Happy New Year!

And also thanks to everyone for a great Christmas.

I have a few New Year's resolutions:

1) Get in better shape. I bought a heartrate monitor to enhance my workouts and learned that just running half of a 12-minute mile pushes my heartrate to its maximum range. So, I want to improve my cardiovascular fitness and in the process get a bit more toned for Hawaii in March.

2) Improve my complexion. Any time I pick at a blemish, I will put 10 cents in a bank for David to spend as he wishes. I would give a quarter, but when you've got coin-op laundry, quarters are worth a lot more than just 25 cents. David says that resolutions are more effective when there's money attached, and having that little bank by the mirror will remind me.

3) Clean up more. I'm not a naturally tidy person, but just a little bit more effort on a regular basis should make an huge improvement in our home environment. I've made a couple of rules: wash dishes every time I microwave something and devote a minimum 15 minutes a day just to tidying up.

4) Be more conscious of electricity: always turn off lights and unplug my cell-phone charger when it's not in use.

It's hard to change habits, so I might be overextending myself by trying to break three bad ones, but it's worth a shot. Another thing that is more of a necessity than a resolution is to stick to my budget better, since it's about to be tightened. For the duration of my internship my goal is to eat on $40 a week, which is completely manageable with a bit of planning. It will mean a lot of oatmeal and beans and less pudding and frozen veggie burgers, but if that couple in California can live off of $1 a day, I can easily live off $5. I bought an Entertainment book yesterday which has coupons to restaurants and attractions, so I hope that will encourage us to try new things and have more fun. I'd like to make some new friends, but I think that will happen when I go back to school. Ideally, at this point next year I will be well on my way to a real career.

I think that today is going to be unproductive. David has tomorrow off, but I have to work; shouldn't be too busy though. Tomorrow is Michael's last day, so I am going to make him a card and maybe bake him something. He's allergic to dairy so it's an excuse to use one of my vegan cookbooks. I'm also going to work on my Letter of Intent for grad school- it's due in two weeks.