Happy New Year!

It only occurred to me yesterday that we are not only embarking upon a new year... This is a whole new decade. Weird. Especially since we can pretty much pinpoint our lives' "big moments" according to decade. And being that I sort of "came of age" these past ten years, I guess when I look back in retrospect, this will probably end up having been one of the most important decades in my life.

I mean, just look at it compared to the other decades...

1980's: I'm born. (Yay!) I live in a nice house in the suburbs, with parents who are married. I know no problems.

1990's: My brother is born. I go through elementary school. My parents divorce. I move. A lot. Titanic is released, and I see it 11 times in the theater. My grandpa dies. I go to a Spice Girls concert. I go through junior high.

2000's: I begin high school. I make the cheer squad. I quit the cheer squad. I go on a cruise to Alaska. I begin sophomore year at a different high school. I last a week and a half before I beg to transfer back to my old school. One Tuesday, while getting ready for school, I watch the television as the second plane hits the World Trade Center. I stay home for two days. I donate money. I get my learner's permit. I begin my junior year in high school. I develop an insane crush on a boy I hardly know. I get rejected. I get a new car a month shy of my 16th birthday. I turn 16 and get my license the following day. I go on a cruise to the Caribbean. I get sick with a horrible virus that causes my eardrum to burst. I end up missing two weeks of school. I go to Hawaii, where I stand on the beach as my mom's maid of honor in her wedding to my step-dad. I begin my senior year. I get a part-time job. I make a new best friend. I go to lots of parties. I kiss lots of boys. I throw a house party when my parents go out of town. I get in a world of trouble for said party. I go to a pre-graduation party at best friend's house. I meet a guy there who make me laugh more than I ever had. He drives me to my graduation. I don't see him again after that. I go to Hawaii for a week with best friend. We meet and kiss lots of boys. I come home and get in a car wreck. I walk away unscathed. I attend a theater arts program at UCLA for the summer. The guy from my graduation day calls me. He asks me out. I accept. We proceed to go on the best first date in the history of the world. Guy becomes boyfriend. I have huge falling out with best friend. Boyfriend starts working for my mom and step-dad. I stand by boyfriend's side as his dad battles cancer. I drop everything when we learn his dad lost the battle. We move into our own apartment together. We adopt two cats. I watch my dad re-marry. We go on a cruise to Hawaii. I work at a restaurant, and then in an office. We go to San Francisco. Boyfriend proposes. I accept. I start a blog. I get laid off from my job. I pretend to be a housewife for 6 months. I plan a wedding, rather half-assedly. Despite that, our wedding turns out fabulous, and Boyfriend officially becomes Husband. I vote for the first time in a historical presidential election. We move out of our apartment and into a townhouse. I start working with children. I feel satisfied with a job for the first time. We watch Husband's mom re-marry a wonderful man. I transfer from a community college to a university. We celebrate one year of marriage, and five years together. I turn 23.


Looking back on all the important events that stand out in my mind this past decade, I can't help but be excited (and a little terrified) for what these next ten years may bring.

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year. To be honest, I've never actually kept any of my resolutions in the past. Change is a big deal to me. Even when that change simply applies to one area of my life. I have to want it, to make it happen. And just because January 1st happens to come around, it doesn't necessarily mean I want change, or am ready to make it. Which is kinda ironic considering that I have a LOT of room for improvement.

Instead of making resolutions this year, I decided to make a list of goals - my goals for the next decade. For a procrastinator like myself, this is the perfect way to do something. You know, since I have ten whole years to complete the list. And even if I don't cross everything off the list in ten years, at least I'll still have a clear vision of what I would like to achieve or experience in my lifetime. Besides, the only timeline we live by is our own. And I don't know about you, but I take my life one day at a time.

So here it goes, my goals for the next decade, the 2010's, in no particular order...

• Graduate with my Bachelor's degree
• Score an awesome internship in movie or television production
• Work hard doing something I love
  
• Travel to Europe
• Travel to the East Coast
• Go to Rockefellar Center at Christmas time
• See a live taping of Oprah (I need to hurry on this one)
• Eat at The French Laundry in Napa
• Pay off our credit cards
• Buy a house
• Buy my own domain name
• Have my blog professionally designed
• Read. A lot.
  
• Watch the classics: Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, and the Godfather trilogy.
• Buy a new camera and learn photography basics
  
• Scrapbook and make albums for life's big events
  
• Go on a hike
• Take a yoga class
• Attend a marriage group at church
  
• Volunteer my time to help others
• Fix the tooth that drives me nuts
• Adopt a dog from a shelter
• Have my writing published
• Swim with dolphins
• See a Broadway show
• Decorate and paint my house
• Go camping
• Visit Billy's family in Oregon
• Learn the different line dances they do at country bars
  
• Visit Hearst Castle
• Stay at the Madonna Inn
• Sing karaoke
  
• Learn to play a whole song on guitar
• Treat our parents to dinner someplace nice
• Have our photos taken by The Image is Found photographers, Nate & Jaclyn Kaiser
• Have some babies
• Experience life as a stay at home mom
• Learn sign language, along with my kids

I reserve the right to change and add to this list, as I see fit.

Best wishes to everyone in this next year, and all the ones that follow it!

(By the way, what the heck is everyone calling this decade? The teens? The twenty tens? The tens? I feel a little out of the loop.)