It’s 2012, I’ve read a lot of blog posts about resolutions and non-resolutions–more resets of behavior change, and the idea of “why not start with 2012?”
I fall into the camp of being not a resolution-type person. If I were to have one, I guess I would want to Be Nice to Andy. (#BeNicetoAndy to follow my progress*.)
I am doing two things in 2012 that are dependent on the projects starting 1.1.12.
The first is a book project–that technically I could start at any time, but, you get the point. Last year when my Workout Buddy and I lived in Pittsburgh (what what!) at some point we started stacking the books we’d finished reading on top of a bookshelf. I think it was out of lack of space to put our books (I’ve made the quip before, our need for book space comes from the result of a literary cultural head combining with a philosophy lawyer head.) I thought I’d start 2012 off by intentionally doing this same thing.
Here’s our space for the books:
I currently have to finish one last essay in DFW’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. I’ve been reading this for a long time. I highly recommend it. I talk about it all the time…all the time. Ask anyone that has had a conversation with me in the last 3 months and that person will probably tell you I mentioned this reading…or they’ll say, she was babbling about David Lynch, tennis, and luxury cruises…a lot. So, until I finish DFW, and unless I take on Infinite Jest I’ll be highlighting our reading throughout 2012.****
The second project is to run 1,400 miles in 2012, or roughly 25 miles a week. My marathon training friends have told me, “Wow, that’s ambitious. I only run that many miles when I’m–” you guessed it: “training for a marathon.”
The Workout Buddy and I got a pooch, so now I can be outrun by both of them.
Anytime upon hearing this, I mentally smack my forehead for not thinking this challenge through a bit more, and assuming the Workout Buddy will complete this challenge with me, to which, most days he replies to my whining that we need to go for a run, “hey, it’s your challenge,” and outwardly say, “yeah…it will be okay. It’s a challenge, it’s supposed to be hard.” I mean, it’s only one year, right? Only one glorious 2012.
* I guess I like to wax neurotic. So, to complicate this [feigned] brain issue, I’ve added a list of new triggers. Not music, but questioning whether something I say or do could be construed at snobby or self-centered. So, when I write, “follow my progress” I say this in an air of eye-rolling ridiculousness, BUT, my fear is that people might read that and think, “wow, what a jerk. ‘Follow my progress?'” And so, hence the DFW** obsession with asterisks and explaining myself more than is needed***.
**Not comparing myself with that guy. Not at all.
***I’ve said before, I do have a partiality for pointing things out that make people roll their eyes…I just can’t find the blog post where I mention this before to prove my track record. Trust me though.
****I’m currently also reading Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, so be warned that soon I’ll probably start mentioning System 1 and System 2 brain functions. I’m reading Paris Spleen by Baudelaire (more poetry in 2012 and beyond), and I’ve come back to my book on Cuba–I’m still in the process of learning about the indigenous peoples of the region.
Hybrid Nation 