Onward and Upward

Well, I'm back from vacation. Did you miss me?

Vacation was nice. VA was really warm and I managed to go running outside 3 days down there (let's just ignore the fact that 3 out of 10 days isn't exactly record breaking, okay?). Overall I had a good time. I spent NYE with my best friend and her husband at a small party playing Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit. God, that sounds boring. But it was actually pretty fun.

Highlight of the trip: digsmeet in Philly. I met a whole bunch of people in person for the first time, and it was super fun. It's kind of funny spending time in person with people you've only "talked" to on bulletin boards. Some people looked/sounded exactly the way I expected; others, not so much. Interesting fact: geogirl and I look surprisingly similar, to the point where the guy at the coffee shop asked if we were related. How funny is that?

Oh, and I ran up the Rocky stairs! You know, the stairs that Rocky runs up during his training. They were a lot shallower than I expected. But the view at the top was amazing. It made me feel like I had just ran up a mountain, even though in reality, the stairs were not that difficult. I mean, I was still out of breath at the top, but they weren't undoable.

Bad thing about vacation: no one shoveled my driveway, and when I came back, there was about 1 1/2 feet of snow on the ground. Yeah, not so fun. So yesterday was devoted to shoveling, laundry, and cleaning the house. Woo hoo. But it's done, and I've moved the cars back so that from now on I can just let the snow pile up next to the house instead of shoveling the extra space. Right now we have about 3 feet of snow on the ground, at least. I like snow, but there's something disconcerting about needing snowshoes to get to the birdfeeder in the back yard. On the plus side, skiing tomorrrow is going to rock!

On to bigger and better things. I have not officially made my goals for 2007 yet, but here are a few that I have thought of:

1. Clean up the den.
2. Get rid of that box of old papers that's been sitting in the hall for two years.
3. Finish changing my name (I really want to have this finished by our one year anniversary).
4. Cancel my magazine subscriptions!
5. Complete a triathlon.
6. Lose 10 pounds.

I have also made a resolution -- in my mind, the difference between the two is that goals are specific and measurable, while resolutions are things I want to do but are not necessarily measurable. And my resolution for this year is to be positive. Let me explain this by starting out with a negative statement: I do not like who I am right now. I have noticed that lately I am a real downer, and also very angry a lot. I attribute this to the fact that I let myself get into these rounds of negativity that just feed on themselves, causing a downward spiral into anger and depression. So instead of letting myself dwell on negative things, and be pessimistic about stuff, I am going to be positive, dammit!

So that's my idea for the new year. I am working on it already. It's not easy, but I think that it will make me a happier person and it will be so worth it in the long run!