Resolved, Year Two

My resolutions for 2009:

Resolved, that I will get enough sleep.
7-8 hours minimum per night, hopefully.

Resolved, that I will get to work on time.
Basically, anytime before 9 a.m.

Resolved, that I will not wait until the last minute to do my work and homework assignments.
While I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be a perennial resolution, I have hope that at the very least, I will get better and not procrastinate so much.

Resolved, that I cultivate a more active social life with an emphasis on my friends and family.
No doubt about it... It makes me happy to go out and do things. And I'm even happier when that includes the people I love. So, definitely more concerts, museums, galleries, restaurants, events, etc. in '09.

Resolved, that I will dance more.
Whether it means I get back into the swing scene a little, reacquaint myself with tango or just take more dance classes, this is a must. Two years away from something I love doing is ridiculous.

Resolved, that I will travel more this year.
I think this is the year of smaller domestic trips (especially now that I have the perfect car for roadtrips.) On my radar: SF (for the Cathedral of Christ the Light and the Academy of Sciences), Utah (for my sister), NYC (for friends and food), Minneapolis (architecture) and Atlanta (to swim with sharks). If I have any money left after paying off my debt and going to school, there is the possibility of Japan, but we'll see.

Resolved, that I will read more books.
In the past couple of years, I've definitely lagged on my book reading due to my crazy schedule. At the very least, I want to shoehorn in all of the books on my shelf that I haven't read yet. And that includes "The House of Leaves" and all of the other books that I think are going to scare the hell out of me.

Resolved, that I will make both my home and work offices more inviting.
For my home workspace, I need better organization and less clutter. For my office, I need color, better lighting and something fun on the walls. It's so drab right now.

Resolved, that I will eliminate my credit card debt.
I'm pretty determined about this one and if all goes according to plan, I should accomplish this within the the first half of the year.

Resolved, that I will contribute to my Roth this year.
This is the first year that I think my Roth is a better bet than the 401K that my work offers.

Resolved, that I will drink more water.
I'm borrowing this one from TB.

Resolved

According to Franklin Covey, one of the things you have to do to help make your New Year's resolutions stick is to go public with them. So here goes:

Resolved, that I will do my best to exude positive energy.
K & I like to watch the Dog Whisperer. (Actually, for several years, K has been preparing himself for getting a dog by studiously reading every dog training and psychology book under the sun) After watching several shows, it's easy to get the gist of what Caesar Millan preaches. One of the basic tenets of his philosophy is that dogs read the energy you put out there and adjust their energy accordingly. For example, a neurotic owner often can lead to a neurotic pet, whereas a calm owner instills calmness in her pet. I thought about this principle and realized that many of my social problems stem from either my negativity or lack of action. I automatically assume people don't want to talk to me and hence don't talk to them and it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The people I get along with are those that are sunny and very secure with themselves, making me open up and be just as sunny and secure. My goal is to be one of those people, so that my smile gets matched with another smile instead of my indifference being matched with equal indifference.

Resolved, that I will be in bed before midnight on worknights.
This gives me around 8 hours of sleep a night, which will help me to function normally during the day.

Resolved, that I will be on time to work, leave to take my lunch break and leave on time unless I take overtime.
I've struggled with this in the past and I do believe that not doing these three things adds more stress than necessary to my day. I am hoping that getting enough sleep will help me to get to work on time and that stepping out for a breather in the middle of the day will help me to keep my perspective. Leaving on time seems like it would be easy, but I can get caught up in work, especially design work, around quitting time, which usually coincides with my peak performance time. Also, if I get to work late, I usually try to make up for it in spades by working much later.

Resolved, that I will not wait until the last minute to do my work and homework assignments.
I always underestimate the time it will take to complete a project. The final project for my Elements of Design I class last quarter took at least 2-3 days of work and I naively thought I could knock it out in less than a day. The point is that I have to be realistic with my goals and recognize that a little time padding helps when the expected unexpected occurs.

Resolved, that I will reach out to friends and family when stressed and not withdraw inwards.
If you take a look at my cell phone records, you'll notice that K accounts for 95% of all my calls. Since we're on the same network (Verizon), that means that I'm not using the actual anytime minutes that I'm paying lots of money for. So, there is no reason I shouldn't be calling and chatting up the people I care for, right?

Resolved, that I will find a physical way to blow off steam.
Since I stopped dancing (for various personal reasons), it's been difficult to find something physical that I like to do with regularity. Lately, I've been really missing dancing and have been considering starting up again with tango and perhaps learning ballet. Other physical activities I've been thinking about involve forcing myself to go to the gym or walking to work in the morning.

Resolved, that I will actually do the things I put on my calendar.
Unless I'm sick, I am not going to flake out on the events that I thought were cool and important enough to actually put on my calendar.

Resolved, that I will go abroad this year.
Even if it's just to Canada or Mexico, I am itching to leave the country for a week at least.

Resolved, that I will make my home an inviting and comfortable place.
This involves redecorating my apartment to create a good work/project space, improving the lighting and purchasing a vintage (art deco or mid-century modern) hardwood dresser. On the maintenance side, this also means that I need to clear out the clutter and keep everything clean and tidy.

Resolved, that I will pay down at least 15% of my credit card debt.
I've already created my plan for doing this, which absolutely takes into account the fact that I am paying for school out of my own unlined pocket and that I want to go on a trip this year.

Resolved, that I will write in my blog more regularly.
So far, so good.

These are my resolutions... what about yours?

Tango

Today I wrapped up my first week of tango lessons, which included a private 1 hour lesson everyday and a group lesson on Mondays and Wednesdays. My teachers, Humberto and Carolina of Estudio Callas, are really good teachers, and I've had many dance instructors, so I know what I'm talking about. During my private lessons, I usually get one or the other: Humberto teaches me following skills and new moves, while Carolina cleans up my technique. I didn't tell them that I'm a swing dancer until yesterday, when I told Carolina. She said that explains why I'm a very fast learner and a good follower with good frame. But she said it also explains why my pivots are too fast and why I swing my hips. Tango is a very controlled and deliberate dance. For the woman, it requires complete submission to the man and perfect technique and balance. Swing dancing is a whole lot more forgiving, though I must admit that my balance has always been a problem. In any event, after two weeks of tango training, I'll definitely have a strong foundation to build upon and I think my swing dancing will also improve.

One of the things that made a huge difference in my tango was actually buying tango shoes. On Tuesday, I went to Artesenal in the Abasto barrio and bought these awesome shoes:
Carolina advised me to go with a shorter heel, but Humberto prefers a higher heel. I decided to get a shorter heel to start with and I had them chromed for more control. (For the non-swing geeks, that means that I had them put suede on the bottom) There was red and black pair that I almost bought with a higher heel, but I didn't want to hang out there and deliberate too much since they had 4 or 5 Persian cats hanging around the shop. (I'm allergic) I didn't even take my backpack off to try the shoes on because I didn't want it to collect cat hair. In any event, I'll probably go back to buy the other shoes as well (it's only about U$30-45 a pair for handcrafted leather shoes).

One of the coolest things about buying tango shoes is that you can either take them away in a box or a red(!) carrying sack:
For non-dancers: the nice thing about the sack is that you can carry your dance shoes around town without having to wear them and ruin the sole. That is, of course, unless you're going to the Derby in LA, where they have a policy against bagged shoes.