Those things people make on that day.

I’ve seen a few Summary-of-2011 surveys on OD.  I’m avoiding those, because I’ve spent practically the past year reflecting on the past year…and the 3 years before that.  And, that’s really a place I don’t like to go, even if it’s inevitable, sometimes, and writing about it in any kind of detail will do bad things to me.  So, instead, some things I hope to accomplish in the coming year:

1) Figure out a way to forget about him/them.  Things that make this difficult include:  my friendship with his mother, my non-friendship with his sister (she suddenly decided to stop communicating with me altogether after initially being eager to stay friends, for unknown reasons she won’t disclose), and the fact that I may be taking care of his cat for…as long as she lives.  Social media-wise, I’ve either been deleting accounts or blocking.  There’s not much I can do, in certain instances.

2) Continue to do well in school for the remaining two semesters.  Graduate with honors for the first time, ever.

3) Do well on the board exam.

4) Find a job.

5) Start going to the gym regularly, and successfully get through the running program I attempting earlier this year.  I realize I won’t be able to do this until at least after this next semester is over with because of the massive amount of time invested into going to class, exams, assignments, research project, etc.  I may not even be able to until the end of the summer.  We’ll see.

6) Healthier diet.  This one may not really be feasible until after school is over, either, but I could begin to make little changes here and there, at the very least.  Finally kicking daily coffee (during the semester; I rarely drink it otherwise) to the curb after it’s all over with will help, too.  And help my wallet, heh.

7) Learn to play the guitar.  And eventually, ukulele.  Buy a guitar.

8) Relearn piano.  Get a nice 88-key digital piano.  The nice thing about those, other than lightness, is that I can just plug in headphones and play as loudly as I want to without disturbing neighbors.

9) Get my apartment into good shape.  Get rid of all of the crap, old clothes, etc. that I don’t even want anymore.  Finish setting things up that I’d never finished.  Rearrange my furniture the way I want it, rather than how my mom had it arranged.  Get the stuff I want to hang on my walls/hang them (they’re all blank, still).  Get a new wardrobe, to reflect my actual style (seriously, 80% of it is still clothes from high school/early college years that I’m really not into, anymore).

10) After 2nd semester, or after school is finished, get a stand for my fish tank and set up the tank.  Get some neat/unique critters to put in said tank.  Like a blue lobster.  Those are pretty awesome.

11) Try to find the time…somehow…to read all of the plethora of books on my list of books I really want to read.  I’ve been occupied with playing The Old Republic the past few days, but I think I may take a break, today and start back on the Game of Thrones series, which I, sadly, barely had gotten through once the semester started.  I guess this is also another way of saying I’d like to learn to better manage my time.  This semester is going to be even busier than the last, if that’s even fathomable, so I think I may not have a choice, anyway.

12) Take better care of myself, in general.  Develop good, consistent hygiene routines and such.  Despite the stress and busy-ness of school.  It’s that time-management thing, again.

13) Get more sleep, when possible (sometimes, it’s just not…argh, grad school, again).  Stop staying up late procrastinating or zoning out on the internet when I have to be up at 7am.  I did that a ton last semester, and it’s a killer.

14) Be more organized.  This involves school, again, too.  Just can’t escape school.  Last semester, I was way unorganized and would keep everything from different classes all stacked together.  I want to start off on a better note, this time.  I’m thinking to buy a heavy duty hole-puncher and one or two big binders and use separators and different folders for all of the classes.  Otherwise, everything just becomes a huge, frustrating mess.  Also, at home, I’d like to keep up my filing system and not let bills, etc. stack up, as they have been.

15) As always, keep working on becoming more comfortable around other people, reducing fears, and improving social skills.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Also, here’s an idea of my busy schedule, next semester:

Monday:  10am – 7pm
Tuesday:  9 or 11am (depending on lab group placement) – 7pm
Wednesday:  9am – 7:40pm
Thursday:  8am – 6pm alternating every other week with 11:15am – 6pm
Friday:  9am – 3:30pm
Saturday:  9am – 4pm (2nd half of semester only)

Yep.  6 days of class per week the second half of the semester.  And still petsitting on Sundays.  And somehow have to get started on a research project in between all that, too.  Wheee….