New Year's Life resolutions #2 and 3:

2. Control my in-box by practicing Email Zen.
I've been doing this for almost two weeks now and it's totally working.

3. Slightly reduce my caffeine consumption.
I currently drink an iced venti Americano every morning, which has four shots of espresso in it. As of tomorrow, I'm going to be making it a grande. (And then maybe one day it will be a tall.) (And then maybe one day... nothing.)

Re: New Life resolutions... Why does it have to be the beginning of the year for us to make positive changes in our lives? I'm going to try to better myself all year and call each improvement a "New Life resolution" instead of a "New Year's resolution." Every day—every moment—we have the opportunity to grow.

I'm going examine my progress every quarter.

New Year's Resolution #1:

1. Upload all of my backlogged photos to my Flickr account.

Please feel free to add me as a contact and comment on my photos!

I just watched Ann Curry bungee jump on the Today show (I got my TV!) and I want to do it!

I can't believe I've never been bungee jumping or sky diving. What a poser.

This year, instead of making fluffy new year resolutions (be nicer, eat less, exercise more), I'm going to make bolder, more concrete ones... a definitive list of things to do by year-end. On that list...

1. Bungee jump
2. 
   

UPDATE: Oh, Nick Lachey is on! You all know how much I like him. He's talking about this show he's on tonight, Clash of the Choirs. Neat concept. I'm going to record it. (I had to get a new cable box with my new TV, so I finally got a DVR.)

UPDATE 3: Gloria Estefan is singing now. She has terrible red hair.

1. Lose 10,000 pounds. I'm not bordering on obese, I am obese. Stop being so dramatic.


2. Lose 50 pounds. (I'm going for Nicole Richie thinness.)
• Exercise more.
• Eat less.


3. Be a better blogger.
• Update every day.
• Answer all of my email.


4. Read all the books I bought last year but never cracked open. (Do you all do this, too?) Among them...
• Queen of The Oddballs by Hillary Carlip
• Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
• Blindness by Jose Saramago
• A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
• Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin
• The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
• Marley & Me by John Grogan
• Smashed by Koren Zailckas
• Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs


5. Increase productivity:
• Work during normal working hours like everyone else. (This can be difficult for a writer.)
• Work from someplace other than home.
• Stop surfing the 'net for the latest celebrity gossip. (Seeing shots of Britney Spears' coochie has done nothing to enrich my life.)
• Turn off IM during the day.
  
• Stop checking my email every two minutes.


6. Get serious about finding the love of my life:
• Do something social every week. (This does not include going to my friends' apartments to watch TV and drink wine. I must go to NEW places and meet NEW people.)
  
• Go on as many dates as possible. Not only will doing this increase my odds, but it'll provide me with loads of new material, which will help me with...
• Number 5... I'll be more productive when writing because I'll be drawing from personal experience as opposed to making things up.
• Number 3... I'll be a better blogger because I promise to share all the details of my bad dates with my blogging friends. (The message here to my future dates is: Treat me right, spare yourself the embarrassment.)
  


7. STOP AVOIDING. This is by far one of my biggest downfalls. I avoid many things in life, from phone calls with people I'd prefer not to talk to, to filing my quarterly taxes on time. NO MORE AVOIDING. It only hurts me in the long run.