2010: the wish list

Instead of making resolutions or choosing a theme for the year, here's a selection from my Wish List, things I'd like to do or get or have in the coming year. Some items are realistic; others seem not to be, but who knows?

A good cat-sitter: someone who can get the picky eaters to eat while keeping the hogs from over-eating, and who can manage all the medicating.

Basement Cat fully integrated into the household, playing and cuddling with the other cats, not beating up on them, not having to be isolated when we're out or asleep for fear of mayhem.

No injuries!

Complete healing of old ankle injury; the ability to run again; specifically, to put in 8-10 miles a week.

Swim 3 miles a week (I'm at around 1 1/2 miles now).

Be able to ride a real bicycle, at least around town for errands (there's a long history of injuries and fragility here that I'm not going to go into, but a long time ago I was a really avid cyclist, and for years I have missed the feeling of cycling).

Do yoga and sit every day.

Steady research habits: at least 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, on reading, writing, and other research-y things. I'm not sure if this means self-discipline or playfulness or obsession with a project, or a combination of all of these. But every day makes a big difference in avoiding start-up costs in getting re-acquainted with a project, and a 2-hour chunk is enough to make real progress.

I'd like to finish a whole lot of things I've started. I have a bad habit of feeling over-ambitious about how long it will take to write something, committing to a conference paper or similar on something new, leaving the old thing to do the new one, rinse and repeat while the old stuff gets stale. So, find a way to re-shinify the old things, or just get dogged about applying seat of pants to seat of chair until the old ones are done. (This also applies to some sewing and other handwork.)

See something I've written actually in print!

Visit France.

Visit California, and friends there.

Make some new friends. Meet some local bloggers. Find people in my field (or at least, closer to it than people in my official university-sponsored writing group) with whom to exchange rough drafts (and intermediate drafts, and isn't-it-finished-yet drafts . . . . ).

Re-do my garden: it's very small, and it's getting overgrown with hostas and day lilies and iris, all lovely, but really too much for a space little more than 100 square feet. The big plants need to move to suburban homes with big yards. I want to intersperse vegetables and smaller flowers: rainbow chard in place of hostas, for instance, a tomato plant balancing a clematis, and so on.

Save more.

But also: spend money on things that I will really enjoy and be happy to remember, instead of being frugal and then regretting that I missed something. Life is short.

Happy New Year to my readers, and may your 2010 wishes come true!