Some thoughts on 2010, 2011

I had a fun New Year's Eve with 2 of my oldest friends (with whom I have celebrated many recent NYEs) at First Night. We started the evening with dinner and toasting (since I wanted to be safe to drive after the ball dropped, we did our champagne toasts at about 7pm). Want to know what we toasted to? A happy new year, good riddance, our new year's resolutions (yeah, I'll spare myself the embarrassment of posting what my resolutions are), and so forth. So basically, lots of things to look forward too for 2011.

But speaking of "good riddance"... I've been attempting to fill collage picture frames all day. I found my high school and college graduation albums and started looking through them. Apparently I didn't get many pictures at HS graduation except with family and a few other people. College on the other hand... lots of pictures with friends (and again, family). I was a little shocked to realize how few of the people I was so close with in college I haven't spoken to in awhile. That place was home for four years, and those people were almost family... and yet we're coming up on 4 years since graduation (oh wow do I feel old) and I can safely say that at least half of those people I haven't spoken to since shortly after that date. Now, I am fully willing to take the blame for some. I haven't kept in contact the way I should have (and if you're reading this, I'm sorry). But then there's those other people... the ones that there are reasons why I haven't stayed in contact. Finding their pictures in that album wasn't so fun. I'm sure everyone has those... the ones that you seriously question whether you should toss them out of the album all together (and with technology the way it is, delete them from your computer memory too).

And yet, I can't bring myself to do it. I mean, several of those people are still in my phone memory. Friends with several on Facebook... though I don't know how much longer that will last. After all... if our friendship meant that little in real life, why pretend on the internet? But I'm just bringing up bad memories at this point.

For 2011, I'm hoping for a fresh start. As Jane Austen points out in Pride and Prejudice, "Think only of the past as its remembrance brings you pleasure." Easier said than done, but it's worth a shot. Good riddance to the bad, bring back the happy past!

And a happy new year to all!

Couch to 5K

So, last December I had this crazy idea. I figured that since everyone around me was trying to work out or run a marathon (and I wasn't), that I would make a plan to run a 5K sometime in 2009. I even made it my New Year's Resolution.
So all year, I kept thinking, "Oh, I've got time. I'll start next week." Well, guess what, folks? It's October. And I gained just enough weight to make my clothes not all fit. It's terrible. So, I started the Couch to 5K plan last week, in hopes of doing the Jingle Bell run in December. I'm on week 2. I've got to say, I can tell a difference between last week and this week (I no longer want to die at 45 seconds, although at 90 seconds I really start to wonder about my sanity). So that's got to say something, right? So tomorrow I'll finish Week 2. Have no idea how I'm going to do Week 3 with the conference next week, but I'll figure it out.
And Dad, if you're reading this, start getting ready!!! Because it's my goal to jog most of the 5K.