Hello 2010!

I am so excited about this new year.  Not that I hated 2009, but growing pains are, well, painful.  I did, however, make significant progress towards my MAG.  I refined what i wanted my life to look like and made measurable steps.

My husband and I live in New York, and will for the next seven years.  That is when my step-daughter, Lil' Bit, graduates high school.  The plan is to then move to Bay St. Louis, MS, where we will be self-employed accountants and renovate houses.  We will work crazy hours Feb-Apr and go to the beach every day in the summer.  Then we will drive into New Orleans for the weekends for the best food and partying in the world. 

When Katrina hit, all but five hundred of the eight thousand housed in Bay St. Louis were destroyed.  The community has made great strides in recuperating.  There has been reconstruction, but it is going slowly.  We want to contribute to the revival.  There will still be many opportunities, in seven years, for us to make a difference.

To that end, we accomplished several things in 2009.  My husband enrolled in a one-year accounting program.  I enrolled in a bookkeeping certificate program and income tax preparation class.  I have passed all the tests for the bookkeeping class.  I have only my graduation project to complete.  I completed the income tax class and made some great new friends in the process.  I was also offered (and accepted) a position for the tax season.

In 2009, I complete my first short story ever.  Well, amend that...I finished the first draft of my first short story ever.  I've started many, many stories.  My internal editor always sabatoged me after a few pages.  But, I managed to put an entire story to paper.  Beginning, middle, and end.  I also started this here blog, pardner.

Now for 2010.  As I've mentioned, I don't make huge resolutions.  I take this time to realign my goals, if I need to.  Well, as the preposition at the end of the last sentence might have led you to believe, I need to better my grammar.  I have a bright, shiny new grammar book waiting for me.  I will be placing it by my bedside. 

Also, I'm not going to resolve to go to the gym every day.  I currently make it every two weeks.  I know, I'm lazy.  So, I think reasonable improvement would be once a week.  I am a bartender and that is a physically active position.  So, the situation is not as dire as it would appear.  But, these flabby arms are that dire. 

I resolve not to freak out on customers during tax season.  Okay, that might be unreasonable.  I resolve not to freak out and use obscenities.  I will finish my bookkeeping certificate and enroll in the one-year accounting program.  I will also rewrite and submit my story.

Not too much.  All realistic and attainable.  More importantly, all move me closer to the life I want to lead.

So, hello 2010! And Happy New Year to you all.