short-term goals

My very short-term goals. I'm going to focus on these fairly exclusively right now.

Job search. I'm searching hard until the right opportunity arises.

Get in contact with old friends. I'm feeling an extreme need to speak to people I haven't talked to in years. I don't know why. I only know that I feel sad I ever lost contact with some of them, so now starts the task of finding them and getting back in touch. Why did I let some of my good friends go? I don't know how to describe or even explain my level of distress over this loss.

Practice my guitar and mandolin. I'm going to start a band someday. I'm going to cut a record. Then you can say that you knew me. Or read my blog or something.

Read a bunch. I made a goal to read a book a week for the year 2006. I'm a little behind -- we're on week 28 and I've only read 24 books. The problem is that I often start books but don't like them enough to finish them. Most of them self-help books (see embarrassing post). So, time to start reading some good fiction. Nancy Pearl, my librarian idol, gave some good ideas on NPR the other morning. If you have any suggestions, let me know. I'm partial to teen & young adult fiction.

Those are the main things right now, besides exercise and eat right. I want to mention that I have made a concerted effort to exercise every day, cook healhty meals EVERY DAY, and even make healthy lunches for John and I. This is exhausting, which is why we used to eat out a lot. We don't anymore. On Saturday, I made two dinners and froze them both. So that helps a little. But for the most part, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen creating healthy masterpieces, and that is time I used to spend elsewhere. Sigh. I just feel extremely nostalgic. I feel like I missed out on something important and it's too late to go back and get it. This attitude is very defeating, because it prevents me from living my life now, and that's a waste. Hopefully this funk will move on down the road relatively soon.