21 Candles and Resolutions in Review

         Friday I celebrated my 21st birthday...Finally! I celebrated with a nice lunch with Lei and dinner with Mackenzie and my parents that night. Liz, who is away, surprised my by leaving a gift with Lei to give me on my birthday. It was totally unexpected, and totally proving of how well she knows me. The gift is a pretty leather journal with my name engraved on the front. Giving a writer a journal is like giving a painter a blank canvas. It's a challange; it's an opportunity. The past few days, I've been tossing around in my mind what I'd like to do with the journal. I debated writing a diary again, which I've done routinely in the past, but I feel like I already have that outlet through my blog. Another idea I came up with was to use it to write poems and short stories. But, honestly I prefer to type those rather than scribble over and over on paper.

          A long time ago, in my church youth group, we made collages on composition notebooks for a "happiness journal." On the first few pages, I listed 100 things that made me happy (I'm sure the list has changed in the past 8 years or so). Then, each day or as often as possible, I wrote 10 things that made me happy that day. In a way, it is a condensed diary. The happiness journal makes you focus on the positive points of each day, and it doesn't take a whole lot of time or commitment. I remeber enjoying it at the time, so I decided to revive this practice. I plan on writing my 100 things tonight because such a beautiful journal would be a sad thing to waste. Plus, with classes picking up speed I think focusing on the happy things in life is a good idea.
          So as I'm making another resolution, it's a good time to reflect on the one's I've already set.

1.       Be proactive on making plans with friends.

2.       Make time for pleasure reading.

3.       Take Monti for more walks.

4.       Go with the flow.

5.       Remember family.

           For the first, I'm going to say success. Over break, I had a bunch of little dates with my girlfriends. I have been slipping up on my "pleasure reading" resolution, however. With all the readings for my Macbeth class, I didn't take a lot of time to finish the books and magazines I've been reading for enjoyment. Another resolution setback, there has been one snowstorm after the next and frigid temps in between...which has been making my walk Monti goal a bit difficult. I did suit up for some long walks a few times over break, but I have to admit I've been falling short of what I intended. Today was a high of 15 so no long walks, and a snow storm is coming Wednesday. I guess I'll have to refresh my resloution after that.
          As far as my "go with the flow" resolution, I've had some successes and some failures. I think that is pobably the most difficult one for me because it doesn't involve a deliberate action. What's hard is remebering the resolution in the moment. But at least recognizing I did lose my cool on few occasions is a step. Lastly, I'm calling my last resolution about remebering family a success. I had a long-overdue conversation with my Grandmom today, and I bought cute thank you cards to send for my birthday and Christmas gifts. Okay, so some resolutions are something to brag about and some need some work. But I am keeping them in mind!

How are you keeping up with your New Year's Resolutions?
Stay warm,
Annie

My Mom has been baking cakes and decorating them as a hobby lately.
I love the way she made my favorite kind of cake, chocolate with caramel frosting, so pretty and personal.