This year, I resolve...

I'm not good at New Year's resolutions, although, like everyone else who fails miserably at keeping them, I always have the best intentions. Case in point: two or three years ago, one of my resolutions was to start bring reusable grocery bags to the store. Two or three years later, I have several of them hanging on my front door knob that never even make it to my car, let alone further than that. Of course, I rarely make it to the grocery store either. Which is why there's (a) leftover pizza, (b) leftover beer, (c) barely enough milk for a bowl of cereal, and (d) not much else in my fridge.

So I'm not going to say that I've resolved to blog more this year, although it won't be hard for me to blog more this year than I did last year. In fact, I'm already well on my way there. I also have an amazing inspiration in my cousin Nicole, who already has blogged more this year than I did in all of last year. Check her out at http://bestdressedtomboy.blogspot.com. Nicole posts her blog entries to her Facebook page (or "timeline," which is the new layout that I have yet to figure out), which gives me a daily reminder that she works a lot, spends more time in traffic in a day than I do in a week, has a kid, and still finds time to blog more than I do.

Being someone who lives and dies by reminders and increasingly depends on Outlook and my iPhone to do all of the remembering that I'm too lazy to do, getting a little bit of daily inspiration from Nicole might be just what I need to keep me motivated. Either way, it will definitely keep me laughing.

I did make one resolution, but only because it comes with built-in reminders. I downloaded the Project 365 app, and will be documenting my year with a daily picture and an occasionally-witty caption. Tonight I plan to take said picture at ClimBRIDGES, where I will attempt to haul my hasn't-been-to-the-gym-in-forever body up a rock wall. Hopefully the caption will not include references to brusied egos or broken bones.

A Few More for the Bucket List

Maybe 2011 didn't go out with a huge bang, but I did manage to fit a few more special moments into the last few days:

• After 11 years in Memphis and over a year living practically in the shadow of the stadium, I went to a game at the Liberty Bowl. As is typical for my record in spectator sports, the team I was rooting for did not win.
• Finally christened the fire bowl that I bought a year ago as part of the most amazing New Year's Eve I've ever celebrated.
• Most importantly, I did the one thing that I never in a million years expected to accomplish: I fell in love. Not the measured, cautious, carefully-considered, practical kind of love that I thought was the best that I could do at this point in my life. The crazy, giggle-like-a-teenager, snowball-rolling-down-a-hill, can't-quite-wipe-the-smile-off-your-face, takes-your-breath-away kind of love that I didn't really believe existed any more. The kind that melts your heart and tears down the walls that you build to protect yourself. The kind of love that makes you feel as if you've never been hurt before and never will be again.

All in all, 2011 was a pretty good year.