single day. Hours. When I’m not at work and online, she leaves me voice mails and I respond when I can. I wonder how many words we’ve exchanged? Crazy amount for sure. I can retrace half my life through her. That’s amazing.

I miss my blog.

But my internet at home isn’t working and for some reason Alan’s Mac won’t read my Canon :( So I can’t upload the 32908509385 pictures I want to blog about.

Must remedy this soon.