State of the Orange

It’s the Eve of New Year’s Eve, and since I’ll be at Scott’s tomorrow, I figured I’d do my year-end/year-start report now. I’ll start by reviewing my “goals” from last year.

Resolution #1 – Find a New Job
INCOMPLETE. I tried, really, really hard. I mailed out well over a hundred applications, resumes, and letters of inquiry. I even had mild success; I interviewed for a behaviorist job I really wanted to get, but sadly, was not chosen for the position. But, when presented with adversity, I did what I always do: I reassess and re-plan. In this case, that meant taking the GREs and applying to grad school (again). I did the best I could on that one, but ultimately, the results were/are out of my control. This remains on the list for 2010.

Resolution #2 – Move Out
INCOMPLETE. I noted last year that this was largely dependent on goal #1. Part of me doesn’t even want to discuss this goal, because this is the only one that kind of stings that I couldn’t make good on. In some ways it’s good – Scott got a great new job and actually just got a promotion yesterday, and it makes going back to school easier because I don’t have to worry about leases or anything just yet. But in others…dear god, I need to be out of this house for a variety of reasons and it appears that I am stuck here until I either get into school or I get a new job. Sigh.

Resolution #3 – Be More Organized
BIG, HONKING, SHAMEFULLY INCOMPLETE. This one makes me laugh, because it was really setting myself up for failure to even put it on the list. Honestly, the most progress I’ve made towards this is regularly “tossing” the stash and reorganizing the yarn storage, but I can’t even mark this as a partially complete goal because I totally lost a knitting project. Remember that shawl I started over the summer? I lost it. Lost the whole thing, the bag with the yarn and pattern, and the size 6 KP Options needles (which is the part that really bums me out). The last time I saw it was when I packed it to take to Ohio over the summer, but my dad was just there for my grandma’s funeral, and both of my aunts say I didn’t leave it behind. I knew I hadn’t left it; the project never left my bag because for the entire five days we were out there, I was either in a car (and I can’t knit lace in a car – or at all, really), eating something in a restaurant, or watching the Michael Jackson news coverage because I left for Ohio two days after he died. Also, I may have lost my Bellatrix socks, as well, because I haven’t seen those in quite some time either, now I think about it…

So yeah. Organization = 1, me = 0. Fail.

Resolution #4 – Stop Making Excuses/Do More!
AS COMPLETE AS IT CAN BE. For a goal with no concrete “completion” criteria, I think I did pretty well with this one. For starters, I joined the gym, and have been going three days a week, most weeks, and the weeks that I don’t do three days, I do at least two. I can’t say I’ve lost a ton of weight, but I definitely have built some muscle and I do look better in my clothes. I’ve actually gone out with my coworkers for several work-related occasions and have been seeing quite a few of them socially just for fun. I still cop out of some things – who doesn’t? – but I’m not as isolated as I used to be socially, and even though I haven’t been doing anything extreme like traveling the world or climbing mountains, I feel better about myself and my ability to make friends and just generally be a person.

Despite the tally here, I still feel like 2009 has been a more successful year. I did as much as I could to progress on the two resolutions that were beyond my control, and I made more progress than I expected on #4, which I expected would have been my most difficult goal, because it required me to change some pretty ingrained aspects of my personality. For 2010, I would like to leave #s 1, 2, and 4 on the table. I’m taking #3 off, because, really, who am I kidding, and am adding some new ones:

Resolution #5 – Shut up and knit my damn yarn/spin my damn fiber.
Guys. I can’t even tell you how much yarn and fiber I have. I know there are people with more, but this is kind of an issue because apparently my stash is beginning to eat itself, if my missing project(s) are any indication. I have a large four-drawer Rubbermaid chest full of yarn, three queen-sized mattress bags stuffed under my bed full of yarn, yarn in random places in my room because they wouldn’t fit in the chest or the bags, and…wait for it…a 20-gallon Rubbermaid tub of unspun fiber in my closet. My stash may actually exceed my life expectancy, and I really need to shut up and quit being all, “I need new yarn!” because I totally don’t. However, I do still want to go to Rhinebeck in October and buy yarn, so I’m setting myself a goal of at least 8 completed projects for 2010, not counting the ones that are currently on the needles. I know, it doesn’t sound like much, but I’m not a particularly prolific knitter. (Also, a “completed project” also includes spinning, plying, and setting a batch of fiber.)

Resolution #6 – Give back.
I always say that I want to volunteer and be more charitable, and I never do. I’d like to change that this year. I have enough yarn for at least five Snuggles in my stash; I’d like to knit and donate those this year. I’m also thinking about volunteering at the local animal rescue, too. So I need to take that first step and contact the rescue to see if they have a spot for me.

There you have it. The State of the Orange.

Mirrored from winged orange.