2009 Resolution Recall

As 2009 comes to a close, I look back on the resolutions that I made at the start of the year. Let's see how I did...

1. Become a Morning Person
I'm still a natural night owl. I'm not sure that will ever change. But if you give me a good enough reason (like a 7:00 am birding trip) I can wake up at the crack of dawn! Grade: 25%

2. Revert my body back to the shape it was in two years ago (i.e., go to the gym 3-4 times a week).
Hmmm.... still working on that one. Apparently it takes a LOT more than going to the gym 3-4 times a week to get that 26-year-old body back. Cutting out beer would probably be a better solution, but... that's just crazy talk! Grade: 50%

3. Find a local chicken egg farmer to get eggs from (at *least* one dozen a month should be fresh farmed).
Now THIS one I was able to accomplish... until I moved to Corvallis. I still need to find a good egg source out here. Grade: 75%

4. No more plastic produce sacks (use fabric reusable ones).
I think there were just a handful of times where I buckled on this. Not for produce, but for bulk things like rice or spices. And then I wash them and reuse them until they start to decompose in my cupboard. It's not pretty. Grade: 95%

5. Drastically reduce the purchase of plastic container items (buy bulk and make stuff from scratch instead).
I haven't done away with purchasing plastic-container items completely (the occasional sour cream comes to mind), but significantly as compared to 2008. I somehow held onto the habit of not throwing away plastic containers, so I'm forced to either reduce plastic container purchases or bury myself in a sea of plastic like the birds of the Pacific Gyre. Grade: 95%

6. Do not buy bottle spaghetti sauce - gotta make it from scratch (reduce the glass bottle waste!).
I remember buying two jars of Newman's Own this year. And I remember thinking to myself, "Hey, it's just two bottles. I've been good all year. I'm broke, and this is a good sale. I'm too lazy to cook this week." You know, all the excuses. Maybe it's weird that I recall how many bottles I purchased. But I'm *constantly* thinking about consumption and waste when I go shopping. It's a little obsessive. There are worse things to obsess over. Grade: 98%

7. No more frozen foods (frozen food boxes are not recyclable).
What more can I say, other than... Grade: 100%

8. Replace one cup of coffee with one cup of tea every day.
Heh-heh... heh... heh-heh.... bwah HA haha hahaha hahahahaa! Did I *really* make that resolution?! What was I thinking?! Grade: FAIL

9. Maintain the worm composting bin.
May my composting worms rest in peace. Grade: FAIL

10. No more hangovers.
I think there was a time or two... might have involved karaoke... where this resolution was laid to rest. Grade: FAIL

So long 2009! You've been good to me. I'm a little sad to see you go.

A is for Alert. B is for Behaved. C is for Creativity. D is for Doodle.

Hey mom... I don't know how to tell you this.... but I got my first C.
OK, it was a C+. But it was in ECOLOGY of all subjects.
I know, I know... you probably really loved bragging to your coworkers about how awesome your daughter's grades were these past four years. But, look, I can't keep it up all the time. Now that I'm at OSU, I'm sharing a classroom with 350+ other students in some cases. I guess you could say I slipped through the cracks of the educational system... It's sad, really....
OK honestly? My lack of focus is probably the true reason for me just squeaking by in that class. And I do mean "squeaking by" because if it weren't for "the curve" I would've earned myself something more like a D-. So... Yay for curves!
How could this happen, you ask? I don't know. But let's take a gander at a few pages of my notes from that class, shall we?
Is that a mountain scene I doodled there? And what about that weird gourd-like-plant-thingy on the left?

 Oh look! A portrait of a woman, framed and everything... some bubbles... and a squiggly comb-structure!

So I'm a doodler. I doodled too much in that class. All my other classes have nice, clean notes, fully legible and focused to the subject. But here.... I let myself get lost in my imagination more than once or twice >sigh<. At least I should be able to notice whether I'm slipping up in classes from here on out. Are the notes decorated? Baaaad. Are they boring and full of text? Gooood!