Month: January 2006

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.”

1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before?

Attended a funeral. Went to Atlantic City. I’ll let you decide which was more fun.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

The archives say that I did. Did I keep to them? Well…probably not, and nowhere as much as I should have done. I started getting together with friends to write, which was a step in the right direction. And I started exercising, albeit closer to the end of 2005 than throughout it. I’m in a good place, I think, to renew these resolutions and stick to them, to work on small but achievable goals. To that end, I’m going to write for no less than one hour every day; I’m going to start submitting things I’ve written for publication; and I’m going to work at being maybe forty pounds lighter by 2007. Those are my resolutions. An hour’s not too much to ask; I have things I can submit or rework; and I’m talking about less than three and a half pounds a month. I’m not trying to move mountains, just push away a couple of bothersome rocks.

Oh, and I’d also like to keep in better touch with the people I know.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not that I know of. One of our neighbor’s daughters is apparently pregnant, but that’s it.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Both of my surviving grandparents, my father’s parents. My grandfather passed away very suddenly at 92 in March. My grandmother, who had been much more ill and in slow decline — and who had been placed in a nursing home just a few months before my grandfather passed — died herself in October, shortly after her 85th birthday.

5. What countries did you visit?

None but this one. Although, it’s getting to seem like another country every day, under our current administration. The only travelling I did was to Maryland last January for my sister’s college graduation and to Atlantic City in December for a statistics conference.

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?

Stories published under my byline.

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Days, but not the dates specifically. What most sticks out are the two wakes and two funerals, only half a year apart. But I’m not dreading the anniversaries of those events, so much as I’m simply hoping I won’t have to go through anything similar this year.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I read almost twice as many books as I did last year. (I’m going to try to double that this year.) I started to get the hang of my job. (Which I’d only had about two months at the start of 2005.) I lost maybe 15-20 pounds. I brought new members into a local social recreation group when I took over as moderator this summer. I finally got that intermittent starting problem fixed on my car.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I didn’t write nearly often enough

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Not really. I tend not to get very sick. In 2001 I had strep throat, and I think I had a mild case of food poisoning in March of 2004. I had colds and sore throats, and I have a very small scar on my right ring finger where I cut myself on a metal drawer. But that’s pretty much it.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Possibly my cell phone.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Too many DVDs, that’s for sure. (I was going to post a list, but it’s a little long.) Monthly cell phone charges, car insurance, train tickets. Daily lunch.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Seeing Serenity was pretty cool, but it’s mostly the holidays and New Year itself that I’ve been looking forward to.

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?

There’s no one in particular. In fact, it would probably be more like a many-CD mix. And you know, haven’t I done that sort of thing often enough?