Sunday, December 30, 2018

The Annual New Year's Blog: 2019 Edition

This morning, I reached peak adulthood.

My house is clean, all laundry done, folded, and put away. My bed is made. John Coltrane is playing while I sip coffee and sit on my couch this Sunday morning with the dog snoring softly behind me and the cat dozing next to me on the pillow.

Seems like a good time ruin it with some resolutions.

I haven't done a resolution post in a while, and I contemplated putting it up over on Charm City Edibles, but this seems like a better place for no-nonsense resolution posts, or at least it has been, and why mess with a good thing? Complicating a "resolution" post is the argument sprawled across my social media lately that intentions are better than resolutions. Resolutions are "exercise 2x a week," and intentions are "become healthier." I could be wrong, but a resolution follows one of the credos of successful change, which is to make specific goals to achieve that are measurable. Intentions are vague; if you switch from eating fast food seven times a week to six you are technically living into your intention to be healthier (but are also technically well on your way to heart attack or the diabeetus).

Me, I'll stick with resolutions. I have enough vagueness in my life and too many things that are unstructured to add one more to the mix.

I have spent the last month or so really evaluating myself as a writer, so it's unsurprising that many of my resolutions either directly or indirectly support this evaluation. Mostly, I'd like to write for other people as little as possible while working on finishing some of my own projects. To that end, I present some resolutions for 2019.

1. Go on two writing retreats

This is cheating a little, as two of them are mostly scheduled. In April, I will travel to Canada (outside of Vancouver) and retreat with a motley group of painters, writers, and photographers. In June, the same retreat (with a different cast of characters but the same retreat leader, the inimitable Corey Hardeman) happens in West Virginia. If at all possible, I would like to go back to The Woods in December, a retreat in Cacapon State Park in West Virginia that I attended this year. Turns out, I will need these to actually meet the second of next year's resolutions.

2. Writer's choice: finish the second draft of my novel or the first draft of a cookbook

So this one is up in the air. The novel I wrote in December may or may not be worth continuing, and I won't get a professional opinion on that until mid-February, so I have another project that I want to start working on: interviewing my 100-year-old grandmother and writing a cookbook with her recipes. I have long wanted to formally interview my grandmother, and time is running out on this. One or the other of these provides a little structure for me and something to work on in retreat. I am also open to new projects, as I have felt something burbling around for a while and am focused on exploring that. I have also been writing more poetry, and I feel like there is something happening there as well.

Sounds like this resolution is only half-formed. So we'll see how that ends up.

In the realm of intention setting, I would like to prioritize becoming a better writer this year, working in different areas and just writing more of my own work.  The following resolutions are in support of that.

3. Schedule one more trip

I have two trips planned for 2019, both to Canada (one in March for a week, and one in July/August for three weeks). I would like to plan one more trip, possibly to Isla Mujeres to see the Underwater Museum before it goes away. Even if it's just a weekend. Travel is inspiring to me, and I want to see things. My occupation is portable, and there is no reason why I should not spend my dollars on this.

4. Explore Baltimore (and Maryland)

This is vague, much like some of my writing, but in the nearly five years that I have been back in Maryland, I have not really left my little neighborhood much. My novel is set in Highlandtown, mostly, and I enjoyed learning about that area of the city and visiting during November. Working on the novel in Highlandtown proper was really helpful to get a feel for the neighborhood. There are many places I have not really explored, either when I lived here in the early nineties or since I have been back. Same goes for Maryland. I have a running list of places to visit and things to do, and although I won't post it here, suffice it to say that I would like to cross off, oh, let's say, 75% of the things (random number. It will be fine. Really.).

5. Use my time more effectively

Social media is the Siren song I cannot ignore. I hate it. Although it connects me in important ways to people I might never have met, it is also a crutch, a time suck, and incredibly draining in the end. So I would like to limit my time on social media in 2019. I don't know exactly what that means. I am not sure that weaning myself works, so I may have to restrict days. If that doesn't work, it may be that I just have to delete it altogether.

And that's about it. I'd like to save more money and start a SEP-IRA this year (to avoid the tax man), but we will see if that happens. I won't say I am exactly hopeful about 2019, but I am curious, and that has to be enough.

What are your resolutions for 2019?