2017

Someone give me an award–I’m actually doing a New Year’s resolutions post just days into the New Year. I like to go back and assess the goals I’d set before.

Do no harm, but take no shit. Man, I’m getting there. Do no harm is pretty easy for me–it’s the take no shit where I struggle, because I have a tendency to let people get away with a lot. And I still bite my tongue probably more than I should, but I can think of a few instances where I did speak up, and man, I do not regret it.
Enjoy what’s left of the wedding-planning process, and be a good wife when it’s over. I mean, I mostly enjoyed what was left of the planning. It did reach a point where I just wanted it to be over. As for the wifing, I mean, I’d say I’m doing pretty good, but I guess my opinion doesn’t really count here, does it?
Get more paid writing gigs. Sort of happened, sort of didn’t. I applied to and was taken on by a writing website, but it looks like it might’ve been bullshit to get people to join, because I don’t see a damn thing about writing assignments anywhere on there. But I did volunteer to take more articles than I have before, and with the exception of needing to slow it down right before the wedding, 2017 was a productive year and I’m sure I made more money than I did in 2016.
Get a new job? Didn’t happen. I looked a little but can’t even tell you the last one I applied for. For now, though, the focus is on tweaking my résumé before I get back into this.
Buy a house. We looked briefly in the spring before wedding planning went nuts, so this didn’t pan out. The good news is I just e-mailed a real-estate agent to hopefully go look at one or two on Sunday.
Save money. We’re doing it, but it’s tough to gauge. Obviously, the wedding wiped us out, pretty much, but we made a lot up in what we go as gifts. On top of that, we’ve been able to squirrel a little away each month, so we’ve been building up more and more. I’d like to get us to a point where we have a house down payment with money left over, but we’ll see. It does look promising.
Go an a real vacation. Didn’t happen. We just didn’t really have time to plan one, let alone actually go.
Purge stuff we don’t need/want/use. We’re generally pretty good at doing this throughout the year. I know we’ve gotten rid of a lot of old clothes and books, but you definitely can’t tell by looking at the apartment.
Pay off a credit card. Done! Suck it. I did a couple balance transfers, so I’m not gonna count that, but I have two or three cards that had small balances that now have zero balances. There’s one small balance left, then the balance-transfer accounts, including a card that a small chunk of wedding expenses went on, so that’s a work in progress. And the amount of debt is probably about the same as a result, but I’ve made progress.
Publish some writing. Didn’t happen. Like job hunting, it was low priority, unfortunately, and I hardly submitted a thing. The one bummer about this is I had a decent streak of getting something out there every year.
Continue to be active. Done. I admittedly started slacking after the wedding and tapered off completely probably around Thanksgiving, but I’ve gotten back on it. And I had a good routine going–elliptical nearly daily, weightlifting two or three times a week. When the weather was good, we were doing a fitness trail nearby with exercise stations, so that’ll be nice to get back into. But I have muscle that wasn’t there one year ago, and although I’ve gained back a little of what I lost, I did make progress and I know I can do it. It’s just staying motivated.
Take more initiative in…everything, I guess. I’m gonna guess the fact that I can’t pinpoint anything is…not a good sign.
Get involved in politics. I’ve called my reps, but I wanted to do more along the lines of volunteering. I didn’t, but I do intend to look into it in 2018, especially as there’ll be more opportunities for it–starting with monthly meetings at my local library.
Get back into semi-abandoned hobbies. Another no. But a year when I was planning a wedding and also wanted to buy a house and also wanted to add more paid writing jobs and also wanted to publish more creative writing was probably not the year to try to pick up a guitar again.
Put the phone away when socializing. Nailed it. I still pull it out on occasion, especially if people are being really quiet or if there’s a good reason to be on it, but for the most part, I put it away and I’m done with it. I have to give my friends and family credit here, too, because I honestly can’t think of anyone who spends all their time glued to their phone.

So turns out I did a pretty good job in 2017. Stay tuned for 2018’s grand plans…which will mostly be the same.