redhotelephant

January
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

From Glamour Magazine's January 2010 issues, page 83, "On January 2, sit down, take out a piece of paper and write down five reasons you would want to marry yourself. Doesn't that feel nice?"

I realize it's a few days past January 2nd, but I thought I should give this a try.

1. I can cook. And we're not talking hot pockets. I can cook, dammit, and I love to do it. One of the worst parts of living by myself is the cooking for one. I'd love to have someone around to share it with.

2. I'm entertaining, even if it's to my own determent to be so. My mother has told me, for as long as I can remember, that as children I was entertaining, while my sister needed entertainment. I love to make people laugh and be around laughing people.

3. I'm creative. I love to make things (usually out of paper or graphics) and, moreover, I love to write things. This creativity extends to my love of reading and perusing art things.

4. I can be somewhat messy, but on the whole I'm rather organized. (My DVDs are in alphabetical order.) My house stays mostly clean.

5. This last one may be a bit of a stretch, but I'm going to go with it. A friend of mine once said that I'm "intense". And I believe that. When I love, I love intensely. That not only includes people, but activities, hobbies, fandoms, etc. I believe in devotion. And I'm pretty sure that's a worthwhile quality.


I think this is a good exercise. As such, I'ma tag a few friends who should give it a try: the_tricker, mid_git, beth88keys, tribalweapon, newtypeshadow, hellfire82

If there's a fashion magazine in my house it's because someone I like/admire is on the cover. Or I've bought the month's issue of Rachel Ray and need something else to flip through. While I was eating dinner tonight, I was thumbing through the January 2010 issue of Glamour (with SJP on the cover). Now, I don't put much stock in the idea of resolutions. Mostly, I believe the making of resolutions is really just an over-glamorized form of setting oneself up for failure. So the first few times I flipped through this issue of Glamour, I ignored page 83, "Love & Life Resolutions". But, since I had left my copy of Good Omens in the living room (and, furthermore, was sure the library would not look favorably on my getting beef stew on the book--no matter how good the stew was), I read through each page as I flipped to it, including this one. I was happily surprised to find little ideas that not only sounded like something I should adhere to, but I might even *gasp* resolve to try out.

The one I think might be most applicable to me is this:
"Don't let a week go by without telling someone that you love them. Out loud. Pets count. So does your reflection in the mirror."

I daily tell my crazy-ass dog I love him. Because I do. I tell my friends and family I love them any time I'm on the phone with them. (Usually multiple times, actually.) The one person I never tell "I love you" to is myself. Sadly, I don't really love myself so much. It's gotten much better over the years, but I've only reached a point of tolerant likability. Maybe this should be the year I learn that it's worth it to love myself?

(Btw, just told the mutt that I love him. With sign language.)

The second one I really found applicable was:
"Buy a 'good decision' piggy bank. Pay yourself a dollar every time you skip the third drink, go to bed early, or make the difficult phone call. At the end of the year, buy yourself a 'good decision' present. You've earned it."

Well, I'm not much of a drinker. (I mean, yes, it happens. But not very often.) However, I think the idea is worthwhile in terms of changing eating patterns. (Yes, we're at that again. But this time, I'm at it with a therapist and a nutritionist. Hopefully, I'll fair better this time than ever before.) Anytime I decide to skip a bowl of ice cream, not eat a cookie, or walk away from a latte, I'd say that's worth $0.50? That'd be a nice thing at the end of the year!

"If you can't find something decent to watch on TV, turn it off."
I'm not much of a television watcher anyway, but I'd like to make it less of a white-noise need and listen to more music instead. I am in love with the local classical station and I'm quite sure that's a much better white noise than television.

And, lastly:
"On January 2, sit down, take out a piece of paper and write down five reasons you would want to marry yourself. Doesn't that feel nice?"
I'll be doing this shortly, in a separate entry.


I won't say that I resolve, per se, to do these things. What I will say is that I will put forth the effort and hope for the best!

This started out as a write up for bookfails (the opening paragraph will make more sense if you know that), but I decided I'd post it here as well, knowing that many of you guys are Twilight fans. SPOILER ALERT: This does contain spoilers. You've been warned.

( Plot? What plot? )

*The article, Why Breaking Dawn Must Be Made Into A Movie.

Well, I obviously didn't make it to 50 books in 2009. In the middle of the summer, I revised that goal to 25 books and I met the goal, exceeding it by one. The whole list of books I read last year can be found in this entry.

Knowing that there's no way I could aim for 50, I have revised my goal for this year. This year I'd like to try for 30 books. I'm only going to do one re-read--and that's only because I had intended to reread it in 2009. And I don't want to buy/check-out any new books until I read the unread pile I have lying around. So here's a run down of what I plan to read this year:

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Smoke and Mirrors - Neil Gaiman
Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
Chapter After Chapter - Heather Sellers
The Awakening - Kate Chopin
Med School Confidential - R. H. Miller & D. M. Bissell
A Patient's Guide to PCOS - Walter Futterweit
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
The Amber Spyglass - Phillip Pullman
The Uses of Enchantment - Bruno Bettelheim
City of Dreams - Stephen R. Lawhead & Ross Lawhead
The Mummy (or Ramses the Damned) - Anne Rice
Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling (the re-read)
Voyage of the Dawn Treader - CS Lewis
The Silver Chair - CS Lewis
The Last Battle - CS Lewis
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

These will come after the two books that I've already started reading:
A Lion Among Men - Gregory McGuire
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

That's 19 books total. Better than half! It should be an interesting literary year!