Hello, 2017!

Happy New Year, everybody! I have high hopes for 2017, even though 17 is a prime number and I have an irrational dislike for prime numbers. (Judging by the responses to my poll, very few people share this optimism, but then again, I didn't get a statistically-significant sample. (I guess there's no such thing as ex-social-scientist. Ok, enough with the parenthetical remarks!)) In the nine or so hours that it's been 2017 in my time zone, nothing bad has happened yet, so I suppose it's already off to a better start than 2016, at least on a global level. Personally, 2016 was actually a pretty stellar year!

While I know it's something of a cliche to make New Year's resolutions, I've always liked making (if not always keeping) them. Thus, in the spirit of trapping myself through public accountability, I'm going to share a few of mine with you, as well as some photos from our Vegas honeymoon!

1) Shop less and pare down

I have too many clothes. Now, chances are if you're reading this, your reaction was 'no such thing!' But I've actually run out of storage space, and the situation is getting dire and stressful. I need to do some serious closet purging, and going forward, limit myself to only buying things that I absolutely, positively cannot do without. I made some progress with this in the last few months of 2016, but the end-of-year sales were just too good to pass up. From now on, though, I'm resolving not to buy things just because they're on sale. To kick-start better habits, I'm going on a shopping ban until March 1. While I've tried a shopping ban before, it was a miserable failure, so I'm hopeful and determined that this time will be a bit more successful.

2) Appreciate what I have

The time has come for me to be more conscious about looking for the positives in my life. For example, I'm pretty happy with my wardrobe as is, and I need to dwell on that, rather than the new things I want or the things I don't have. So in addition to shopping less, I'll put more effort into remixing the pieces I have, like this charity-shop dress that I wore on our trip to LA and Vegas last month.

Remixed: textured tights, a sparkly purse, a beloved Atomic Lucite brooch, and different glasses!

3) Read more

While I'm a voracious reader (is anyone ever a voracious anything besides 'reader?') and read every day, I'm also a self-confessed creature of habit. Too often, I reread the same books over and over, rather than risking disappointment by trying something new. But there's a world of excellent fiction out there, and it's time I dipped my toe in new waters. If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

4) Play music again

Fun fact: I was band president for three years in high school. I played saxophone in the college symphonic band, but once I started grad school, I just didn't have the time or the practice space to keep on playing. I realized how much I missed playing music when I was at my parents' over Christmas and sat down at the piano for the first time in a couple of years. My sight-reading skills have atrophied and I'm sure I'm terrible now, but I want to get back into playing music. I already have my clarinet in Chicago and a new box of reeds, so I'm resolving here and now to break it out at least once a week and try to regain some of my former glory!

5) Eat consciously

I'm not trying to diet in 2017, nor am I worried about losing weight. For me, this is all about eating things that help me get stronger, so I can continue plaguing Jeff to a ripe old age. What I'm going to do, then, is make more of an effort to bring healthy lunches to work instead of running to the hot-dog cart, and prepare the kind of meals that I think will help me live a longer, healthier life.

6) Make tidying up a part of life

This is going to be hard. I usually wait to put things away until Jeff has asked me very nicely if I could please clear my stuff off of the chair so we can put our feet up again, and there's a major storm a-brewin' atop the futon in the guest room. Since my college roommate is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, I'll have to do a big cleanup of the guest room, but after that, I'd like to make tidying up part of my daily and weekly routine. It's so much more relaxing to live in a tidy space, and I know it would also make Jeff super happy.

7) Save money

I want to visit Wales and go back to Japan. I realized something last week after a night of binge-reading about Wales. For the price of approximately 4 new Trashy Diva dresses, I could have a plane ticket to Wales. For the price of about 10 TD dresses, I could go to Japan. What's stopping me?

8) Keep on blogging!

I've absolutely loved writing this blog, and it's been fun to learn about all the different platforms and techniques involved in blogging. This resolution should be easy to keep, but I'm also going to challenge myself to learn more about blogging and all the techy stuff that still sort of confuses me.

So there you have it: eight New Year's resolutions that I think will make me a happier, less stressed person. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. What's on your personal resolution list?

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