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Wednesday, December 31, 2003: High Resolutions
I don't generally make resolutions. Primarily because New Year's Resolutions are generally regarded as a joke, something not taken seriously, as you will notice if you visit the same gym on January fifth and March fifth. Making a resolution for the New Year pretty much dooms it to failure. Another problem is that the New Year doesn't mark a concrete transition for me, not the same way that my birthday does, or the beginning of September when all the winter activities begin, or spring. It's hard to attach a change in behaviour to something so intangible as a new date. Finally, I dislike the idea that self-improvement happens but once a year. I have too many things I need to work on to limit my resolutions to the New Year. Usually I'm working on one thing or another all the time, especially recently with the new baby to set a good example for. I'm riding high on a couple of recent successes, in fact. I can now proudly count myself among those who floss daily, for one thing. I never used to floss, I hated it, but after Delphine came I realized that I want her to floss every day, and I can't see pursuading her to do that if I don't. Plus I'm tired of the dentist nagging at me. I said a couple but that's the only one I can think of right now. Still, that's big enough to be a couple; I really hate flossing. Having said that, I am working on a thing or two at the moment, and there are some things I'd like to improve. There is the ever-present Calorie Control Initiative (gratuitous capitalizating and the use of the word "Initiative"; this entry is for you, Stacey). I reduced my maximum calorie intake goal to 2100 per day on December 27, but I'm dismally over because of Christmas. Fitday has a reporting system which will tell you what your average was over the last week, two weeks and month. Currently all three averages are over 2200. So my job for the next month is to get all three averages below 2100 before January 25. (At which point Christmas Day will no longer figure in the month average. Waiting until Christmas Day to fall over the horizon is cheating.) I was going to move the maximum goal down to 2000 at the end of January, but I might wait until mid-February to give myself time to get used to 2100 before I cut down yet again. There's no rush, after all. The next thing I'd like to work on is being nice to my cats. It may sound hard to believe (since one of my cats is capable of terrorizing a grown woman into barricading herself into a bedroom) but my cats aren't so lovable. Or at least, I like to blame them, when in fact the problem may well be that I'm not very loving. Either way, the sad truth is the cats were child-substitutes, and now I have the real thing, and the poor critters get the short end of the stick. I feed them and take them to the vet and give them fresh water, and Blake keeps the litter box clean, but they don't get cuddled or played with as much as they ought. They're not very affectionate, but I wonder if they would be more affectionate if I were more attentive to them. So this year I will try and fall back in love with my cats. Next, I have to remember to clean Delphine's teeth. She's only got two of them, but I'm hoping they'll last for six or seven years. So far, though, I've only brushed them once. I just forget. I need to try harder. Finally, I need to be more active to complement the calorie thing. I hate pretty much all kinds of exercise, but I love to walk. My sister-in-law suggested that I get books on tape and listen to them as I walk, which is a sovereign idea, and I'm going to try it. So that's it. Four resolutions which happen to be made on or about the New Year.
The other night I was talking to someone about "what I want to do when I grow up", which is standard shorthand (to me, at least) for "the career I hope to have which will fulfill me in a way that my previous career did not". My friend took me literally, though, and said "You're not grown up now?" And I thought about it. I have a child. I floss. I bake bread. I own fancy pots and pans and knives. I have a mortgage. I listen to classical music all day. I own life insurance and mutual funds. I don't listen to popular music because so much of it is crap that it's just not worth bothering with. Fetch my cane, Edna; I'm old. |