04 January, 2007

Spring in January

Full Moon Melting

The last few days the weather has been a balmy +3 degrees - amazing by local standards. We are usually at about -20 this time of year. The other day I asked R, "what if this is actually spring come early?" Of course when I asked it, I was thinking this would be a terrific thing.

He said, "Well, then it's likely that what's remaining of the glacial ice caps will melt and the world will be plunged into a catastrophic environmental disaster."

Hmm. Yes. Damn.

The moon was fantastic last though. A harvest moon in January, gigantic and yellow as it peered up over the treeline. There is a bitter, delicate beauty to this place. Even in the darkness of deep winter. Or maybe especially then.

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01 January, 2007

New Years Is Here and I Feel Fine


And to prove it, here is a photo of me dancing in my livingroom with my puppy. This is actually part of a series of photos that I am going to try to add to called Dancing With... I am really trying to learn how to use the manual functions of my camera and while learning it seems that there are nifty little 'mistakes' to be found along the way. To see all the images in the series thus far, go here.

I survived New Years quite nicely. Generally I stress about New Years because it always feels like there should be something fantastic that happens in and around the stroke of twelve and instead, I always just feel like me (only usually drunk). As the date approaches, if there isn't some wonderful party or dinner or something planned I start to panic as though this is some kind of wickedly important emergency. This year, about two days before, as the bile started welling up my ever tightening throat at the prospects of nothing to do, I made a the crucial decision that I would control my destiny and make my own plans. My plans consisted of eating wonderful bad-for-me food, cuddling on the couch and watching movies. It was about -25 degrees here and instead of freezing my dressed up ass or waiting hours for overpriced cabs, I decided to stay in with those that are important to me and remember that New Years is nothing but an opportunity to reflect, relax and look forward. So, as for resolutions, here's what I've come up with:

1. Take more photographs: Over the next year I would like to learn how to use the functions of my camera in earnest and take the whole thing a bit more seriously. I think I have a good eye and I really love it, yet I refuse to take it a bit seriously. As a first step towards this, today I took out a Flickr Pro account. I also started a set called Photo Per Day 2007 and every single day I am going to try and post something. I am also going to try and post my photo per day here (though it may be a few at a time as opposed to one per day). Today's photo is the dancing photo above. I was a toss up though, between that and this:

Oakie and Finley Mugging for the Camera

2. Be healthier: This is pretty general but I think I've come up with some genuinely tangible ways to achieve this, including:

  • drinking eight to ten glasses H2O per day

  • cutting own to two cans soda per week

  • more fruits and veggies, less yucky fatty things

  • three hours per week fitness

  • one professional massage per month

  • two half hours of meditation twice a week

  • learning some techniques to better deal with stress

  • regular journaling, both online and in private

  • trying to laugh a bit more rather then taking myself too seriously

  • 1 multivitamin per day, every single day

  • Try to avoid public (or private) drunkenness

  • Stop checking and responding to work email at home

  • Vacuum up animal dander and dust around house more often

  • Dance more!

3. Work Goals:


  • Increase attendance at Gallery and sales at Shop

  • Have more fun with job! Spend more time in the galleries and meeting artists!

  • Get national coverage

  • Learn to listen more

  • Allot specific time per week to organize and plan so that things flow more smoothly

  • Find time to be creative

  • Meet colleagues

4. Find more time for creative endeavors: Write more - when I was a child up until my early twenties I loved to write, found time to write. Now, although I still have these great aha! moments where story ideas, or lines run through my head, I have a million and ten excuses to put it off. I am going to try to stick to it this year. Even if in small bits. I would also like to read more, go dancing more often, use my sewing machine more, learn to make clothes, spend time outside exploring my yard, traveling. There are so many exciting things to be doing and I feel like I am missing out on most of them and this year I am determined to change that. The scary thing about all of this is that it likely means less television and I am completely addicted.


5. Appreciate my life more: I am a lucky, lucky girl. I am healthy, I live in a country with an incredibly high standard of life, I am in a career that I love, I have a wonderful employer, my home life is loving and stable, I own my own little house and garden and I have friends that care. Despite all this, I still have this petulant teenager in my head who pipes up "I hate my life!" every time something goes slightly off kilter. I speed through things and am constantly thinking about the thing that is about to happen, completely missing the thing that is currently in front of me. As awfully cliche as it sounds, I need to learn to breathe and appreciate what is all around me and slow down and enjoy it. I will be 29 this year and I want to taste every bit of it. I also want to be more tolerant of the people around me. I know that I am a judger and it is mostly aimed at those I love most. I am also very critical of myself. I want to work on that.


If I can even accomplish 10% of this, 2007 should be a wonderful year. I am so very lucky and really, really grateful for so many things.

I should stay in on New Years Eve more often.


XOXOX

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