hello, 2013.

Oh boy. 2012 was not my year for blogging. Not sure that 2013 will be, either, but I wouldn't mind getting back into it a bit. This is a very wordy post - it's as much or more for me than anyone else, trying to organize my thoughts and expectations for the upcoming year.

To be honest, 2013 hasn't gotten off to the smoothest start. A mouse moved into our bedroom wall Christmas week and stuck around for about three weeks, digging and keeping us up almost every night (but not venturing into the actual house, where we could trap or kill it). Our fridge broke on New Year's day, and around the time that we got those things settled, we both came down with the flu, and that's kept us under the weather for about a week and a half now. Meanwhile, back in October we learned that our rental home's "pets negotiable" status ended up meaning no dogs... So I'm trying to find a new place, but I'm disappointed that similar homes in our area are about $1000 more per month than they were last year when we moved in.

In better news, I switched to an engineering role at ModCloth, something I've wanted since before I started at the company (I took a QA position because that was the only opening they had, but I've been fighting for this move for over a year). I'm stoked about the change, and I love the work I'm doing and my new team, but of course working my ass off to ramp up is exhausting in its own way.

I really want to get into the new year excitement and work on bettering myself and my life, but so far I've just been so exhausted. I'm hopeful that everything will settle down soon, and I'm trying to work on what I can in the meantime (mostly focusing on work and my health). I came up with thirteen goals I'd like to work on this year, in part to distract myself from the annoyances outside of my control (mostly my dog-free living situation).

1. Stop picking my hair. I have this awful nervous/stressed/bored habit of picking at my split ends (and thus further damaging my hair). It needs to stop asap.
2. Travel - leave the country. I haven't traveled much at all since family trips in middle and high school (trips to Tennessee to see my family hardly count, and even those are infrequent these days). These days it's out of laziness more than anything - not a good excuse. I'm planning on two big trips with Tim this year - one to somewhere beachy (Mexico or Hawaii) and another to France. I have yet to pick specific dates or buy tickets, but I really want to make this happen.
3. Settle in - feel at home in my house. Whether it's in my current place or a new one, I want to decorate a bit more and make it feel like home. Some bright paint would be nice, but that can be tricky as renters, especially when I don't know how long I'll stay in one place. I need to try to quell the restless part of me that wants to move every year and make a home for myself rather than constantly looking forward to the next move.
4. Make the most of my home time. I really, really like my time at home. I need that alone time to decompress after work or hanging out with people. But I feel like I waste a lot of that time watching crappy tv and reading unimportant stuff online. I'd like to get in the habit of relaxing while doing something more meaningful, whether it's baking, blogging, working on decorating my home, knitting or sewing, or some other yet-to-be-discovered hobby.
5. Rock it at work. This is purposefully vague. I just achieved the career goal I've been working towards for over 3 years, so I want to focus on getting ramped up and kicking ass in my new position before working towards anything more specific at work.
6. Use most of my cookbooks. I've amassed a pretty big cookbook collection over the last few years. While I love to cook, I find myself either making things without a recipe or looking up recipes online most of the time. I definitely want to use most of the books I have (many of which I've never actually made anything out of) - I bought them all for a reason (or in some cases, took from my dad's old collection), and I'd like to branch out a bit more.
7. Cut half of my rarely-used clutter. I kind of have hoarding tendencies, and this shows through well in my crafting collections. I have so many supplies (paint, boxes to decoupage, ribbons, blank picture frames) that I've had for years and years and never use. I think it's becoming clear that it's not going to happen - and if it does, I can always replace what I've gotten rid of - so it's time to suck it up and part ways with a lot of it.
8. Focus on the good, not bad; the present, not future. I've noticed myself being a lot more negative in recent months. I am constantly angry with drivers (especially as a biker - yeesh) and disappointed with humanity in some ways. While I try really hard to appreciate how fantastic my life is, there are always things I wish were different, things I'm looking forward to, but I take it past goals and hope to dwelling. The dog thing is a great example of this. I want to pay attention more to the great things happening right now and enjoy the journey as I get to the stuff I'm excited about happening in the future.
9. Explore SF more. I love living in the city, but I find it's so easy to just stick to home and work and my corner grocery store. There's so much to do - within a few blocks of my house and in the few miles surrounding it - and I need to take advantage of it. I'd love to try a lot more of SF's fantastic bars and restaurants and also explore some of the parks, overlooks, and bay/ocean views all over the city.
10. Make time for my closest friends.  This one has certainly been falling by the wayside this month, between work and being sick, but I hope I'm able to prioritize it later in the year. I'm very much an introvert, and I want to make sure that doesn't cause me to lose the friends I do have. I want to make sure I don't force myself to do big group things I won't enjoy much, but also make up for it by spending time in small groups of people I really do want to stay close to.
11. Don't let my closet keep growing. Working at ModCloth has its perks, and one of them is definitely the discount. I'm currently using most of my existing hangers, and the closets are full but not stuffed. I'd like to make sure it stays that way. I'm sure I'll always buy new things while I work at ModCloth, but at least I can donate/give away some of my older stuff as new things rotate in.
12. Take more photos. I 100% got out of the photo habit this year (aside from occasional instagram photos - not the same). I'd love to get into the habit of documenting little everyday parts of my life, but with a better camera than the one in my Android phone. If I get back into it, I might reward myself with an Instax - I would love some casual physical photos to hang up around the house but can't justify it right now. (Side note - have you seen Elsie's photo wall? I would have expected it to look tacky, but I'm kind of in love.)
13. Give ballet another shot. Along with work, this is one of the few goals I've already gotten a start on! I'm not a huge fan of most workouts, but I love beginner ballet classes when I finally force myself to go. The flu has put a bit of a damper on this, but I've been once a week so far in January, and I'm hoping to get in the habit of twice a week soon!

To balance out this text-heavy post, a couple of photos from my home (trying to work on number 12, here!):

I got myself this beer+food pairing calendar on etsy, and it makes me so happy! Tim and I are both beer people, so it's a good fit.

I finally picked out all new bedding for our room. We've been using a combo of my and Tim's old bedding, and combined with only one window and a dark headboard, it made the room feel pretty dismal. I got new white sheets, a white linen duvet cover, and a teal coverlet to go in between for a pop of color. They're still not quite as soft as the old bed set, but I am in love with the fresh new look! (If you're interested - sheets, blanket, duvet cover.)