Thanks to the urging of Lauren I am posting the post-Christmas/pre-New Year�s update. And since I haven�t posted in forever, this will be a long one, but there�s pictures at the end so that should be incentive.
I really caught a bad case of the bah hum-�bug� the week before Christmas. It all started the Monday night before Christmas when I freaked out thinking about the seniors who spend the holiday alone. It made me think that would be my future. It scared me and no amount of rational thought (well, I couldn�t find any rational thought) could convince me otherwise. It was all down hill from there.
Normally, I�m a Christmas freak. I started out in a good place, but ended up in the toilet. At one point, I thought I�d just boycott Christmas, I figured I could send my gifts along with my parents and just stay home in bed, crying no doubt. But I managed to get over it.
I never sent my Christmas cards. I passed out cards here at work, but anything that needed a stamp and an address didn�t get sent. In fact, they never got addressed. I�ve decided to save them for next year and this year I�m going to do New Year�s cards. So for those of you who gave me an address, look for a card sometime in January. And for those that would like to receive a New Year�s card, if you haven�t already given me your address, send it on. I can get e-mail at JanetPlanetOC (at) aol.com.
I also didn�t complete my shopping until Christmas eve. I didn�t finish wrapping my gifts until 10:30 Christmas eve. This is really unlike me. Normally, I wrap the gifts early in the season. I love to see them all wrapped and pretty under the tree. This year, didn�t really care.
So the Thursday before Christmas, I managed to locate my holiday spirit. Brian and I went to a small intimate Christmas party at my friend Char�s. We had a really nice time and we exchanged our gifts that night. He did a good job, he bought me sparkly things! I had to give him a lot of help, but he got it right. He bought me a beautiful necklace and matching earrings. He also bought me a DVD of his favorite comedian � Eddie Izzard. He picked that one out all by himself. He gave it to me and said �You need to laugh more�. I thought that was really sweet and I could tell he put some thought into it, which is what really mattered.
Christmas turned out to be really nice. Normally, my sister and brother-in-law have to rush of to his family�s house for their Christmas (and last year Eric had to rush off to work thanks to the terror alert) but this year, his family was all back in Minnesota, so we had a leisurely morning and spent the whole day with them. It was really nice and relaxing.
Santa (me) was really good to me, and I got some Seven7 jeans for Christmas. I must say that they look really amazing on me. I almost look skinny in these jeans. I always buy a few presents for myself and wrap them up and put them under the tree. This year was no exception. I bought myself some (fake) bling, the jeans, a couple of dress shirts, a sweater and a polar fleece jacket. From my family, I got some books, Trivial Pursuit 90�s edition (which I will be playing New Year�s eve), a new jewelry box (which is really a funny story � I�ll tell that one in it�s own paragraph) and some other assorted presents.
On the jewelry box: Christmas eve, as I was laying in bed, I was contemplating my jewelry situation. Prior to 2000, I never really wore jewelry. My roommate at the time, taught me how to be feminine and wear jewelry and such. So since then, I�ve accumulated quite a bit. I love pine and light wood. All the furniture in my room is pine. Most jewelry boxes are in dark wood. I had bought a little key rack that I hang my bracelets on and I just had a pretty box to put my necklaces in. The necklaces keep getting tangled and I was thinking about it Friday night. I was thinking that I need to get something for my necklaces but I can never find anything in light wood. So I thought maybe I�d ask Brian to build something for me as he�s pretty handy with wood and all that. I never mentioned this to anyone. So Christmas day, I open a present from my parents, and it�s a light wood jewelry box. It has 3 layers that stack on each other with little compartments in each layer so I can put necklaces in them and they won�t get tangled. So, how cool is that, it�s like my mom read my mind before I even had the thoughts. I think that was one of my best gifts.
Thinking on the whole New Year�s thing, here are my resolutions:
Be able to run a mile (meaning, a full run the whole mile, no walking breaks)
Be able to do 1 hour at level 5 on the exercise bike
Go to an LA/OC/San Diego tourist attraction 6 times (1 every 2 months)
Go to 1 movie each month (average of at least 12 for the year)
Find a place to live that works for me
Get a new-used car
Figure out my love-life
Fit in a size 14 in the regular department, as opposed to women�s
Learn to surf
Learn to snowboard
Learn to knit
Finish a quilt for my aunt
Make a quilt for myself
Get below 200 pounds
And that seems like enough for the year so I�ll leave it at that. Last year, I set goals at the new year and also on my birthday. For last year�s resolutions, I (of course) didn�t complete all of them, or even half of them. But I don�t get concerned about that. Just the act of setting the goals helps me to start doing instead of sitting back and watching life go by. If I set 10 goals and only accomplish 5, then at least I accomplished those 5. I believe that by setting those goals, I added a lot of value to my sense of living and enjoying my life. I know there is still a lot of change I need to make within myself, but it�s a journey and I�m on it. That�s what matters. In terms of the goals I set for my birthday, I still have 3 months to finish up some of those.
I am hoping to start up with a therapist again soon. I know I need to work on myself. It�s evident in my frequent plummets into depression. The moodiness is NOT working for me. Part of it is chemical and my bi-polar disease. But a lot of comes from life-events, not knowing how to deal with my emotions in a constructive way, not working on myself, not taking responsibility for making my life that I want. So I have some work to do and I�ll do it. Most of my goals are about adding joy to my existence so I feel better about myself. One thing I�ll be doing starting in January is taking a step-dancing class. It�s good exercise and fun with some friends. That starts January 4th. I am also going to take a knitting class with Heidi . What I want this year is a year of fun. So I may not get some of the things in life I want (marriage, a family) but I can still have a life I enjoy. (Okay, I say this now, but I know I�m still gonna have some down days in the future, please don�t remind me of this when I am down, just support me, K?)
What I accomplished from last year:
Went to more than 12 movies (went every month except November but I took a vacation instead so I�m not gonna worry about that)
Wear size 16
Took 3 weekend trips
Took a get-on-a-plane vacation
Worked on my scrapbook (not once a month as the goal stated, but frequently enough that I can say I accomplished this one)
What I still need to accomplish before April (we�ll see!) that is not already on my list for 2005:
Figure out what I need to do to complete my degree
Go to the main So Cal amusement parks (already went to Knotts and Magic Mountain so I only need to do Disneyland, California Adventure and SeaWorld
Put $2000 in savings
Write my novel
Learn how to shoot a gun
Enter the 2005 Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Hall of Fame
So anyways, it�s just about the journey and I�ll keep setting goals, achieving some of them, not achieving others, and that�s life. And now for the pictures:
The community where I reside has an annual boat parade, here�s one of the pictures from the parade:
Some pictures from Christmas day:
And some pictures of B and I:
And I�ll end this now. Thanks for staying with me.
