friends & focus

It's been a sort of reflective kind of Sunday. I've spent a good part of the day thinking about two things I need:

• friends
• focus

1. I need friends. (How pathetic do I sound right now?) But seriously, I do. I guess I never seriously thought about everything that comes with moving to a new city. In the past, every time I've moved I've either been young enough that making friends happens in about 5 minutes, or moving away to college where I've been thrust into a place with thousands of like-minded people who are experiencing all the same things. But now it's all different. Neither of us moved here with connections, we aren't in college, and we don't have kids to create a commonality. So I know this probably sounds like one big pity party, but I guess all I'm saying is that I'm really realizing how important good friends are to me. And I know that I do have good friends - I just talked to Anna today (welcome back, woman!) and we're spending quality time with Mike and Katie this weekend - but it's hard for me to only have long-distance friendships. I miss weekly coffee dates with Sarah, daily lunches with Jenna, and weekend trips with Mel. Okay, pity party is over.

2. I need a focus, specifically for this blog. I've always been a very goal-oriented type of person. Give a me a clear goal or objective and I will work hard at making it happen. I think that's why I stuck with my 365 photo project - there was a very specific goal and I worked hard to reach it. And I thought that after a year of such a specific project that blogging would be perfect - a non-commital outlet where I'm not restricted about what and when I post. I was wrong. I'm finding that blogging is waaaaay to broad for me. Do I talk about my day? My week? Food? Photography? Tim? Boring things? Cute things? Nothing? Which is why I've decided that I need a focus, like my 365 project but different. (Although I almost just convinced myself about 5 minutes ago to start up another 365 project in February). Options of focus:

• My favorite thing about this past week was...
• Topic-specific days of the week, i.e. I only talk about food on Fridays, or craft projects on Wednesdays, or books on Sundays
• Center it around photography, just not as rigid as posting everyday
• Focus only on graphic design and building a portfolio of projects
• ....???

Okay, that's enough to think about for now. Will sleep on this and get back to you.

toxic

Thursday's Thoughts

• We may (still) be snowless in St. Cloud, but it's a balmy 8 degrees out right now. However, earlier this week it hit 50+, and what do you do when it's 50+ degrees in January? You find things to climb.
• I want to go to this show. Which could work out really well since the show is the 30th and Marji's due date is the 31st. A show and a niece/nephew all in one weekend. Bam.
• Nickel Creek covering Britney Spears? So fab, and I will forever regret that I never made it to one of their shows. But I'm still not taking "attend a Nickel Creek concert" off of my life goal list.
• I have been reading Tim's latest issue of Backpacker and after reading stories about treks around Switzerland and expeditions to Everest base camp, I have the itch to go on a crazy adventure. Now all I need is a sponsor and more muscle.
• Date Night: Round 2 this weekend with Zach. He got us all "dates" for Christmas, and mine is this weekend. I'm so nervous...what should I wear?
• I have been sitting here with my little ear buds in for about 8 minutes now, but Bieber stopped singing to me 10 minutes ago.
• What would I do without the public library?

Diligence

I am finding out that blogging is much different than taking/posting a picture a day. For starters, it's not something that I feel I have to do every day. And the fact that I would have walk ALL the way over to the apartment's community room, and walk ALL the way back to our apartment in the cold definitely makes me feel like I don't have to post everyday. My motivation for today? The library. As I speak type, Tim is across the table from me, prepping for a GMAT practice test. Hello grad school.


Other highlights from this week:

• I started cake decorating class. You should expect me to have my own baking show on TLC in no time.
• It still continues to be the most non-winter winter I think I've ever experienced. I am not complaining.
• Christmas is officially over, which means we have entered into my least favorite part of the year: the totally blah months of Jan/Feb/March. But no worries, we have a few little trips on the horizon to fend off the seasonal winter blah blues.

I am off to the mall to find practical and/or unpractical ways to spend my Christmas money. Fun stuff.

365: check!

A year ago I made a New Year's resolution to do a 365 photo project - to take a picture a day for a year and post them on a photo blog. As of last night, that project is complete! And I am proud to say that I literally took a picture every single day of 2011. You can find the project here. I love that I have a year of life captured day-by-day, and although I am going to repeat the project for 2012, I still want a way to document moments, memories, photos, recipes, etc. So this year's resolution? Blog my little heart out. Well, maybe not that much, I would like to keep my little heart. But you get the picture. Here's to blogging, blessings, and dreaming!