Ringing in the new year

Friends, I am very excited to ring in the new year. I love making new year's resolutions. For a while, I used to make the same one every year. Last year, I decided that that particular goal (to stop "chomping at the bit" and appreciate things more in the moment) is really just going to be an "always" thing, so I made a bunch of small goals to chip away at over the course of the year. I wrote them in the back of my planner and checked in with them every once in a while. They were:

1) Watch less TV. By this I meant "mindless" TV, where I just turn on any old show to zone out. I did pretty well with this in '09 by phasing out The Learning Channel almost entirely. And now we're getting rid of cable and moving to an Apple TV/Roku combo, so I think I'll still be good for 2010.

2) Don't overtip. Was part of a "save money" concept. I'm a rampant overtipper. Still am. Utterly failed at this one. Not going to make a second attempt. Oh well.

3) Keep "adultifying" wardrobe. Major success with this one. Gave many bags of good but teenager-y clothes to the Salvation Army. I even studied some blogs and sites like Polyvore for outfit ideas and bought a few new things that fit well and that I'll get a lot of use out of. I think I'll keep this one up in 2010.

4) Be more open to sad or scary TV/movies. I know, number one was watch less TV, right? Well, that was about mindless TV, and a lot of stuff that I might actually find to be really good art takes a lot out of me, so sometimes I just avoid it (life can be sad and scary enough!) and go for the lighter stuff. I tried this a *bit*, I did make it all the way through Buffy (which is scarier than my usual fare). Still haven't watched The Wire.

5) Take in less celebrity gossip/superficial stuff. Hugely successful. I don't buy gossip rags. (I'm not even sure how I started doing that—I was never into that stuff and then once I was out of the academic bubble I got addicted or something.) I hardly ever go on people.com. I couldn't tell you a thing currently about who's pregnant or breaking up or dangerously losing weight. YESSS.

So far, the 2010 goals are:

1) Save more money. I got a small raise this year and want to start socking more away.

2) Take my vitamins. This is so easy. Why don't I actually do it?

3) Do my own creative projects. Creative energy was an unexpected wedding perk. Gotta ride that out.

4) Don't overbook myself. Ties in with the creative project thing. I have to choose my projects carefully and realistically consider how much time they'll take. Learned my lesson on that this year.

Do you have any resolutions for 2010?

Winter love

I'm not hating winter yet. Maybe because it's early still, or maybe because I own a bigass coat and waterproof boots. I'm craving some time away in a cabin or something, with the warmth and smoky smell of a woodstove and some acoustic guitar in the background. I'm falling in love with everything; men, women, toddlers, cups of coffee, granite buildings, pieces of music, my husband eating a big bowl of soup. Everything seems crisp and clear and irrepressibly lovely.

This could all be the cold medicine talking, I guess. Forgive me for being so moony :)

Undercover eating

OK, so I'm a little late on this one, but when I get crazy busy, it takes me a while to finish reading my New Yorker issues!

I am a big fan of eating, and living in NYC and watching a bunch of Top Chef over the past couple of years has really peaked my interest in trying out different "good" restaurants. The Michelin guide is generally considered the be-all, end-all source of restaurant recommendations...except, it seems, in NYC, where Michelin has failed to recognize local staples such as Craft (drool).

So who decides which restaurants make Michelin's cut? (In other words, who's *not* drooling over Craft?) Until now, we've never known. For the first time, in an effort to gain ground among the New York "foodie" crowd, Michelin has allowed one of their restaurant inspectors to participate in an interview. The inspector remains anonymous, but this is a fascinating read! Inspectors must always maintain their anonymity. They're undercover food detectives!

As one famous for her bafflingly disparate (high/low) tastes (yes, I drool over Craft, but revisit my posts on Teddy Grahams and Campbell's green bean casserole if you must), I don't think I would ever be very good at a job like this. But all your fancy meals paid for...a bit tempting, eh?