It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged...

..that come the end of the year, the subject of "New Year's Resolutions" pops up on most people's minds.

Having received my new Moleskine in the mail (as part of a birthday gift from The Aussie, the package containing THE J.Crew dress and other sundries came, and the dress FITS! Might wear it for New Year party on the 29th at El Coyote) I began to input little memos and reminders, important dates and such for the beginning of 2008. Things like, "Pay rent," "Pay Health Insurance," "Deposit of stipend", and more fun things like "AUSTRALIA! 1/27-2/7."

I also began to put post-its in my Moleskine. I am trying to downgrade from my humoungous planner (that and the refills are too expensive in Japan) so I needed some sort of system for writing random notes. Moleskine's have the "notes pages" in the back, but I want to keep things neat, and re-usable. Hence the post-its.

On one post-it (yellow and pink striped, very cute) I put down my New Year's Resolutions for 2008. In retrospect, I am trying to think of them more as goals as opposed to a resolution because resolutions, in my opinion indicate that there is something wrong and needs to be fixed. I want to accomplish things.

1. Clear American Express card (damn the grad school application fees).
2. Stick to a monthly budget of ONLY $50 for knitting a month (hmm, if I don't spend that, let's let it roll over, no?).
3. NO KNITTING ADD! (Meaning, finish a batch of projects before you start the next group)
4. Eat healthier (which translates to: become a better cook).
5. Learn how to drive (My permit expired. Pathetic, I know).
6. Lose 15 pounds before I get my wedding dress/start grad school (about the same time- September - I've lost 4 already).
7. Get a job for Spring/Summer '08.
8. BUDGET. Stick to it.
9. Try not to panic/experience anxiety.
10. Get into grad school (of course this one is out of my hands, but I tried).
11. Plan wedding with as little stress as possible.
12. Do not buy stupid and useless things (this is ESPECIALLY the case in Japan where amazing, but useless things are right and left).
13. Pass Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2.
14. Enjoy life.

This post-it is on the front cover of my Moleskine, so that I am always reminded of my goals for the year. Looking at it, they are all inter-related: sticking to number 3 means that number 2 will be accomplished (finish all projects, then get yarn for next means I will try not to have impulse buys on yarn, and if I roll over, then I can save for pretty yarn for a luxe project), as well as 8. Numbers 9, 11, 12 and 14 are really important to me, given the past few months with my semi-quasi "quarter-life crisis" and applying to zoo that was applying to grad school.

Number 14 is a constant work-in-progress, as I did enjoy my life in Japan. When we were discussing my return, my mom said "Of course it will be hard [to come back], Japan is your home, too."