I Don't Know If I'd Call These Resolutions

I realize that it's mid-January. I realize New Years Resolutions are supposed to be made at the beginning of a new year. I realize we're sort of past that point already. But, I figure, better late than never.

Also, I don't know if this list would really qualify as a list of resolutions since for the most part, nothing on this list is going to make me a better person or make the world a better place. It is really just a list. of random things. with an end date in mind. but even that is fairly flexible. I'm not really pushing myself hard here. or at all.

1. Travel somewhere by train. This became a goal of mine last week when Martin was taking a load of corn down to PA and was waiting to unload right beside a traintrack that the Amtrack went by on. He commented on how incredibly quickly the train flew by and shook his entire truck and for some reason, that story has really motivated me to travel somewhere by train. So, Martin and I are thinking about going to NYC to visit my dear friend Amanda sometime this year.

2. Eat something different. I know this is sort of non-descrip, but what I mean here is I want to try something I've never tried. Something unusual. Not just an unusual or new way of preparing something ordinary - like beef or chicken or rice or broccoli. But I want to try something exotic that I haven't tried before. Like aligator. Or ostrich. Or some strange plant I haven't even heard of yet. Also, my friend Megan is growing finger-limes on her farm which are a new craze, and I would like to try those too.

3. Journal. I want to keep a journal. Not an ordinary journal where I record the weather and every other detail of my daily life. I feel like I basically hit all the highlights of that on here. Mostly, I want it to just be more of a stream of conscious journal. Where I just write random thoughts. And I want to glue things in it. That's the main thing. You know when you go on vacation and it seems really important that you save the ticketstub from the airplane. Or the brochure from the museum you went to. Or that 25 cent postcard that you bought in some giftshop so you could remember that you were there? And then you get home from the vacation and you have all these super random souveigners but nothing to really do with them so you shove them in a box that you never open again. Until you move. Or go on an organizing spree. Or try to make space in your house. And then you find a box, probably several seperate boxes housing random ticket stubs and brochures and postcards and the free sound card they gave you at the hallmark museum and you think that was so awesome that they gave me that sound card for free at the Hallmark Museum I should definitely keep saving this. And then you either throw it back into the box because you don't want to deal with it or you try to figure out what you should do with it. If you're doing that latter, after a few minutes of deliberation you'll ultimately decide that while it was amazingly generous for a free museum to also give you a free card you'll probably never do anything with it so you'll do one of two things. a. throw the card out in a fit of frustration. or b. send the card to someone that you need to send a card to. And let's be honest. This is the age of the internet. Who do you really need to send a card to? Send them an email. Or a facebook message. I mean, who has good address records anyway? So - you'll probably end up conceding for option A, throwing out the beautiful, amazing, and free card with absolutely no purpose. This has gotten to be a really long-winded explanation, but point being - I would tape it in my journal. The one I'm going to start. As soon as I buy a journal. One without lines.

4. Learn to bake bread and apple pie. Completely unrelated. I just want to be able to make both of these.

5. Travel. I realize this isn't new. Or exciting. Especially for me because I love to travel. And I do it quite frequently. But this year, I have a baby. I realize this is a fact you are already aware of unless you don't know me and you are reading this blog for the first time, but having a baby means a couple of things. First of all, I am using a majority of my vacation time to extend my maternity leave. Therefore, I won't be able to take any long trips. Secondly, taking a baby on an airplane is high on the list of things I'm not really looking forward to. But, I would like to explore places that are within driving distance and at the very least have fun "trip weekends" I think one a month would be a good goal.

Here's the trips I have planned so far:
January: Work Christmas Party at Turningstone Casino - this weekend.
April: Katie Mason's Bachelorette Party at either Atlantic City or Las Vegas!
May: Katie Mason's Wedding in Maryland!
June: Alan Johnson's Wedding in Vermont!
July/August: A Weekend in whatever city Caton decides to go to Law School???? (Get back to me on that one Caton)
Some undetermined month: Previously mentioned train trip to NYC

Let me know if you want to be part of my travel plans!

6. Host a Holiday Dinner. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we buy the house of our dreams this year and I can have Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner in our gorgeous dining room on the amazing huge wooden table that I'm going to buy for next to nothing at a flea market or garage sale or antique store or something and both my family and Martin's family is going to attend said dinner. But if that doesn't all pan out, I'll even settle for a bbq on Labor Day or a random lunch on Columbus Day or breakfast on mother's day. I'm really not picky. I just want to host something in my theoretical house.

7. Have a Superbowl Party. I don't know why, but I have wanted to have a superbowl party for a while now. A few years. I think basically since we got married. I'm not even that into football. But I think it's really fun to watch anything with a lot of people. And I love appetizers. And I love making lots of random, extremely unhealthy appetizing dishes. Of course, we don't have any channels on our TV so this might be a resolution for next year. But then, now that I think about it. If we have a newish TV, which we do, and there is no such thing as bunny ears any more, we should automatically have that receiver thing in it to get local channels right? I was under the impression that nothing came in when we lived in Trumansburg, but here - I know we should get something here. Maybe I'll make figuring that out my project for this coming week. That sounds like a good plan. It would be a big waste not to have a party this year because our living room is set up so nice. I'm quoting Martin here when I say It's set up for hosting.

8. Start a Game Collection. Ok. Maybe I'm going all mom here. But I have always really enjoyed going to game nights. They are basically always a crowd pleaser and even the biggest party poopers tend to have a good time. Also, and I'll admit it, I have visions of all my hypothetical children gathered around the fire for a family game night. It's all very poetic in my head. But if I want to bring this fantasy to life I'm going to need to start buying some games because somehow, the only game I have to put under my coffee table (the coffee table that I've decided to dedicate as the game station is Twister, a puzzleball, and deck of cards.

9. Tailgate. Something. I was going to say go to a Bill's Game. But that's only because they're the closest professional football team and going to a game would imply tailgating and that's really all I want to do. So I changed it. Because I really could care less if we don't go to the game. I actually think it would be slightly halarious to show up to an event with no intention of attending the game and just tailgate in the parking lot before. Also, I could do this at a concert and it would be just as fun. The point being, I just want to waste an entire day tailgating. And I want it to be warm when I do it, so that rules out the majority of football season.

10. Buy Cute Shirts. Okay. This is totally random and just popped into my head out of nowhere. But I almost made this resolution finish this post so I feel like buy cute shirts is still an improvement. Here's the deal. Both with the stretch of a resolution and with the reason for the resolution (because I haven't been long-winded enough in this post). First of all, about the point when I had already passed five things I decided I needed to make it to ten resolutions. Secondly, about the time I came up with nine resolutions I absolutely. could. not. think of a tenth. Thirdly, I've been working on this list for exactly one hour and thirty three minutes as I type this sentence. To be fair, I also changed Aubrey's diaper, fed and burped her during this time frame (some of these things making typing very difficult). So, I really just want to finish this post. But then I remembered that when I was re-hanging all my clothes in our closet the other day, I came across the realization that I own ten cardigans. Which sounds excessive, I know. But I wear cardigans all the time. In fact, I almost always wear a cardigan. Which is why I think it is imperative that I branch out a little bit and buy cute shirts that are not cardigans.

The End.