2. Finish the Hourglass Sweater - Totally finished it in August. I ended up reknitting from the armholes up about 6 times because there was an error in the pattern, I ran out of yarn, I'm insane, I'm an idiot, and finally I got it right and it rocks. It is one of my favorite sweaters and I think it looks really good on me.
5. Save $25/month for retirement - Also doing well on this one. I've been saving at least $50 every month and putting away any extra that comes my way from gigs and stuff. I have $1400 in my no-touch savings account, and more than that in more accessible accounts.
6. Clean out e-mail box - I did this a few months ago, but with my computer crashing, it's gotten a little out of hand. I plan to do this again when I return from vacation.
9. Clean my car inside and out - Yup, did this one too, probably should do it again. I think I'll wait until the weather gets warm. I have to eat in my car WAY too often.
10. Finish Grasshopper socks- Did this too. Not my favorite pair to knit, but I LOVE the yarn and they are comfy.
11. Take a vacation to two new places: I went to Las Vegas with my cousin Shannon and had an awesome time and then I went to Florida and Universal Studios on my own for a week last summer. It is so much fun to plan my own trip and just go!
12. Learn to Spin - Not only did I learn to spin, but I also ended up buying a Lendrum DT. I'm really enjoying it, so I'm going to revise this goal for next year to going to a spinning workshop or class to learn more.
16. Read 35 new books - I've definitely accomplished this, although I didn't keep track of them all....
22. Cleaning Schedule - yup, I've got it. It's called the Saturday Night Mad Dash and it involves an exhausted Natalie running around cleaning so her students on Sunday morning don't think she's a slob. I've also implemented 30 minute/day cleaning time which usually lessens the insanity of the the Saturday Night Mad Dash, but doesn't always happen.
26. Read all unread fiction before purchasing any new- This was designed to help eliminate some of the unnecessary purchases I have been making to free up income and help me eliminate my debt. I've been much better and I did renew my library membership, which is now awesome because of the CPL's new website and being able to request things to be held at the library of my choice.
27. Reorganize closet and put extra clothes in storage- Yup, bought some big rubbermaid containers and put clothes in the basement. I still feel like I'm running out of space in my teeny tiny apartment, which is pushing me to think about buying a condo. I want to take advantage of the crappy housing market and perhaps get a great deal. Don't worry, I'm being very careful and thinking everything through.
30. I have health insurance - It isn't great with the $5000 deductible, but it's MUCH better than nothing. I also think that my employer may be considering opening up the company health plan to all employees and having the fee structure adjusted so that if you are only part-time like me you end up paying a lot, but at least this way I would actually have healthcare.
32. 10 pairs of socks - I'm at 6 pairs at this point, but 4 of them were gifts, so I'm not sure if that counts!
37. Pawn engagement ring - Yup, did this too with no regrets... well, maybe only that I didn't get more money for it, but at that point I just wanted it gone and I put the proceeds in my savings and will be using it for a downpayment on a condo.
46. Go to the opera - I bought season ticket's for this year and I LOVE IT! I see shows I wouldn't otherwise go see and hear music I probably would have skipped over if I was purchasing tickets individually.
55. Shampoo rug - yup, and bought a rug cleaning apparatus so this is much easier. This probably seems like a silly resolution, but the rug is the focal point of my home and also where pretty much everything happens. It gets a lot of wear and tear and also gets dirty really quickly. It was a good investment.
62. Take an audition - I did take an audition this year for a reasonably good symphony that paid well. It was an assistant principal spot and I didn't get the job, but I thought I played okay and I got called about 2 weeks later to sub, so I probably did okay. I really enjoyed playing with an orchestra again.
63. Finish 50 knitting projects - well, I haven't finished 50 yet, but I'm on my way and I still have 637 days. Right now, I've completed 3 pairs of gift socks, pedicure socks, dad's tie, my hat, grasshopper socks, Marie's blanket squares, Obama Socks, and Hourglass sweater...so 10/50 so far.
65. Go to the Dentist - This one ended up being a major ordeal. I needed almost $2000 worth of dental work to fix a broken tooth and failed root canal. I had to have major oral surgery and get a crown. All in all, not fun to have done and REALLY not fun to pay for.
66 & 67. Get cello adjusted and new strings - I've been very good about taking care of my cello and just had it in recently for a winter set up adjustment.
71. Buy a new laptop - over Thanksgiving of this year, I had to get a new laptop as my old one was practically starting to smoke and wheeze. I'm still getting it set up, but I'm really happy with it so far. It's pink!
73. Became irrelevant after my dad found my old one---finally! Didn't stop my camera battery from dying election night when I was in grant park!!! Major Nay! which brings me to #76
76. Attend a rally or protest - I got really involved with the presidential election and working on Obama's campaign. I went to two rally's and was one of the fortunate few who got tickets to the election night event in Grant Park! It was awesome and goes down as one of the highlights of my year.
77. Get a blackberry - well, actually I got a T-mobile wing, but it was a phone upgrade no less. Of course, now I am lusting after either an iphone or the new google phone.
82. Yup, blogging.
84. Vote. Not only did I vote, but I worked my butt off to get Obama elected. YAY!!!!
85. Do my taxes - I hired an accountant to do my 2007 taxes because I had so many questions, but I was really disappointed with some aspects. First, he was ridiculously expensive and he made some major errors that I found when going through the tax forms he prepared for me. It changed my liability from $800 to $100. BIG DIFFERENCE! I finally sent him a letter telling him his services were no longer needed. I will be doing my own taxes this year.
93. Increase studio size to 50 - Yup, I'm swamped at this point and frequently have a waiting list. I also helped my friends Alex and Liz get jobs in the same school district since there are plenty of students to go around.
Well, that's all I've done this year. 32/101 accomplished this year. That's not bad.
Looking ahead for this next year I've got a few new goals...
I want to get in much better shape. Ideally I'd like to lose a lot of weight, but at this point I think I'm just going to focus on being healthier and getting in shape - improving my cardiovascular health, a lower resting heart rate is an easy way to monitor this, endurance, flexibility, and eating more veggies and a balanced diet. I don't take enough time for myself and it shows. I thin the weight loss will follow and that will be a very good thing.
I'm a bridesmaid in 3 weddings this year and so I'm resolving to not become a bitter cranky single person. I'm generally very happy with myself, but weddings are always tough because it makes me wonder if I'm missing out on something... do they know something I don't?
Deal with my anxiety issues. I have recently had some major anxiety attacks and I worry that I may have an anxiety disorder. Actually, I'm pretty certain that I do because I have had an unhealthy and irrational amount of anxiety my whole life. There's a pretty big stigma attached to this and people don't seem to get it when I talk to them. I think they assume because I'm high functioning and successful that I don't have problems. Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that I have way more anxiety and anxiety over stupid things than a normal person. I should deal with this in some way.
Keep working on my financial soundness. I will be taking a close look and analysis at my financial picture while working on my taxes this year. I specifically want to understand how much debt reduction has taken place this year. This economy sucks and I want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to keep myself afloat.
Plan a new vacation of some kind. It will probably have to be very small - I'd love it if I could do SOAR or the Sock Summit retreat so I could combine my vacation with my interests and learn some new things, but with my brother having a baby and my mom being all enthused with a week long stay on Beaver Island and 3 weddings (one in Minneapolis, one in New Hampshire and one in Michigan) it is going to be a lot of running around. I don't really think I'm going to be able to take much vacation time this year and that is a bummer. Maybe I'll just save my money this year and do nothing and plan on taking a bigger vacation the following summer. I really want to do some more international travel again, but I need to be realist financially.
That is all. See you again next New Year's Eve or sooner :)
