2017 Resolutions, Only Five Months Late

Sure, the year’s almost half over already and I’ve already had my resolutions in mind, but I like having a record of them.

Do no harm, but take no shit. It’s a repeat from last year, but I think it’s worth repeated. Granted, the “take no shit” part is what needs the most work.
Enjoy what’s left of the wedding-planning process, and be a good wife when it’s over. I know people say married life is different, but honestly, by the time we’re married, we’ll have been together for seven years and living together for two, so I don’t think this is gonna be a huge adjustment, and we’re doing pretty great. But it doesn’t hurt to strive to keep it up.
Get more paid writing gigs.
Get a new job? It hinges on having the time to look, as well as whether or not that’s something I want to do if we…
Buy a house.
Save money. I mean, buying a house isn’t gonna help, but once the wedding is over, it’ll be easier to put money away.
Go an a real vacation. I don’t think we had a proper vacation since we went to Jacob’s Marine graduation, and even then it wasn’t just the two of us. Honeymoon plans are kind of up in the air for a couple reasons, but we’re looking at maybe doing something in January of 2018 when our vacation time resets. And there’s a very real possibility we’re gonna be talking kids within the next year or so, and I’d like to get traveling done before that.
Purge stuff we don’t need/want/use.
Pay off a credit card.
Publish some writing.
Continue to be active.
Take more initiative in…everything, I guess.
Get involved in politics. I’d like to maybe volunteer or something, but this absolutely must be after the wedding. Unfortunately, there’s just no way I can squeeze it in before. But I’d like to try to get involved more, be more proactive, and try to actually make a difference in things.
Get back into semi-abandoned hobbies.
Put the phone away when socializing. Honestly, this isn’t something I’m bad at and feel I need to work on, but it’s something I do think is important. I’m actually pretty good at ditching the phone when I’m with people, but I’d like to keep that up.

I mean…it’s a pretty simple year. I tackled a lot of what I wanted to last year,

Saturday 9: I Won’t Last a Day without You

Saturday 9: I Won’t Last a Day without You (1972)

Unfamiliar with this week’s tune? Hear it here.

1) This song makes reference to rainbows. Have you seen one lately? No.

2) When Sam heard this song, it occurred to her that she wouldn’t last a day without a game of online Yahtzee. What little commonplace pleasure reliably brightens your day? Probably most of the ways I unwind in the evening, like just messing around online or watching a movie or reading.

3) Richard Carpenter was emphatic that his group’s name was “Carpenters,” NO “the.” Whenever he hears the group referred to as “The Carpenters,” it gets on his nerves. What little commonplace annoyance reliably sets you off? Professional publications hyphenating adverbs. Incorrect hyphenating in general, really.

4) Karen Carpenter said she drank iced tea all day long. What beverage do you think you’ll have with your next meal? I’m having green tea at this moment, but after this, depends on the meal. Probably water.

5) “I Won’t Last a Day without You” was written by Oscar-winning composer Paul Williams. He also tried his hand at acting, most notably appearing with Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit. Back in the 1970s, the three movies in the Smokey series were very popular. Have you seen any of them? Nope. I’ll probably watch them someday because they’re so well-known, but I’m not confident I’ll actually like them.

6) This song was recorded in 1973 by Diana Ross. Now in her 70s, Miss Ross is still going strong with a busy calendar of appearances in 2017. What’s your favorite Diana Ross song? I don’t think I have one.

7) In 1972, the year this song was popular, the United States and the United Kingdom joined forces and launched the Copernicus satellite. Today it’s remembered for the discovery of long-period pulsars. Crazy Sam got bored writing this question. Do you enjoy reading about science? It depends on what it is and how it’s written. I can get bored easily and I’m not too science-oriented, which generally makes it better for me to watch something science-related than read it, but if the subject matter is interesting to me and/or if the writer handled it well, I can do it.

8) Before Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz was American’s premier Olympic swimmer. In 1972 he won seven Gold Medals. After making millions in endorsements and TV appearances, he settled into a career as a realtor in Los Angeles. Are you contemplating a change in residence any time soon? If you move, will you be consulting a realtor? My fiancé and I are slowly starting the search for a house, but with the wedding coming up in August, that’s at the very bottom of my to-do list, right above looking for a different job. It’s looking like if we look at anything, it’s gonna be squeezed in on weekends when we have no other plans, with the buying and moving process moving pretty slowly–our lease will need renewed soon enough that getting a house before then is not just unlikely but not too smart. But I’m guessing it’s more likely that the whole process will be put off until either after the wedding or when there’s no real planning left. We have talked a little bit to a realtor.

