Happy Birthday 2010!

To resolve or not to resolve, that is the question.

I've been pondering this question for weeks. I've had long lists of ideas for resolutions for the new year. Unfortunately, I can't remember most of them now. The two that are still floating around in my head are:
1. Write letters to friends/sisters at least one Sunday a month . . . more often after I finish student teaching. This was a dear tradition I started early in the almost past decade. I loved spending Sunday mornings drinking coffee, eating pastries, listening to soothing music, writing letters, and chatting with the other regulars. Cafe La France is something else now, but as far as I know, Bristol, Rhode Island is still the most patriotic city in the U.S.

2. Eat LOCAL foods. Not too much. Mostly plants. I've been inspired by Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan this year. I stumbled upon Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle this summer at an awesome new book store in Portage, Books 'n Beans, and life hasn't been the same since. Then, while Christmas shopping, I saw a copy of Michael Pollan's book that stirred up quite a bit of controversy on the UW-Madison campus this fall - In Defense of Food - and couldn't resist supporting my local book store. I would love to start the new decade with a new outlook on food. Part of this resolution definitely involves joining a CSA, which Michael and I have already agreed to do. It might also have to involve gardening, which is less exciting, because I don't really think I have an aptitude for caring for plants, but teaching seems like a good match for gardening, except for the fact that my first harvest will (hopefully) fall during my first semester of teaching in my very own classroom. But both the gardening and the teaching will only get easier, and it might be nice to have an outlet during the early part of the school year. Particularly if that outlet can help to feed us all winter!

I'm really not sure what the rest of my resolutions were going to be. Probably something about being less stressed and more relaxed, getting more exercise, keeping my house cleaner, and being more productive in general, being more positive, networking in the teaching field, etc.

I may make a resolution to read at least a page or two of a book for FUN every night before going to bed. That would be a good stress reliever for the last three weeks of student teaching, and Michael and I still have a gift card to spend at Barnes and Noble, and I've promised myself a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma. (I'd get it at Books 'n Beans, but she mostly stocks only newly released books or used books, and I did not see it on the used book shelf when I was in there last week.)

But the question remains when I start getting into long lists of resolutions . . . should I make a bunch of them, and fail to keep them all, or should I just make one, and really concentrate on it? I don't think I have to worry about the local food resolution, because I'm excited enough about it to keep it up without actually having to make a resolution to do it . . .

Well, I have 52 minutes left to ponder . . .

In the meantime, I'm still working on a best of/worst of list for the 2000s . . . stay tuned.