Yesterday was Solstice, which means the sun’s year has ended. The days are getting longer now, the year is waxing, and it is time to think about last year and to plan for 2009.
COOKING This has been a good year for cooking. Dan and I both decided to take more responsibility in the kitchen so that we can have better food more often. Good food is very important to both of us, and we didn’t feel it was worth it to spend money on lunches that we could barely choke down, they were so mediocre. So we stepped things up and started cooking every day, and added Sundays to our cooking days, so that Saturday is the only night we go out now. That means that when we go out on Saturdays we can afford to go to slightly nicer places now, since we usually don’t go out on Sundays. Actually, we ended up only cooking every other Sunday. Half the time we get really cheap takeout instead. Thankfully we live in a city where really cheap doesn’t have to mean really gross. We tried to make it to the Farmers’ Market every weekend to get some fresh fruits and veggies, and sometimes meats, which has been really great. Dan’s learned a lot about cooking, and I have been trying to learn a lot about improvising. I’ve gotten pretty good at sauces!
Next year we plan on doing more of the same. I’m excited for the first fiddlehead ferns and asparagus of the season. Mondays and Wednesdays I have been having to make my own sandwiches because of having classes all day without a lunch hour, so I’ll have to allow for that. And there are some really excellent restaurants Dan and I keep vowing to visit on a more regular basis:
Sitka & Spruce
Crush
Poppy
Quinn’s
We also really wanted to go back to Mortimer’s in Boise, but I just checked their website and they closed!! :C noooooooooo… 
I have so many memories there. I hope something just as good takes its place. *lights a candle in memorium*
And we’ve really got to try:
Elemental at Gasworks
Harvest Vine
Osteria la Spiga
and Tilth Restaurant (website closed) for dinner. We recently had an awesome brunch there.
Elemantal is the most important though. If Dan thinks of anything to add to these lists, I’ll try to do so.
DRAWING: So I really feel like I didn’t know how to draw before this year. Obviously I’ve still got so much to learn, but the things I’ve learned have been enormous. Thank you, Shane, for teaching my summer drawing class. It really set the stage for some hardcore learning, and I really miss having him around. (He’s teaching in Wisconsin now.) And Helen…her class is like a womb of creativity. <3
Next quarter I’m learning drawing from Zhi…and I will continue to feel like an artist in a blender. But every quarter the stuff I’ve drawn feels unrecognizable as the stuff I’ve drawn before, as if the growth is exponential. It’s hard to look ahead and see myself as being successful, but at the rate I’m learning…well, there’s no way to have learned it all, and there’s sure as hell no way I’m going to come close to learning very much in school compared to artists who have honed their skills for decades. But it will sure be better than last year, which was infinitely better than the year before that.
FASHION: Meh, I don’t know what to say about this one! At the beginning of the year I wore only sweats because I was trying to encourage myself to exercise more. Now I just want to look like an art student. I have been working on looking classy and artsy because I wanted to “get in the habit” of it before trying for an internship in an art gallery. I don’t think I was really successful until autumn when I went shopping for our trip to the east coast. I love the stuff I got. I got that adorable olive green shirtdress with the hood that I can wear in the summer and winter, and I got my dream boots! 
This year I want to still try to look good. I am not going to try to do my makeup every day. I tried last year, and it just got annoying. It’s not like a lot of people wear makeup during the day in Seattle anyway. And Dan and I go out often enough on weekend evenings that I can wear makeup on those occasions. I have to wear it sometime, you know. I love makeup. 
I need to try to get good stuff for winter season. I have gotten a purse already, and I need to find a wallet. I have a couple of coats and I have boots. I need some more sweaters: black, ice blue, and lavender would be nice. Chocolate brown, too.
And I need to get my hair cut before I go back to school!
GARDENING: I don’t know if this category is going to carry over into 2009. 
In 2007 I had as a goal for 2008 to volunteer on a local farm for a week. There are some farms that will give you room and board and meals for a week in exchange for helping them with their harvest work. It sounded like a blast! But then Paula asked if we would like to share their garden with them, so that was the perfect opportunity to fulfill that dream. And it was! But I was soooo busy all summer and fall. Plus, they live on the other side of Seattle, so it’s not convenient to drive out there to pull weeds while I’m running errands. If I could just stop by and work for fifteen minutes or so a couple or three days a week, it would be much easier. But driving there and back takes at least forty minutes out of the day, plus a few to work there, and often I just don’t have that hour to spare.
