1. Most important resolution is to take better care of myself. This past semester I've been sick constantly, headaches all over the place, and even now that I've been asleep for a week, I have a nasty ear infection and a lingering sore head. So I need to find where I put my new glasses prescription so I can get a pair when I go back to Texas...
2. Improve my appearance. This actually plays into resolution #1, because all of my friends (including my friends in med school) are concerned with how badly my body has been reacting to grad school stress, and have all roundly informed me working on my novels is NOT in fact a proper break from work. Therefore, spending extra time blow-drying my hair, keeping my nails healthy, and moisturizing my poor, chapped skin is not only going to improve my appearance but also constitute an actual daily mental break from the grind.
3. Go to the damn gym. (See resolutions 1 and 2.) I actually miss going to the gym like crazy, but last semester was a weed-out semester and I'm still feeling the aftereffects...there was no way I could've managed the gym on top of everything else I was doing. This semester, I'm going to make time. Somehow.
4. Severely reduce bread and rice intake. I'm going to stop making homemade bread (sigh) and cut back on rice as completely as possible INCLUDING when I eat out. (Triple sigh.) I refuse to give up pasta though, because it's in the Geneva Convention on Torture that stopping someone from giving up all three of the Golden Triad of Carbohydrate Deliciousness renders them mentally unstable and not responsible for their actions thereafter.
5. Stop reading the comments. The comments always suck. They're always bitter, unkind people who think "trolling" is okay because "it's just the internet". Since I can't wave a magic wand and make their hateful words stick to themselves in the real world to teach them a lesson about the pervasiveness of hatred and negativity, I will simply stop reading the comments. After all, all a troll wants is an audience right?
6. Stop swearing. (This is a long-term process, I'm okay with that.)
7. Try to watch a movie (a new one?) every week. I have 127 movies on my Netflix queue right now. You think I'm joking. In addition to that, I have nearly 40 movies on DVD that I've never watched. I have to start chipping away at the mountain!
8. Floss more carefully. Today I went to the dentist and came out with ZERO CAVITIES for the first time in YEARS. I attribute this to two things: adopting the rather disgusting habit of flossing while I watch late-night tv, and giving up candy almost entirely. My dentist said I've been doing a good job but there are a couple molars that I need to floss more deeply on (I have a small mouth and big hands) so I'm going to try and focus on those.
9. Write my novels every chance I get. (And continue to try and get them published.) I don't know how much time I'll have...but I'll give what I can.
10. Enjoy grad school as much as possible. Grad school SUCKS, just so you know. You're tired, overworked, paid just enough so you can ALMOST scrape by with your parents' help, constantly applying for grants and fellowships and gnawing off your fingernails waiting to hear back (or not), you can't even READ papers because all you do is skim them for vital facts and citations before moving on to the next one...trust me, I could go on. But there are good things. I love my classmates, and my professors, and I love learning everything I'm learning and the incredible opportunities that can come my way if I just work hard enough to get travel funding for them. So I'm going to try and cling to the positive bits and push through the negative bits.
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