HAPPY NEW YEARS everyone!
2005=It's going to be GREAT! (bc I said so ;o))

I spent New Year's eve w/ my cousin Alisha, whom I hardly get to see anymore (she's my old roommate from UIUC, and she finished grad school last May w/ her M.S. in architecture, and she works as an architect in Lincoln). We had a lot of fun catching up, but called it an early night due to the fact that we both had to be up for our family Christmas celebration in Flora in the morning.

After VERY little sleep. we headed to Flora (we being my whole family, plus Mitch ) around 9 a.m. It was a nice day and I got some great gifts, and it was fun seeing everyone. After some vigorous card games (B.S. & Egyptian Rat Screw-the latter of which I had never heard of until today), we all ate lunch, followed by a LOOOOOONG game of Trivial Pursuit: the 90's. After leading my team to victory with my massive knowledge of music, movies, and politics (I try not to brag-hehe...seriously, the others helped too ;o)), me and the fam + Mitch headed home. And here I am at home now. It was a nice day, actually one of the better days in recent history with the extended family.

I'm truly exhausted, but I'm actually excited about the new year...trust me, grad school has been stressful (it's going great-but still stressful), in addition to the balancing act between the real world & being a student. In addition to this, there are always dramatic relationships-whether it be your friends or anything else-but I'm making an oath to myself to keep this year as drama-free as possible. I hope my friends will do the same.
Goals for the new year:
-Improve my physical health-I'm actually very healthy, but I want to get in shape and eat better-as much for the improvement of my health and energy as for my physical appearance.
-Stop dwelling on the small things that may bother me. Life is too short to stress over petty stuff. In the end a lot of the little stuff that gets us worried won't matter much at all in the big picture.
-Trusting in myself and my instincts. If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust?
-Allow myself to make mistakes...they are what shape us as people. It is how one learns. Also, working to not be as critical of myself as I have been in the past...I am my biggest critic and it isn't always a good thing.
-Finally, allow myself to stop worrying so much about the impressions and beliefs of others, and do what I know is good & right for me. This kind of goes along with trusting my instincts. :o)

So those are my goals for 2005...I have written them down because this way, I'm much more likely to follow them. I also hate calling them resolutions...because I never follow my resolutions...so instead, I choose to make goals that will make me a better person.

Anyway...I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years! I hope to see a LOT of my friends at the party on the 8th...contact me for details! That's all for now...thank you and GOODNIGHT! :o)