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Year of the Dragon: A List of Resolutions

Happy Lunar New Year! Okay, okay, let me revise: Happy (slightly belated!) Lunar New Year!

Chinese New Year was on Monday, January 23rd, but instead of blogging I was enjoying the last day of a quick weekend getaway/honeymoon with J-Mo. You’ll forgive me, right? Of course you will. You are super classy like that. To my/our credit, we did go see a very extravagant display of Chinese New Years-y dragons and flowers and what-have-you, so at least my resolutions have appropriate photographic distractions.

If you’ve been around these parts for a while you may recall that I make resolutions at Chinese New Year instead of January 1 New Year. (Can I tell you a secret, I actually compose the list at the beginning of January and then give myself a month or so to try those resolutions out. Anything that doesn’t make the month cut won’t be included in the year-long list.)

Before I bust out my resolutions for the Year of the Dragon, let’s do a quick recap on how I did in the Year of the Rabbit.

The Rabbit List: A Recap

1. Graduate from University DONE!
2. Pay off student loan DONE!
3. Plan and take two international vacations …FAIL. but I did visit three new states. Hello, Delaware, Oregon and Montana!
4. Visit two Utah National Parks DONE! I went to Zion National Park (twice!), Arches National Park, and Bryce Canyon! Add in four more parks–Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Independence National Park in Philadelphia–and that shapes up to one fantastic year! National Park Pass: well worth it!
5. Visit the Spiral Jetty DONE!
6. Implement a regular exercise regimen (I expect this won’t happen until after I graduate) …and I didn’t graduate until December, so at least I kept half of this one. Ish.
7. Hike Mt. Timpanogos …FAIL. But it was STILL SNOWING in July and the summit was an avalanche zone until August…and then the snow started back up again in September. I can hardly be blamed for Mother Nature’s freakish winter ways of 2011.
8. Read 30 books …Not exactly, only 18, but I’m counting this anyway.
9. Photograph, organize and label the rest of my shoes …FAIL. I underestimated the amount of stress and free time my schooling would take, and the premium I’d put on time spent with J-Mo.
10. Send Christmas cards DONE! No, they weren’t a fancy-pants photo card, but I hand wrote over 50 cards and mailed them to various family and friends. I consider this a success.

I had hoped for an 80% success rate, and here I am at approximately a 60% success rate. Do I consider 2011 a fail? No. I don’t. In almost every possible way 2011 was the best year of my entire life. So, I am planning to just keep up the momentum for 2012 and let 2011 shortcomings slide.

The Dragon List (2012)

1. Implement and stick to a monthly budget
2. Try 40 new recipes
3. Start a book club
4. Read 30 books
5. Visit two new countries
6. Visit at least two new states
7. Visit two previously unvisited National Parks
8. Train for and run a 5k
9. Hike Mt. Timpanogos
10. Send birthday cards to my siblings, in-laws, and all the nieces and nephews

The Action Plan

1. Implement and stick to a monthly budget: J-Mo and I are in the process of doing this together. I’m kind of excited, a little terrified, but mostly up for the challenge of pooling and sharing money with a boy. Note: except for my Tightwad Tuesday experiment last year I have never really planned out an exact budget, I just kind of wing it. This is going to be new, probably frustrating, and definitely trickier than my current method, but, I hope, rewarding; both financially and otherwise.
2. Try 40 new recipes: I’ve already done three. (This resolution was blatantly picked off of Sarakastic’s list for 2011. So thank you, ma’am!)
   
3. Start a book club: Big plans, I tell you! This is my first big planning project now that all things wedding related are off my plate!
4. Read 30 books: Already on book two, only 28 more to go!
5. Visit two new countries: J-Mo and I are in the pre-planning stages for a big trip later this year! Eeeep!
6. Visit at least two new states: I have my eye on New Mexico, North and South Dakota, or possibly Maine.
7. Visit two previously unvisited National Parks: Mt. Rushmore (South Dakota) and Mesa Verde (Colorado but on the way to New Mexico) are at the top of my list. (See how I have plans to complete #6 and #7 at THE SAME TIME! I rule.)
   
8. Train for and run a 5k: I may get J-Mo to do this with me, but I’ve already got my eye on a few races for this spring/summer.
   
9. Hike Mt. Timpanogos: This is the third year this has been on my list. Third time’s the charm, right?
10. Send birthday cards to my siblings, in-laws, and all the nieces and nephews: I already have everyone in my Google Calendar with a reminder email notification set for 10 days prior to the event. Now, a little simple math puts the number of cards to be mailed at 38. Challenge: accepted.

Alright Year of the Dragon, bring it! I’m ready!

What about you, how are you doing on your resolutions? Did you make any resolutions? Do you think the whole resolution thing is a crock of malarkey? Or was the whole resolution thing sooooo three weeks ago that even commenting on this post will somehow alter any earned bloggy cool points? Lawsy, I hope not, because if that’s the case my bloggy cool point score is somewhere in the negative numbers.

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