Megan Stielstra's Blog

The problem with New Year's is instead of resolving to START doing all those things that we haven’t been doing but know we should, we resolve to do them EVERY DAY which is totally setting ourselves up to fail (like how I'm rocking the first person plural there? To pretend that this isn't just My shortcoming, it's the WORLD'S shortcoming!). Wouldn’t it be better to just say, “I am going to go to the gym in 2007,” instead of, “I am going to go to the gym EVERY DAY in 2007.” If I just have to go to the gym, than I’ve already succeeded! And if I have to go every day, then I’ve already failed! It seems like simple enough logic, yet I find myself backed into the same corner every damn January.

For example, thus far in 2007 I’ve caught myself saying the following:

I’m going to the gym every day.
I’m going to write every day (this does not include emails).
I’m going to read every day (this does include websites, especially gofugyourself).
I’m going to eat eggwhites every day (or, I’m not going to eat French Fries ANY DAY).
I’m going to go for a very long walk every day and commune with the city (?).
I’m going to write in my journal and/or blog every day.
I’m going to take five minutes every day to breathe and calm down (?).
Every day, I’m going to leave the house fifteen minutes earlier so I’m not rushed.
Every day, I’m going to take my vitamins.
I’m going to drink green tea instead of coffee.
Etc.

AND, since we’re only two full weeks into the New Year and I have not done ANY of the above with religious day-to-day frequency and am already starting to feel bad, I hereby cut myself some slack in 2007. I’ll start just with DOING the stuff, and we’ll see what happens.

There has been one thing that I’ve done every day: I said I wanted to start this whole photo a day thing. It’s been fun, and good for opening up my eyes and helping me get to know the new neighborhood. We’ll see how far I can go with it, and I’ll try to post them every now and again in big bol’ chunks. Here’s January 1st through the 15th:

Here is Kat, on the roof, at midnight on New Year’s.

This is my new shower curtain.

I like the idea of buying ESP at the store.

These are the buttons on my fridge that makes ice!

Instead of taking the Christmas tree through the apartment and back down the three flights of stairs (and leaving all the dead needles in his wake) Christopher took it out onto the balcony, made me run down to the street to make sure no one was walking past, and then he threw it down onto Lawrence Avenue. Efficiency at its best.

I enjoy simple logic.

Next door there’s a day care center, and this is the window that waves goodbye to the little kids as they’re leaving.

You are beautiful

The mural down the street from my house.

Christopher’s Aquarium.

Outside our office window (zoooooom).

On the right, you will see my dog. The thing he is staring at is a small wire basket, in which I put all of his toys (bully sticks, squeaky tennis balls, nylabones, a rubber chew tire, squeaky jacks, stuffed hedgehog, dried tendons, etc.) so they’re not all over the house. The problem is, Mojo is afraid of this wire basket, and just sits there staring at it from a safe distance, hoping to levitate his toys up into the air and safely into his mouth. Currently, we are trying to woo him into liking the wire basket by leaving biljacks (re: jerky treats) in the bottom.

Left on Christopher’s moniter: instructions on how to dismantle a Magic Eight Ball.