I think I’ll definitely try to grow a tomato plant indoors this summer. My mint plant died, and my basil plant is losing some of its leaves, while still growing new ones…I don’t know what it’s doing. XD But we don’t have room for a lot of plants, so I think I’ll just leave it at that! Tomato and basil it is for now! …Man, but some strawberries sure would be nice, too. :9
MAINTENANCE: Hmm, this isn’t really the kind of thing that you have far-reaching goals for. XD Stay ahead of things. Keep up with the laundry and try to keep the table cleared. Try to keep the clothes off the floor. Stuff like that. Having cleaners come every other week helps a lot, because it forces us to tidy up at least that often, so they can actually clean. 
I guess our maintenance arrangement has been working out for us!
MISCELLANEOUS CRAFTS: I finished knitting my scarf! I have plans to rip out the spring scarf I knitted and re-do it. It’s really wide and short. It needs to be really narrow and long.
I do want to learn how to sew, but I think I’m going to save that for when I’m done with school? I remember sewing on the weekends with my mom; that seems like a fun weekend activity to revisit…when I have weekends on a regular basis again. I can’t remember if there are any other miscellaneous crafts I’d like to learn.
PAINTING: o_O Great learning has driven me to madness! And I’m only going to get madder…
PHOTOGRAPHY: Photography is also not big on my goals. I always carry my camera and love taking shots. I just need to make sure I upload them and post them regularly. 
PHYSICAL HEALTH: So I started out the year in the midst of trying to learn to jog…and I learned that I really just hate jogging. I worked at learning to enjoy it, with a really positive attitude, for a whole year before I finally just realized that I wasn’t enjoying myself. But I know how much my body needs movement…my hip needs it or else it could eventually deteriorate (that’s what I get for years of trying not to shake my bum when I walk!) and my back and neck need it to keep my core strong and my migraines to stay away. I tend to walk a lot when I’m at school, and I try to take the stairs in the art building. In the winter, I refuse to avoid the ubiquitous treats. I just try to stick to healthy ideas here and there…eat lots of fruit (harder to do in the winter, but I’ve been buying juicy and delicious pears and apples and bananas) and stop eating when you’re full. And drink lots of water. I’ve actually been drinking lots of white tea. :9 When the weather warms up (and it’s light past 6 p.m.) I’ll try walking home from school every once in a while, if I have time.
I’m due for the dentist. I flossed more last year than I have the year before, but it still wasn’t much. I’m going to try to floss a little more this year.
I also want to take yoga. There are beginner classes Monday mornings…I think they would really help me get ready for a week of Zhi classes.
POTTERY: I still want to take more pottery classes this year.
READING: This past year I didn’t read as many important books as I would have liked, but I did entertain myself with a lot of good fluff. I will probably read more fluff this year. But I also have some Palahniuk waiting in the wings…and a new Tad Williams tome scheduled for release in the fall!
ME: At the beginning of last year, I wanted to work on being a harder worker, and learning to be able to work outside my home and feel like I was home no matter where I was. Well, that’s difficult for an introvert. At the end of spring quarter I finally decided it wasn’t going to work and decided my focus should instead be on staying on task while I’m at home. I do prefer painting here, although the set up is terrible (and it’s hard to do in the winter because it gets dark so early).
My focus this year will be continuing to work harder and take time to meditate when I’m feeling overwhelmed, to center and relax, and talk to myself and understand my own thought processes so they don’t run away with me. I’m really nervous (actually scared shitless) about getting an internship this summer, but I’ve already got some damn good opportunities beginning to line up for me. I just need to get a little research done and a couple of people to meet with and I’ll be set up.
I guess I’m as ready for 2009 as I’ll ever be!
I like the way Christmas ends the year with a bang. And then there are a few limbo days between Christmas and New Years where you get to come down from the high a little bit, or recover from it, as the case may be. 
I was tagged by Christina Kubicki Harper (from high school!) to do this meme…I’m not going to tag 25 people though. XD Maybe just one or two. 
My Autumn quarter pretty much ended Friday. I still have to show up tomorrow for my final critique in my painting class, but I don’t have any more work to do. I’m done until January 5!