The life of a Catholic school teacher

Is it a silly idea to make a few resolutions for 2010? I can only think of 2 New Year's resolutions in my life that I ever kept. One was a foolish decision that changed my teenage years into the true definition of teen angst; and the other was the year that I vowed to quit smoking and succeeded.

I suppose I could resolve to make this a year of weight loss, but honestly, just the thought of losing weight makes me feel tired and lazy. Though I am quickly spiralling to the point where I am just not willing to take being heavy anymore. There will come a time when I'm 100% ready to committing myself to weight loss. Now is not that time though.

So what do I resolve for 2010?

#1: Finish the hexagon skirt, sweater, and hat/scarf combo that I'm knitting.

(These projects have been 'in progress' for quite a while.)

#2: Read all of the books I have bought before buying any more.

(Though I love to read, I find that knitting is my hobby of choice in my free time. I only read when I'm in bed and about to fall asleep. As you can imagine, not much reading gets done. Unless it's a book that I can't put down.)

Here is a list of the books that I own, that I am planning to read for the first time this year:

1-The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
(Currently reading this right now).
2-Dedication by Emma McLaughin and Nicola Kraus
3-More Than it Hurts You by Darin Strauss
4-Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
5-Dear Zoe by Philip Beard
6-Alt Ed by Catherine Atkins
7- The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
8-If I Only Knew Then by Charles Grodin and friends
9-Slam by Nick Hornby
10-Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson
11-Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson
12-The Friendship Test by Elizabeth Noble
13-Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
14-Escape by Carolyn Jessop
15-Wicked by Gregory Maguire
16-My Life as a Furry Red Monster by Kevin Clash
17-The Bachelorette Party by Karen McCullah Lutz
18-1984 by George Orwell

I think I'll stick with those two resolutions, since there is a lot of 'work' entailed with each one. Wish me luck!

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Because of the medicine I take at night, I can always count on being in a very deep sleep all night. As a result, I am able to have, or remember, very vivid, lengthy dreams every night. The dreams I have usually always leave me scratching my head. I have a couple of dream interpretation dictionaries on the shelf because there are some strange things that pop up in my dreams. I still haven't found the meaning behind coming across an orca whale stranded in the parking lot of a hospital that I am rushing into. There are some recurring dreams that I have that I don't have to guess the meaning behind. I quit smoking about 6 years ago and every now and then I'll have a dream where I am smoking. Though in the dream, I have already quit and I know I shouldn't be smoking. There's a feeling of guilt that accompanies the act in the dream. I always wake up feeling very relieved that it was just a dream and my decision to quit is reaffirmed. I find that those dreams usually come at a time when I'm tempted to start up again. There is one recurring dream, however, that I find relevant to Christmas. Every now and then I will dream about waking up on Christmas Eve, only to find that I have missed the entire Christmas season. I've missed all the Christmas music, the television specials, and the general air of anticipation. Now here it is, 4 full days before Christmas and I haven't missed anything 'Christamsy', but how can it possibly be that it is only 4 days until Christmas?! That's the part that baffles me. This entire year has gone by SO fast! It seems like I have been flipping pages on the calendar every other day. This isn't the first time that I have noticed time going by fast. Every Christmas, for me, brings about a sense of "Where has this year gone?". I look at Christmas as an adult as the direct opposite of Christmas as a child. When I was a kid, as I'm sure it is for every kid, Christmas took forever to arrive. Now, the days left can be counted on one hand. I don't think time is going to slow down any time soon though. The next step in my life will be to have children of my own and I'm sure that all parents will agree, time passes by so quickly when you are watching your children grow. So for now, I'm going to do my best to cherish the remaining time that I have before the Christmas music stops being played constantly on the radio and a new year is upon me.

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