Welcome 2011!

Welp, here we are.  2011.  Some of you may have entered this year a few days ago, but since I was over-served on New Year's Eve, I just came back into the land of the living today.  And work started back up.  So I spent the day organizing my thoughts.  And my desk.  And my closet.  And my dressers.  But mainly my thoughts.  It was time to move the undone items from the 2010 "to do" list and onto the list for 2011.  I was amazed at how many of the items were actually crossed off.  Of course, most of those were things like, "buy shoes" and "drink lots of booze."  But I tackled them none-the-less.  So score 1 for me! 

The 2011 list is pretty much the same, but I also set personal goals for myself.  Some of the things I had already commenced in 2010 despite their absence on any list, but I think they are good things, so I noted them on the 2011 list.  This way I can refer to it often and keep up the positive things and continue moving forward with life. 

Everyone seems to be talking about "living with intention" these days.  I'm not sure if I noticed it before or after I had the epiphany that I, myself, should start living with intention.  I do.  Normally.  Live with intention.  But sometimes my intentions get out of hand and result in things I did not intend.  New Years Eve.  Case in point.  I intended to purchase 2 large bottles of champagne to share with my friends and family.  I did not intend that I would end up drinking the bulk of the 2.  But once I set my mind to it - I had to finish the job.  This resulted in me feeling like shit for 2 days.  That was NOT.INTENDED.  But my initial intentions were good, don't you think?  Share.  That's a good intention.  And I would have happily shared.  But "they didn't like champagne" and I was all, "are you freakin' serious?  Ta hell with y'all then!  More for me!!" 

Big mistake.  But good intention.  Initially.

Anyway - back to living with intention.  I like the concept.  But what does it mean, exactly?  I'm not sure.  I've added a few things to my personal goals for 2011 that I hope will bring to light the definition of this new buzz phrase.  Things like:  Do something adventurous with your family 2 x's per month.  I'm sure that will result in things like visiting a grocery store on the other side of town.  Or maybe trying on a pair of crazy shoes?  No.  I think it's supposed to be more than that.  Like explore.  The world.  Or see something new.  Or do something new.  I'm a creature of habit - so that won't be easy for me.  But I'm going to give it a whirl.  I thought about letting the family make up little tickets of things they might like to do and then drawing them randomly from a hat.  But I became too afraid that they would place things like, "sky dive" or "ride in a hot air balloon" in the hat and then I had an anxiety attack and decided I'd better control the list.  At least for a while.  Until I get used to the idea of leaving the house.  And being around people I don't know.  Germy people.  Bleh.

As I looked through the various lists from last year - there were 2 books on my "Read in 2010"  - I laughed when I saw them.  I'm not interested in reading either of them.  So I crossed them off.  My 2011 read list is blank.  And that's probably how many books I will read.  I think I read 2.5 books in 2010.  Neither were on my initial read list.  But 1 forever changed my life.  "Work Sucks and How to Fix It"  I think I'll RE-READ it in the next week or so.  Just to see if some new and interesting ideas come to mind.

I also reviewed my notebook from 2010.  To see what I did.  And accomplished.  And it was quite a bit.  At least for the first half of the year.  I reveled in the amount of shit I got done.  And then, somewhere along the way, I stopped making weekly task lists.  And that's likely about the same time I ceased getting anything accomplished around here.  And the house went to hell in a hand basket and the dust bunnies and dog hair started running the place.  So I quickly jotted down a lengthy list of shit to get done around here this week.  That was a good idea last year and one that should not have been abandoned.  So it's back in action. 

There are several "journals" I want to keep this year also.  Spending journals.  Food journals.  Really fascinating shit that I'm sure y'all would love to read.  But I don't think I'll include it on here.  I'll need to find an online solution to my need to keep these various journals.  If you have any suggestions - please let me know! 

So that was today, in a nutshell.  The dumping of random thoughts onto paper and organizing my game plan for the coming year.  Intriguing.  I know.