Goodbye 2011! Hello, 2012!

Looking back, this has been quite a year. Much change has happened in my life, and if it has been good, remains to be seen.

In 2011:

We moved from Miami, Florida to Lexington, Kentucky. To say that this has been a bit of a culture shock would be an understatement. I am learning what whitebread is all about.

I changed jobs, moving from a small hospital in Miami to the biggest hospital in Lexington. I miss the small hospital atmosphere, but this position will afford me more opportunity in the long run.

We lost our house to foreclosure, and became apartment dwellers. With this, we had to give up two of our beloved kitties. This whole scenario has been heartbreaking. We had our house for 14 years, and due to the poor economy and my husbands job troubles, we finally had to surrender, and let it go. I feel worse about my cats than the house.

My family has had to learn to survive on its own. We are truly an island out here. All we have is each other, and I realize that it is not enough. We need friends.

Along with my own personal issues, there have been family-wide health issues, job problems, school issues and such. I am gladly saying, "Goodbye 2011."

For 2012, I was originally going to do one of those # of things for the # of years, but when you get to be my age, that's an awful lot to do, so I decided to do 12 for 12 instead.

So, in 2012 I will:

Pay down debt. It is my hope to be out of credit card debt in 4 years. We actually had to use the cards to survive for a while. It sucks.

Go back to school to work towards my BSN (bachelor of nursing). In today's job market, that extra degree has become a necessity. I am a mid-life career changer, and I went the route that would get me working in my field of choice the quickest. I got my ADN, but now I want that bachelors.

Find a church. I need to get back in touch with my spiritual side. As a child, I loved going to church. I lost my way somewhere in my teens. I think, now, the problem was the church, not God. So, I am church shopping. We'll see how it goes.

Lay off the sodas! I drink way too much diet soda, especially on the nights I work. I want to decrease this, and increase the amount of water I drink.

Go on a real vacation. Preferably, this time, with my family. The last few vacations I have taken, I have been alone. I went to NYC alone. I went to Canada alone to visit a friend. I went to Vegas with a friend, but without my family. And, while I love to travel alone, I would like to take a real family vacation with my boys. It has been years since we have had one.

Learn to speak up for myself. I tend to clam up when I feel affronted. I need to speak up and speak out. To not be afraid to let my feelings be known, even at the risk that someone else may not like or agree with those feelings.

Reduce/eliminate meat from my diet. Starting with red meat, and eventually all meat.

Get a creative outlet. Find my passion, and express it. I would like to start sewing, again. I have been knitting, but I want the joy of spending hours in the fabric store picking out patterns, and fabric, and all the notions that go along with creating a garment.

Learn a language. Preferably Spanish. I lived my whole life in Miami, and have spent the past 20 years with a Puerto Rican husband. I have no excuse for not being bilingual at this point.

Get fit. Not necessarily thin, but definitely healthy. I have repeatedly gone about getting fit with the goal of being skinny. In all these years, I have never managed to get down smaller than a size 18. Perhaps it is my lot in life to be the size my body wants me to be. And fighting my body has gotten me nowhere. However, I want to feel better, stronger, more energetic. That I can accomplish. I just need to get to the gym or outside on a regular basis.

Work on my photography skills. I want to be able to translate the beauty I see in real life to film/digital images.

Celebrate 20th anniversary with husband in a big way. We had always wanted to take a big trip for this anniversary. Don't know if that will be possible, but I want to do something really memorable.


W. :)