Resolutions

     New Years resolutions were always a big thing in my family. We always sat down right after celebrating the countdown or during breakfast the next day and decided on three resolutions each. Normally my sister would choose something artistic, if I recall correctly, and my brother would choose something out of character for him. I never chose things that meant a lot to me because, when I was younger, I didn't have much that meant a lot to me. Sometimes I chose silly things like, "Oh, I will buy a pony." or, "I'll become a weight lifter." Neither of these things fit my personality at all. In my head I was probably making plans to beat my previous year's record of how long I could play World of Warcraft consecutively.

     In the recent years I have acquired passions and aspirations, and now I can choose realistic New Years resolutions. The three I chose for 2015 were:

- Read more

- Walk more

- Write a book

     Some of you may be thinking, 'One of these things is not like the other.' Writing a book is a very big task, and while a lot of writers can accomplish writing a book in a year, I have only written an outline and it's May. I have read that it is feasible to write a book in a short amount of time (short meaning under six months) however a lot of writers fall into the repetitive slum of editing and re-editing. I am one of those people. I re-edit to the point where nothing sound the same at all and sometimes even the plot changes. This is actually how I came to the outline of my book. The original story was completely different - and total crap.

     As for my other two resolutions, I have been reading more. In the past five months I have read more books than I had in the past ten years. The books I've read are:

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

The Blades of Leander trilogy by Jason Halstead

The Cabin in the Woods by Tim Lebbon

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

You're Not Pretty Enough by Jennifer Tress

The Soprano Sorceress by L.E. Modesitt

Books 1-3 of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

Can you tell I like lists?

     Sprinkled among the list are a couple comics, manga, short stories from various forums. I feel quite proud of myself for getting back into reading, as I used to be a very avid reader. Actually, I had started reading again last year, but I hadn't really taken to it. I believe it was because I was forcing myself to read things I didn't really want to read. Now I have stacks upon stacks of fantasy novels and I am slowly making my way through them as I get sucked into each one. At the moment I am reading a book called Fire Drake by Richard A Knaak, it is the first of a series of ten. Perhaps I should put reviews up on this blog of books that I've read. That would be fun.

     The last resolution was to walk more. This was because I gained fifteen pounds while employed at my first desk job. I had always been in retail and if anyone has been in retail themselves they would know that it's not always just standing around helping customers. There is unloading and unpacking the truck, there is restocking, changing displays, moving displays, etc, as well as various and meaningless tasks your manager wants you to complete. When I left my retail job I weighed one hundred and fifteen pounds. I had never broken that. When I left my desk job, I weighed myself out of curiosity and realized I was now one hundred and thirty. So, I stopped eating so much and started walking every day. The pounds slid off. I'm down to one hundred and twenty and debating whether or not I should continue.

     Other than that, my year has been wonderful. We started planning our wedding, I avoided any extreme depressive episodes and I've been sticking to my goals. Here's to hoping the year gets even better.