A mid-winter check in

I recently posted about the mid-winter warmth we've been having in Vermont. All over town and even in my backyard I can see actually grass. Real grass. Not covered in snow. Or at least I could until two days ago. It was as though the sky finally looked at the ground and realized it was looking a little too much like spring and promptly dumped a few inches of snow on us. I really enjoyed the use of the word squall that happened on several occasions at work. At one point we looked outside and saw nothing but white. NOTHING BUT WHITE. OK, OK, I know this is Vermont, but it's not the arctic, this kind of stuff doesn't happen very often.

And now is as good a time as any to check in with those changes I told myself I'd be making in my life.

1. Step up my commitment to the environment. I'm doing a pretty good job of this. I've made a few changes recently that are small, but significant. One of those changes does not include driving less. It's endlessly annoying that I have two jobs and usually work at two locations everyday. This kind of kills any chance of carpooling, because I would need to orchestrate something between three different people who don't share my schedule. However, come spring I plan to bike more. Right now it's not feasible. Not because of the cold, but due to the danger of ice and snow banks in what would be the shoulder of a highway. No thanks.

But here's something fun! I'm going to try and include a fun environmental... something (who knows) at the bottom of my non-book review posts. Starting today.

2. Become a for real Vermont resident. I am officially a Vermont voter! And I have a PO Box! And I applied for health insurance. I don't have a Vermont ID yet, but that's because I don't have time to even think about driving to Bennington for such a trivial thing.

3. Get even more organized. Yeah... about that. I haven't done this.

4. Check!

5. Read more. There isn't enough time to read all of the books on my book list!!! But I'm trying.

6. Make new friends. Um. Well. I think I'm kind of trying. I mean, I've gone out to social events I would normally skip out on, but I also go to the movies alone every week and never even try to have company. Socializing is so much work! I just want to have friends without having to go through the stress of making them. (yes, I said stress. This might explain why change is so difficult for me)

7. Continue my efforts to eat whole, home-made, unprocessed food. I haven't had a single Soy Chai Latte since I wrote that change! I have had several bagels though. Clearly I need to go out and get me some rice cakes, because I'm all out and I'm substituting bagels. Still no blender. Gonna go make a new freecycle post about this.

So... yeah! I'd say I'm chugging along. But I'm gonna go chug along down to the kitchen and make me some rice flour pancakes.

A green idea: I get paid weekly at my internet job. Gordon leaves our paychecks in an envelope by our time sheets. There are 52 weeks in a year. That's 52 envelopes a year! I buy a box of 50 envelopes and it lasts me forever. I don't want my paychecks costing the earth a box of paper envelopes a year. So on Fridays I put my packcheck into my backpack and hand the envelope back to Gordon. He reuses it next week. My little envelope change inspired one of my coworkers as well, so that's a little over two boxes of envelopes a year we're saving for pretty much no effort whatsoever. Woo!

2010 - Happy New Year

I don't make New Year's resolutions. It is my belief that if I really wanted to change something about myself I would start right away. If I put it off for days, weeks, months, waiting for the new year as an excuse to start, it probably isn't important enough for me to actually stick with it. I think this is true with most people which is why new year's resolutions seem to fail so often.

That being said, there are plans and decisions I have made recently, which I'll pass off as new years resolutions simply because it is that time of year.

1. Step up my commitment to the environment. I finished "Sleeping Naked is Green" and I really loved it. I was inspired by Farquharson's commitment to being more eco-friendly and the great lengths she went to. I won't elaborate on the book at this time because my review is forthcoming, but I will say that reading about her efforts made me realize just how minimal mine are, even if they are greater than most people (who don't seem to give a hoot about the planet they live on).

2. Become a for real Vermont resident. This has been in the works for a while now. I finally registered to vote yesterday and I'll be getting a PO box next week. Then I'll work on getting health insurance. I'll probably even schlep myself over to the DMV and get a state ID, though I'm resistant to give up my AZ driver's license for the mere fact that it doesn't expire until I am 60. SIXTY!

3. Get even more organized. Is it possible? Sadly it is. I keep all of my tax, employment, health, and criminal records in clearly labeled envelopes by year. I keep all of these in a cardboard box piled with who knows what kinds of other crap. What I really need is an accordion file thing of some kind or a really nice big binder with dividers. This seems like an easy task and I should have gotten it done by now, but alas! this is a small town and options are few. Anyway I'm going to get it together. Maybe I'll even go crazy and get myself a safety deposit box at a real bank and put my birth certificate in there as well. (note to my mother: Don't worry, the criminal record thing was a joke. I don't organize those by year.)

4. Learn to drive stick. This has been on my list forever and I'm glad to cross it off. Well now I've got this stick thing down, and though I still hate it, I can at least do it without a problem. I don't even stall on big hills anymore, or drive way out of my way to avoid them. Last night I drove an automatic for the first time in months and though I rejoiced in not having to hassle over shifting and hitting the clutch, I still felt like I was forgetting something when my left foot and right hand took a well-earned break from driving.

5. Read more. Gone are the times when I would sometimes be reading the same book for months. It's my job to read now and form an opinion on it. I'm being paid to have those opinions. In addition to just reading more, I need to remember what I've read and why I did or didn't like it. This is why I'm writing full-fledged, longer-than-you-have-patience-for, and more-than-anyone-cared-to-know book reviews. You can skip them if you like. Or, you can specifically look for them in brand new link section on the left. Bookworms unite!

6. Make new friends. I know a good deal of people around here just from dealing with the theatre and living on the farm, however most of them are not close friends, but rather people I say hi to in passing. I have a lack of people in my life that I can go out to movies with, or lunch, or invite over for a lazy evening of dinner and board games. This was a regular occurrence in my life in NY and it's the thing I miss most. The fact that I am a social moron makes this increasingly difficult, but I have been and will continue to make efforts.

7. Continue my efforts to eat whole, home-made, unprocessed food. My biggest battle being bagels, the cafe next to the bookstore where I get a discount, vegan butter, and my obsession with potato chips. I'm willing to keep potato chips if I can quit soy chai lattes and everything bagels with Earth Balance spread. Also, I need a blender and/or food processor to make my own vegan cheeses and spreads.

Of course there are other things to be done and changed, but a life is ever-evolving. We all have endless lists. Those are the big ones, which are most on my mind because they should have been done already. Who knows, maybe I'll check in with myself in another month and I'll be wonderfully on track. Maybe I'll really get serious and draw up a little five year plan for myself. Ugh.

Secondary note: The Logger has started to make his own changes and has created a youtube page. Though I detest youtube, I love The Logger, so check out his site here and listen to some awesome music.