Top Three of '14 and a Plan for '15

Every year for New Year's Eve, we have a nice dinner at one of your respective homes, fireside, break out some really good wine from Sonoma, and share our Top Three for the year. I've always loved this exercise, and since we started doing it four years ago I've always had a reserve list because I couldn't choose just three things.

This year was different. I think the year had a few bad things and a lot of good things, but the bad things just held more weight. 

Last year "Primo's recovery" made my Top Three of '13. If I had a Worst Three for this year, then his death late this year would make that list for sure.


Top 3 of 2014

1. Hikes and picnics with Larry and Primo

• After I put Primo on Rimadyl, he took on the energy and zeal of a young dog, and we had many happy hikes and picnics in all weather. I especially remember a winter hike through Holliday Park where he was running, leaping, and bounding; and our four year anniversary picnic at Hundred Acre Wood

2. My birthday

• I remember 46 as being one of if not the best birthday I've ever had, thanks to Larry, Primo, friends, family, and our favorite places in Indiana

3. Half a month in CSB

• These were some of the finest days of my life as I completely gave in to being in the moment every moment of the day. The outdoor recreation and beach life is for me. I swam in the ocean for hours almost every day

Other notable events:

• I also noted my grandma's funeral as a positive experience, given that the family was together and celebrating my grandma's long life
• New job 
• Landscaping my yard and starting a garden
• Publishing three books
• IndyFringe '14
• Last week of December, diligently and patiently working on my kitchen all my myself
• Highly successful year with my artist hostel

I don't make resolutions because I've never kept a single one, as far as I know. I remember the first year I made a resolution to lose weight (early in high school) and going grocery shopping with my sister for healthy foods and choosing, for some reason, alfalfa sprouts, which I distinctly remember not eating. After that, resolutions were always Lose Weight and Write a Book. I did eventually lose weight but not as a result of any resolution, and I did eventually become a writer, but again, not because I laid out a plan on January 1.

I replaced resolutions with List of Things I Want to Do back on January 1, 2008. The list, unlike resolutions focused more on experiences than on perceived (or real) deficits in my character. I was staying in the Bohemian barrio of Bellavista in Santiago, Chile, where my favorite poet Pablo Neruda had a charming house, La Chascona, named after the curly mane of one of his many fevered lovers, Matilda. This charming piazza town of Santiago was flanked by the rolling foothills of Cerro San Cristobal on one side and Rio Mapocho (which bore a strong resemblance to the Los Angeles River, which I had seen just months prior.) My hostel mates and I decided to recover from our New Year's Eve celebrations atop the Cerro San Cristobal to spend New Year's Day at the beautiful and tranquil El Piscina Antilén. I remember sitting and chatting with John, a pleasant British man with whom I shared a cab,  and we discussed what we would like for ourselves in 2008. (Why I was in Chile in the first place is another story.) 

I remember some very dumb ideas: "Get a teeny tiny tattoo and a teeny tiny nose ring." (Obviously I had been staying in an hostel. Never made good on those, thank God!) Some practical ones: "Paint my bedroom" (never happened). Some lofty ones that I actually accomplished: "Write a play for Fringe," (check! Actually wrote FOUR that year!) and "Get over _____," which I did just a few months later, and which was like a release from prison.

As promised, I will not include "skiing" in my List. In no particular order, here are things I would like to do in 2015:

• Paint my bedroom and master bath
• Make a wooden wall of pallets in my dining room
• Complete phase 2 of my urban prairie--wine bottle trees
• Try 100 new recipes (link them in blog)
• Read 20 books (link them in blog.)
• Read at least one academic magazine per week (National Geographic, Mother Jones, Psychology Today) (discuss articles in blog)
• Write more fluff blogs, such as book, movie, and music reviews; and about my daily life, even if I think it might sound boring to other people
• Take several road trips to various cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Nashville, Detroit, and NYC
• Learn my camera, damn it
• Ride bikes across Mackinac Bridge
• Walk 1,000 miles

Take one big trip--contenders are Acadia National Park and New Brunswick, Canada; a train trip out West to see Glacier National Park and Banff National Park in Canada; an international location, such as biking the wine country of Italy.

Notably absent from this list is anything theater related. I am in exile!

Clothing/Wardrobe
I made a choice to not purchase any clothes (outside of socks, etc.) in 2014. I am not clothes horse, but I have too many clothes. I don't need all these clothes. I wear boring conservative clothing for work, and most nights I'm in work-out clothes. When I go out to proper events, I wear dress pants or dress. When I socialize, it's jeans/sweaters or shorts/tshirts. 

I renew my commitment not to waste money on clothes in 2015. This means that I will rarely go in any stores that sell clothing, and when I do, I will not browse the Clearance racks. (I love clearance racks!) In fact, I make a new commitment to reduce my current wardrobe by 25% through Goodwill donations.