Ceeee-le-brate good times, come on!

I hope you sang the title out loud! Ok, maybe not out loud, but did you at least give it a little hum, head bop, or shoulder shimmy? I did a shoulder shimmy. Of course, I knew what I was writing, so I shimmied and wrote. At the same time. Whatever, back to the matter at hand. Celebrations. Today, I am giving a nod to my blog. Or, as it were, a very tiny nod to my very tiny blog.

For any confused readers (probably most of you)...my blogiversary came and went without recognition. Oops! I actually didn't think of it at all until today, over three weeks late. But realistically, I don't have too much to celebrate, right?

WRONG!

Though my first thought was to let the seemingly insignificant date pass by without acknowledgment, I reconsidered. What would my attempt at blogging amount to if it weren't acknowledged? Small successes are still successes, right? Maybe I didn't write as much as I'd hoped in the beginning of the year, but I wrote. Maybe I didn't find a central topic around which to focus my writing, but I wrote. And, maybe I didn't make much sense to anyone who was forced to read my blog while I stood over their shoulder stumbled upon my site, but I wrote. Are you getting my point? I wrote, dammit. And even if it wasn't to the degree I imagined, it's definitely something to build on. In that spirit, I've created a list (imagine that) to keep me pumped about my teeny tiny progress. Enjoy.

1. I am still blogging (however infrequently).
2. I posted 16 times last year. (Don't laugh! It's better than one. Or none.)
3. I am happy about the variety of moods/themes in posts. That is to say I feel like there's a good mix of "this-is-what's-going-on-in-my-life" posts sprinkled with "I'm-a-goofball-and-this-is-totally random" and "I-am-very-serious-about-this-so-take-this-seriously" posts.
4. I actually have followers. Granted, not very many. But they're there! So thank you Mary, Adagui, and Mandi! Muah!!

Now comes the fun part. The extra encouraging part. GOALS. I don't have any new year's resolutions to speak of, but I do have goals. And what better way to share my goals for blog than like this:

Number One: WRITE MORE! That's the most obvious and most important goal. I'm tempted not to tell you my ideal number of blogs per week, but it might help me get off my ass and contribute to my own project. So here goes. Three. Three times per week. That would be ideal. Here's the thing though, for someone who didn't even write much more than once per month on average, I feel like three times per week is lofty. Very, very lofty. However, two posts per week doesn't sound crazy. So that's what I'm settling on. That's my goal. Let's see how I do. ;)

Number Two: By the end of the year, find a focus (not the car, just got rid of that) for the content of my blog. That's the one I'll need the most luck on. Even more than frequency, I'd bet.

and Number Three (because I think 3 sounds like a good number for this sort of list): Improve my writing skills. I have an idea that writing with more frequency will inevitably enhance my writing. So here's hoping #1 helps with #3!

And because I've included no pictures in the post thus far...

because, well, it's a celebration!

and this is just because I like these boots. =)

Cheers!

NYC: checking in

I have officially walked and walked and walked for hours in NYC. Sadly, I have very little to show for it. I hiked 60-70 blocks, I think. Maybe a bit more? Either way, as much as I walked, I covered only a tiny little speck of Manhattan. Still great to get out and explore. People watch. Learn how to cross the street! Seriously, it's very intimidating. I mean, I know there's the little guy who lights up when it's your turn to cross (just like everywhere else) But people seem to cross the street whenever as long as no one is coming. That's all well and good...except for the intersections where there are essentially eight lanes of traffic (N/S/E/W are all separated by medians on the bigger streets) and someone is always turning, and honking, and confusing me! It's quite crazy.

When I got around to Little Italy I wandered into Landmark Diner for a California Omlette. So, so so good! It came with home fries and toast and was way too much food for one person! But it was perfect, all the same.

Back to the present. I am in GC's apartment, writing and watching/listening to General Hospital–relaxing before venturing back out in the cold. The ambient noise provided by all the big trucks, honking taxis, ambulance sirens and shouting pedestrians is actually quite...nice. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to live here.