1) Seriously curtail the soda intake. Suck it up and learn to drink water, with as few adulterants as possible. At the very least, stop getting through literally quarts of Coke Zero per day. Little bottle of peppermint oil at work, Arnold Palmer in the In N Out drive-thru, Penguin machine at home with bitters instead of syrups. Whatever it takes.
2) Exercise. The Y. Weights and running. Take the stairs in all 4 major supported buildings, all the time. Once the bag and the 6 PM sky are both lightened, start walking home from Caltrain.
3) Try to expand my blogging beyond politics, portable electronics and Vanderbilt athletics. I’m sure I must have opinions on something else…right?
4) Along the same lines, try not to get too overrun by the elections. They carried me in 2008 blog-wise, but getting emotionally engaged in this year’s races will probably be the death of me if I let it. Time to loosen the grip and let it go and hope that things will work out without burning 5000 words agonizing about what if it doesn’t. Burn that bridge when we get to it.
5) Keep the toxicity at arm’s length wherever possible. It worked this year, mostly. Need to keep it up.
6) Spend more time in the city. I live 40 miles (or an hour on the train) from a world-class metropolis and it’s high time I explored and embraced it. If I need Team Black Swan as a lever/crutch to get me up there, so be it, but it’s time to start doing the flaneur bit properly.
7) I have enough jackets, enough footwear, enough watches and enough Nerf guns to last me a decade. Give it a rest. I actually went 4 years once without paying money for a new jacket or a new pair of DMs. Try that again, sort of.
8) Get out. I derived a good bit of satisfaction from those nights of downtime at O’Flaherty’s or Trials in 2007…and 2009…and 2011…but for whatever reason, the Sunday night retreat once a month always seems to trail off by March. I’m going to give it another try if at all possible.