New Year's Resolutions

What are your New Year's resolutions? Here are mine:

1. Make my bed every day - yep, that's right. I never make my bed. Considering the fact that it consists of a comforter and four pillows, I'm not sure why it's so difficult to do every morning as soon as I wake up. Hold on ... I've got to go do it ... (Note: I mentioned this resolution to John and he looked up from his iPad mini long enough to say, "Wasn't that your resolution last year?" How encouraging.)

2. Read more (good) books - while I was back in the US for two weeks over Christmas, I finished reading three books, including two that I loved (Sherman Alexie's newest, Blasphemy, and Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, which I highly, highly recommend but isn't available in the UK yet) and one that I didn't really (Kim Sunee's Trail of Crumbs). Curling up on the couch for an hour or two with absolutely no distractions except for the beautiful pink sky (above), I relished in the delight and joy reading good books affords.

3. Be open to making new friends - when I first moved to the UK, and even in the years that followed, I went on several friend-dates and met a lot of new people. Sometimes we clicked, sometimes we didn't, but it was a terrific feeling to expand my friendship circle and establish myself in a new city. These days, I'm very fortunate to have a core group of close friends here in London (and Edinburgh!) but find myself reluctant to meet new people, which is a terrible attitude to have. Friends are so important, and I definitely hope to form new friendships in 2013.

4. Let go - anyone who knows me knows that I over-worry, over-prepare, and just over-freakout in general. I'd love to take the same, calm, forgiving approach I have on the yoga mat, apply it to daily life, and not get into such a big huff over the little (or even big) things.

And finally ...

5. Blog more - when I first started Angloyankophile, I tried to post every single day. In 2010, I blogged 249 times, but this dropped to 68 in 2011 and 54 in 2012. It wasn't for the lack of interesting things happening in my life (for example, I didn't even blog about my amazing experience at the Olympics! Or Thailand!), but rather that I just became ... a little lazy. Looking back, blogging every day  with a full time job, active social life and after-work activities (ahem, yoga and orchestra rehearsals) might not have been a feasible goal, but I did write and share a lot - and got a lot back in return. I love reading the nice (and sometimes, even the not-so-nice) comments I receive and finding readers with similar, shared experiences. When I don't write as often, my life feels jumbled and out-of-sync. So I'm going to try harder. Thank you so much for reading!

Here's to a new year.