9) Random question: Which of these is completely, 100% UNTRUE of you — boring, lazy or stupid? I mean, I think they’re all a little true and a little untrue. I’m boring in the sense that my day-to-day life is pretty mundane, but I don’t think that I’m boring as an actual person. I’m lazy in the sense that I don’t want to walk across the room to get something, but I’m a hard, dedicated worker and I don’t put things off due to laziness. I’m stupid in the sense that I repeat the same bullshit mistakes and I’m not great at math that’s simple, but I’m generally intelligent and well-read.

Friday 5: Food Me Once, Food Me Twice

From here.

1. What do you like on your frozen yogurt? It depends on the flavor of yogurt, but I tend to stick to fruit. When I’m keeping it really simple, sprinkles.
2. How do you feel about hot breakfast cereals? Growing up, I never did like oatmeal, despite giving it a few tries. But when my fiancé made it for me, I ended up really liking that. Turns out I just like it the same way he does–a lot thicker than most people make it.
3. What did you last put brown sugar in or on? Probably oatmeal, but possibly tea.
4. What’s a food item you willingly overpay for? Honestly, if I know it’s good quality, I’ll overpay for anything when it comes to food.
5. What did you last add vinegar to? As far as I can remember, just homemade salad dressing.

Friday 5: Picture This

1. What’s your favorite monster movie? I’m not too into monster movies, but of the ones I’ve seen, I think I most enjoyed Pacific Rim.
2. What’s your favorite social issues movie? I don’t think I can pick one. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one, and of the ones I have, I can’t really single one out as a stand-out favorite.
3. What’s a movie you dislike in a genre you love? I love horror movies, but I dislike a lot of the movies that have been put out lately. But I think the biggest surprise is probably that I don’t like The Exorcist, which is always praised. Although I’m starting to think that only gets hailed as terrifying by non-horror fans.
4. What’s a movie you like in a genre you dislike? I dislike chick flicks and rom-coms, but I like a lot of the ’80s and ’90s ones, especially ones where Julia Roberts was involved. War movies is another one–they tend to bore me, but I really liked Blackhawk Down.
5. What’s a movie everyone else has seen but you have not seen? Basically everything that’s come out in the past six to nine months. I only saw a couple things in theaters then, and I haven’t seen any of the big summer blockbusters or the number-ones lately.

From here.

Friday 5: Count All the Bees in the Hive

1. Which of the Winnie-the-Pooh characters do you most relate to? So you’d think that I watched or read a lot of Winnie-the-Pooh in my youth, but nope. It’s especially weird considering everything else I liked as a kid involved talking animals. So most of my Winnie-the-Pooh exposure has been as an adult. Based solely on his relationship with food and quest to get it, Pooh himself. While Tigger entertains me just as much and I love his energy, I can’t necessarily relate to it.
2. Which of the Winnie-the-Pooh characters has qualities you’d find most attractive in a romantic partner? I can’t decide! Maybe someone that has a little bit of all of them, but it’s also worth noting that my fiancé is hands down Eeyore.
3. In what way have you “wandered much further” today than you should? There were some things I could’ve finished up faster if I’d put in a little more focus.
4. Of Winnie-the-Pooh stories you can remember (from the books, Disney cartoons, or other sources), which is your favorite? So most of what I’ve seen has been clips my fiancé has shown me, and we have two go-tos–“The Rain, Rain, Rain Came Down, Down, Down” and Pooh the little black rain cloud. Oh, and his exercises, including the “rumbly in my tumbly” line. In fact, we’re known to sing “I’m so rumbly in my tumbly” when we’re going to dinner.
5. Which quote from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories would be good for the epigraph in the book about your life? I mean, it’s kind of obvious and so easy: “But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest a little boy and his bear will always be playing.”

Friday 5: Yule Never Be Alone

1. About how many family Christmas photo-cards did you receive this year? None.
2. About how many family Christmas newsletters did you receive this year? None. No one I know actually does that, thank God.
3. What do you do with the Christmas photo-cards and newsletters you get each year? We have a little cork board in our dining area where I pin all sorts of things–we have some wedding stuff up there right now, we keep stamps and return-address labels there, whatever. I pin any cards we get year-round up there and just rotate them out. The only one I’ve kept up so far is an engagement card from my cousin.
4. What’s a good solution for singles who want to participate in this tradition without coming across as a loser? I think just either sending a regular card without a photo or having a sense of humor about it.
5. About how many old-school, hand-addressed Christmas cards did you receive this year? I think all the cards we got were, although that wasn’t many–mostly from my fiancé’s siblings living far away.

Booking Through Thursday: Snow Day

What kind of book do you like to curl up with on a snowy day?

Man, I feel like I’ve given this answer a thousand times to a thousand different questions, but I’m gonna say it anyway–I almost never pick books based on circumstances or seasons or timeliness or anything like that. I just move to the next thing on the shelf like it’s a to-do list. So really, no preference. I just like to tackle whatever I’m in the middle of at the moment and make some progress on it so I can move on to the next one.