It's been a while....

It's been close to two years since the last time I posted anything on this blog.  Can you say lack of staying power and follow through?  I've tried keeping a diary/journal many times before and could never stick with it, so I shouldn't be surprised that I let the blog fall by the wayside as well.  A lot has happened since my last post.  A job promotion, an engagement and a wedding.  I probably should have been posting all my wedding planning experiences, but too late for that now.

My new idea for this blog is to post reviews of books I've read.  I hope I can stick with it and not fall into the old pattern of losing interest after several days/weeks/months.  Keep your fingers crossed and come back to call me out and keep me honest, if I let my posts slide.

I've decided to change the background design of the blog as well.  I liked the "rain on the window" look, since there is nothing better on a rainy day than sitting inside and reading a good book.

A New Year and a New Start

I realize that it's January 6th already, so I'm a little late on my New Year's resolutions, but better late than never. I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me even a little, since I'm a procrastinator.

So, here we go. In 2009, I resolve to:

1) Spend less money. One of the things I need to limit is how much make-up I buy. I have so many MAC eye shadows that I could probably open my own store. So I'm going to start using up the things I already have, before I buy more new things.

I also need to buy fewer books.  I should read the stacks I already have, ones I purchased for myself and some loaned to me by other people.  And then there is that new thing called the library.  I think if I tracked how much money I spend on books, I would be really surprised.

Yesterday I ordered some snowshoes from REI, so I kind took a small step backwards on this one. But when they come in, my best friend and I will be able to go snowshoeing together.

Maybe what I need is a software program to track my spending and gasp, an actual budget?

2) Eat Better. My eating habits for the last few months have been awful, to say the least, so I really need to work on that. I need to limit my consumption of chocolate, chips and other junk food. The last couple days I've started taking fruit to work, so I'm trying to get on the right track.

3) Exercise More. Yes, I know everyone says the same thing when the New Year rolls around. I used to be fairly disciplined about my workout routine and then last summer/fall I just lost motivation. Part of the reason was that things were really busy at work and I wasn't feeling well a lot of the time. But I wonder if maybe I wasn't just burned out. Unfortunately, instead of just reducing my work out schedule, I fell of the wagon completely.

4) Lose Weight. Another goal that many people pick as their resolution. I'm hoping that if I keep up with #2 and #3, then this one will follow. In October 2008, my employer offered Weight Watchers at Work, so I decided to join. Over the next several months, I lost about 20 lbs. Unfortunately, now those same 2o lbs are back and nothing would make me happier than to lose them again, and then hopefully continue on.

5) Use My New Kitchen More. Last spring, I completely remodeled my kitchen. Believe me, it needed to be done, since it was probably almost as old as I am. Now the kitchen is nice and shiny and new and I need to start cooking in it more often.

6) Clean Up/Out the Basement. This will probably take all year. There are still boxes that I haven't unpacked from when I moved in almost 2 years ago. Things that the previous owner left behind (my sister). I'm pretty sure that my brother left some of his stuff behind as well. There are also some clothes that I need to go through that will need to be donated to charity. I've been meaning to do all that for a while, but time always gets away from me.

Well, there' s no time like the present, so I'd better get started on my resolutions and keep notes to myself, and to you, about my progress. I'm hopeful that when I read this on December 31, I'll be able to say that I accomplished all 6 things. I realize someone can say that I should have made my goals measurable, like saving X amount of $, working out a certain number of times a week, when I'm going to be done with the basement, but I'm just not that committed. And maybe that's my problem.

Write it down...

Yes, I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything. Things were crazy at work for a while, for a long time really, then the holidays came, and I just sort of lost interest. But I figured that the New Year is the perfect opportunity to start it up again. Unfortunately, it took me forever it even sign in.

When I created this blog, I created a new gmail email account and I don't believe I wrote it down anywhere. If I did, I have no idea where I put it, so it took me forever to figure out what my username and password was. Those stupid characters they have you type in when you forget your password are awful, they run together and are completely illegible. Or is it just me? I'm glad I didn't have anything to drink before I tried to decipher them, otherwise I might have gone over the edge.

Note to self, when you create a new account and password for something, write it down and put it someplace you'll be able to find it when you need it.

