found drama

2010 was an exciting year in so many ways–highs and lows, mine and yours… To re-cap everything and do it justice would be impossible but I can keep my four year tradition alive and at least review where I landed for each of my 2010 personal goals.

1. Write ≥3 hours each week. Every year I give myself a writing goal. It should not be a stretch to at least get the writing done. Three hours a week shouldn’t be too much to ask. But it managed to be a struggle this year. I got through NaNoWriMo, but the rest of the year was… well…
   
   …well, it wasn’t my best year.
2. Submit at least 2 short stories for publication Submitted one at the beginning of the year. But that was it. Not my year. Maybe next year?
3. Revise at least one of my novels-in-progress. Basically bagged this goal mid-way through the year. Doing some new writing in November felt more right–if I was going to dedicate any creative energy this year, it was going to be to spent making something new. Again: maybe next year?
4. Read ≥36 books. I didn’t keep close track this year for some reason. Goodreads says I have 37 books marked as “2010”, but my other list has only 35 listed as finished. But in an unusual twist for me, I read almost as much non-fiction as I did fiction (16 vs. 19) — so I’m proud of that.
   
   Where I fell through was on the “specific books” list. Only 5 of 12:
   
   1. Foucault’s Pendulum
   2. Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang: A Novel
   3. The Blind Assassin
   4. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
   5. The Pragmatic Programmer
   6. The Tao Of Physics
   7. Six Easy Pieces
   8. Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law
   9. The Eleventh Draft: Craft and the Writing Life from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop
   10. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
   11. Blood Meridian; and
   12. All the Pretty Horses
5. Exercise: get my money’s worth at Bolton Valley. Done. With pleasure. Six times on the 2009-2010 pass. And once already on the 2010-2011 pass.
6. Exercise: walk or run ≥1 mile ≥2 times/week. I definitely did not start out the year terribly strong here. The truth is… I don’t much like running; and since we moved out of downtown Burlington, walking has diminished down to almost nothing. But late in the year I re-committed to this and have done pretty well…
   
   Re-committed in October… then NaNoWriMo took me off-course during November (where all available hours were spent writing)… but I was back on it again in December. I may hate running, but I can make this work.
7. Exercise: climb at least once each week. Came close… 2010 was a rough year to get schedules lined up on both sides of the climbing equation; but I found some new folks to climb with, too–so I’m still in this, and I still feel good about where I landed for this one.
   
8. Restrict my “personal expenses” to $70/week. 40.5% under the target. Pleased with that. But could have done better. Damn Fresh Market cookies.

Not my best year. But a good year just the same.

Happy New Year!

About Rob Friesel