One last goals blog to write for the year as I sit in an imitation snuggie before actually getting to my to do list for the rest of the day. Here goes.
1) Work Harder - for the month, total failure and I'm okay with that. Exam week was rather busy but since submitting grades, I haven't as much as even opened up a math book. Once I get back to Anderson, I'll have to start writing syllabi and prepping lesson plans, but that can wait another day or two. I haven't lifted in three weeks and I've only run a couple of times this month. For my lifting for the semester, my weight only increased by about half a pound so I did swap out some fat for muscle. I just started from a worse spot than I originally remembered. My bench max increased by 20 pounds and my dead max increased by about 50 so I made some decent gains that I'd like to push forward. Actual marathon training starts on January 11 and that doesn't seem like much fun since its gotten very cold rather quickly. Overall, for the year, I can't say that the year has been a resounding success. It certainly hasn't been a failure what with getting back into a lifting routine that requires me to wake at five and the Indy Mini PR was a nice accomplishment. If we're comparing to recent years though, 2011 and 2012, a.k.a the dissertation years, were certainly much tougher and the work then was killer.
2) Play Harder - Success in the early month with the trip out to Hot Springs. Since then, not as much. I did get out ice skating with Lindsey earlier in the week and now have some nice injuries where my skates rubbed my legs raw. Overall, this has been a tremendous success. I've traveled all over the place and really lived life by getting out and just doing stuff because why not? I've been blessed with a girlfriend who is willing and happy to get out and try new stuff and we've had a lot of fun.
3) Read More - I finally got back into a good reading month. I've knocked out Don Winslow's Savages, Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and Cormac McCarthy's The Road this month as well as starting Jeff Vandermeer's Authority which is the follow up to Annihilation. Savages wasn't overly impressive and I have no idea why they turned it into a movie. The Lovely Bones had a good premise but some of the stuff at the end just lost it for me. I thought The Road was a fantastic book, which caught me by surprise since I strongly hesitated when buying it since I didn't think all that much of Blood Meridian and I disliked the movie version of No Country for Old Men, predominantly because there's no legitimate resolution. The Road did give me a feeling of completion and I'd recommend it. For the year, I'd put this the same as the work hard category. I'm happy with all the stuff I've read (especially East of Eden - Thanks Luke!), but I can't say it necessarily qualifies as reading more.
4) Travel More - We've already covered Arkansas and I've spent the last two weeks up in Michigan for the Christmas break since being in academia is great. For the year, this couldn't have been more of a success. Puerto Rico, Las Vegas, Southern Utah, Kansas City, St. Louis, Red River Gorge in Kentucky, Mammoth Cave, Portland, Seattle, Menninga Island, Arkansas, Turkey Run State Park, Chicago, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, East Lansing. Yeah, I'm satisfied. Heck, my last post was basically me saying that I didn't need to set this year as the bar since I can't keep going at this rate, but I'll certainly have fun trying.
5) Drink better beer - I actually haven't drank very much this month. I did stop by Grand Rapids Brewing last night with Brooke. We originally planned to go to HopCat but it was packed and so we just walked down the street. I had the John Ball Brown which is decent and the New Mission Organics which was really good. We were even cool enough that our bartender came over and hung out with us to kill the hour or so until she went to pick up her friend. Overall, I've wasted less time with crappy beer this year and my tastes have improved. I've currently got a six pack of Spotted Cow ready to take home, courtesy of Sara as well as a couple Guinness Blondes thanks to Aunt Deb. I'm strongly considering picking up a six pack of Lagunitas' Little Sumpthing Sumpthing because it is ridiculously good, but with the Sam Adams I still have in my fridge, I don't really see why I'd need 25 beers in my fridge when I should be trying to cut back so I can lose a little weight and get fast for the marathon.
Overall, this year has really been a blessing. I'm starting to feel more at home in Indiana and am seriously considering actually settling here for good. I had a relationship or three and am extremely excited to see where things go with Lindsey and that maybe, hopefully, finally, this is the one that works out. There were some disappointments and indiscretions throughout the year, but all told, I truly believe that I became a better person this year and did a good job of staying true to who I want to be. Thanks to all of you for helping to be a part of that and encouraging me when I needed it.
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