One Letter

Sometimes we take for granted how much of a difference one letter can make. A friend of mine sent out a message today about this urban race that's supposed to take place in Chicago this October. She suggested that a group of us do it as a relay team, and it sounded like it could be fun, so I decided to go on the website to check it out. I launched the link that came with the message, expecting to see information on registration fees, start times, total race and individual leg distances and obstacle descriptions. Imagine my surprise when instead I found links to information about premature ejaculation, male menopause, prostate disease and male enhancements. I'm not saying these aren't important topics, just not what I expected to find.

After a little email traffic and doing a Google search instead of going to the website directly, I was able to find what I was looking for. It turns out that the original link to the website was missing one letter. One little letter was the cause of all this confusion. Thankfully, there wasn't anything really bad on that first website, since I went to it using my work computer - that will teach me.

We'll have to see about the race. It looks like fun, but I'm not so sure about the obstacles. They include a tire obstacle, monkey bars, marine hurdles, stair climb (inside Soldier Field), the taxi hurdle and the wall. The are time penalties if you don't complete some of them in a certain number of tries. I have no upper body strength and am afraid of heights on top of it (pun intended), so I'm afraid I may be useless in this particular challenge.

What do you think? Should I go ahead and try it anyway? It's not like I haven't done crazy things before. This would be par for the course.

What's in a name

I have another reason for calling my blog "Note To Self", besides it being my so called catchphrase. If no one reads this thing, it may literally end up being a bunch of notes I'm writing to myself. How embarrassing would it be if no one wants to read it? So far I only gave one person the URL and I'm debating whether or not I'm going to post the link on Facebook. I'm going to give her a chance to read the first post and give me her honest feedback. If she thinks it's awful, it may stay our little secret. We made an honesty pact, to be truthful with each other about our blogs. So far, hers have been really good, so I'm waiting to hear what she thinks about my first attempt. Hopefully my Notes To Self will reach a slightly wider audience. My ambitious goal would be to have 5 people admit they've actually read it. Do you think I'm aiming too low? What should my goal be? It feels like I'm running one of those telethons; please call, operators are standing by. Or in this case, please click, we're here 24/7 and your comments are welcome.

If I had spent a little more time figuring out how this website works, I would have caught on to the fact that I could go back to my first post and simply edit it to include what's in this post-that would have made more sense. But it's late, or early, depending on your perspective, and my brain just isn't functioning that well. And so I got 2 posts out of it, but I learned something for future use. Sometimes I can be rather flaky, which you'll no doubt discover if you'll take the time to read these notes I write to myself.

P.S. If you ever have the opportunity to see my cubicle at work, it's covered with post-it notes full of reminders of things I need to do. Post-its are on the actual desktop, on the edge of the monitor, on papers tacked up to the walls, etc. So it turns out that the name of my blog may be even more appropriate than I originally thought. I don't know what I would do without post-its, though!

Beginnings and Catchphrases

I really didn't start out with the intent to write a blog. But my BFF started one yesterday and we were talking about it after dinner tonight, well last night actually, since it is 12:44 am. She said she wasn't sure she could come up with 365 things to say, to which I replied that sure she could, since interesting things happen to her all the time, but I definitely couldn't see myself with enough interesting stuff to write about. Good friend that she is, she said that of course I could come up with enough good material and I should start a blog too.

So I thought about it on the drive home and decided, why not give it a try. But what do I call this new adventure of mine? My first thought was Copycat, since I was following in my friend's footsteps, and if you know anything about the two of us, that happens all the time. She will do something first, register for a race, get a new purse, or new make-up and then I will come along and shamelessly copy what she's done. But then I thought about it a little more and decided that Copycat just didn't sound quite right-not the impression I wanted to give people.

And that's where Note To Self came in. If you talk to me for any length of time, you will hear me say it, probably a lot, most likely more than you care to. It is what I call my "catchphrase". It wasn't intentional, I didn't set out to coin a phrase that would make me appear "cool" or set me apart from everyone or anyone else. To be honest, I don't even remember how or when it started, all of a sudden I was just using it. It drives some people crazy when I say it, so I try to make a conscious effort not to overuse it, but sometimes I just can't help it. The aforementioned BFF even gave me a bottle of nail polish from OPI called Note to Self. She said she couldn't pass it up when she saw it, since I say it so much. I haven't used that nail polish in a while, so I think I'll put it on this weekend for the baseball game.

What's your catchphrase? Maybe you have one and you know it. But maybe you use one without being aware of it, so talk to the people around you and see if they can point out something you aren't aware of.