Season of Uggs

Tis that season for wearing Uggs on my feet every day and for saying "Ugg" every time I go outside (come on, it's punny!)

Colorado was supposed to have a mild Winter this year, according to Farmer's Almanac, but so much for that.

I was thinking this morning about my last year's resolutions and how I did. I am a big fan of making them but not very stringent about following through on them. The point is trying, right? Maybe?

The resolution about going to the gym 3 times a week just never happens - maybe that's why my resolutions are always written in pencil.

The resolution about arguing less with Chris gets an A for effort and a C for execution. Try again next year.

I did really good on my resolution to stop talking on the cell phone in the car. I'd say I've given up answering the cell in the car at least 95% of the time and I rarely make calls. I wish more people would make this resolution.

Another resolution was to cut back on Road Rage. I've tremendously improved on being angry at other drivers. It's really hard to break the habit, especially when other people are in the car with you and they're angry, but I would say I've learned to stop even having angry thoughts about drivers who do stupid things at least 80% of the time.

This year's resolutions are repeats of those I didn't do so well on last year, and I'm adding a few more.

1. To bring my LL Bean canvas bags into the grocery store with me, bag my own damn groceries, and eliminate those pointless super-thin plastic bags once and for all.

2. To make eye contact with people, especially strangers (a major weakness).

3. To make coffee at home most mornings, since I got an espresso pot for Christmas and I am so particular about the way it's made anyway.

4. Inspired by Tim Ferriss' theories in lifestyle design, to "stop inventing things to do to avoid the important". That one is probably the hardest goal of all, and it may take me 5 years to even get to a B+ but I'm going to try and make it a mantra.

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Other updates... over the holidays I read Shirley MacLaine's book Sage-ing while Age-ing because admittedly I wanted to know what all the fuss was about with her reputation of being nuts, and I surprisingly agree with a lot of her theories on the universe, as "out there" as they may seem at first. I'd highly recommend the read, if you can keep an open mind.

Music I am into these days continues to be modern folk / acoustic soul stuff; the mellower of which is Sara Bareilles, The Pierces, Amos Lee, Into the Wild soundtrack, anything produced by T-Bone Burnett, and the edgier of which includes Neko Case, Brandi Carlisle, Nada Surf, Mike Doughty, and a lot of Scottish stuff for some reason. It's going to be a little harder to stay in touch with new music this year because my office has virtually banned streaming radio stations including Pandora, Finetune, and AOL New Albums Preview (noooooo!) but I am trying to be cool about it. Trying.

This year's holiday season for me was enlightened by food and family, although I'm getting better about choices (food, not family - check out this restaurant resource) Still, Mom's snickerdoodles and gingermen, Chris' dad's homemade chicken nuggets, and my mom's carry-on gift of 2 loaves of Beckman's 9 Grain Sourdough bread all just made my year. I really need to just live in Santa Cruz.

I must be getting a little more domesticated these days, because I actually bought myself 2 cookbooks and a food processor in the after-Christmas sales. My favorite gifts from others were the afore-mentioned espresso maker, and some VERY cool unexpected Billabong fingertip-less gloves (is there a name for those?) that my sister picked out and are SO me, I can't even believe it. I couldn't find a picture but this is the yarn design (left)

Hope you got what you wanted in 2007 and continue to go for what you want in the new year. Cheers and keep in touch soon! larasue