Ah, New Year's Resolutions

I haven't spent much time thinking about my New Year's resolutions (yet), but I do think I should make some. 2008 was an important year for me, most notably career-wise, but I feel like it ended on a more lazy note than I would've liked it to. So I'll grant myself one more chill weekend and then get back to it. You heard it here.

What do I want to accomplish in 2009? The usual for me, I guess. Do more of the following: reading, cooking (improving chopping skills, in particular), learning about everything (right now it's economics), listening to interesting music, watching interesting films, practicing yoga, throwing dinner parties, exploring restaurants, promoting worthy causes, flossing, stream-of-consciousness writing. Do less of the following: sleeping, slouching, watching Gossip Girl, staring at the computer screen, complaining, mumbling. Oh yes, and post on this blog more often.

I have a bit of a head start on the list—I just finished a sort of oddball collection of short stories called No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July, a Christmas gift from my sister. It really captures feelings of loneliness and longing, and even though some of the characters are hard to like (and more screwed up than is comfortable to read about), the writing is honest and whimsical. I also liked, strangely, that none of the dialogue was in quotations. 

I've also been watching the PBS series Spain...On The Road Again with Gwyneth Paltrow, Mario Batali, Mark Bittman and Claudia Bassols. I'm a huge Bittman fan (his blog is one of my daily reads and his cookbook How To Cook Everything Vegetarian is one of my indispensable kitchen resources), and this series not only increases my fondness for the guy, but also makes me really want to go to Spain and eat lots of seafood. That might not happen until at least 2010, though, so I'll just stick to my slightly more realistic goal of returning to NYC this spring. To compensate, I've already tracked down a delicious sounding Spanish restaurant. 

Happy 2009!