New Year Resolutions...part 1

Ok, since it's the last day of 2008, I figured I should add some New Years Resolutions. I'll let Pete add his own, but here are some of mine...

1. Do you see that list of web site links over there on the right? ---> I have added another favorite link: my own web site for kids, www.Tolerance4Kids.com, which took me several years to teach myself how to create, and another 2 years fighting with the Museum lawyer over legalities and such, (plus a nasty 6 month harrassment and deliberate computer crash from a former Journey employee that delayed the launch...) but it's something I am still very proud of. I had originally received a $5,000 grant from the woman who hid Anne Frank to complete it, but that ran out after two years, so now it's all coming from my own pocket to keep it going. Well, my first resolution is to update it and make it bigger and better. But alas, right now, my computer is dead, (it won't even turn on anymore), and all my files are on it. Time for an upgrade! Once I get access to my files again, I can re-create it and update everything. It is long overdue.

2. Pete and I decided that we are both sick and tired of having Type II Diabetes. So in 2009, we're going to get rid of it, and that means LOSE WEIGHT. Each month, starting tomorrow, we are going to take pictures of ourselves, and start working out 3 or 4 times a week, and neither of us are going to drink soda anymore either. I had previously lost 45 pounds on my own before I met Pete, but I still have more to go before I rid myself of this Diabetes annoyance. We are going to keep a journal, and POSSIBLY add it to the blog too, so you can all keep up with our progress as we go.

3. Of course, when I left DC, I did have a very good paying job that I enjoyed...so quitting that and giving up everything I had worked to achieve for a new life with Pete here in the 'burgh, and subsequently ending up unemployed since then here in Pittsburgh, has NOT been very fun for me. Not one bit. I am a very creative person, so I keep busy doing projects. But even with projects, I get bored and depressed sitting around thinking too much and making myself nuts.

So the next resolution is to GET A JOB! Today I got a call from a temp agency and I may be interviewing soon for a temp-to-permanent position working for a CEO of an educational institution here in the 'burgh, and making almost the same money as I was in DC. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me. I'm about to go INSANE sitting around here doing nothing every day. The temp agency keeps me going, but for one or two weeks at a time at most. Then I sit and wait and twiddle my thumbs for the next thing. SIGH. Sux2bme sometimes. But hey, I don't know Pittsburgh at all so I figured that was a good way to get started, doing temp jobs.

Everybody who knows me, already knows that the UTOPIAN job of my dreams is to be my own boss, and go from K-12 school to school every day, talking to kids about Tolerance, Diversity, Racism, Prejudice, Anne Frank and the Holocaust. I've done this a lot in Michigan, after 9/11, and before that I worked at the Holocaust Museum in DC for 6 years doing this every day. But since I'm not Jewish, and since I no longer work for the Museum, it's hard for me to do that in Jewish schools...and since I don't have a teaching degree either, it's hard for me to get into the public schools too. SIGH. (But in 2009 I may also go back to finish my teaching certificate which is half done--and hell, maybe I'll convert to Judaism too, just to get a leg up--ya never know). So we'll see how that goes. THAT is my life's passion, so if I can figure out a way to do THAT, I would be the happiest human on earth. Until then, the temp thing will have to suffice.

4. Well, that leads us to the #4 resolution, which is directly connected to #3, and that is: Save Money. It's like a mandatory resolution every year on my list, but rarely actually happens. I think a better goal is to pay off my car and strive to become debt-free, which I'm rather close to being now. We'll see how it goes.

I'm sure I will think of more, but for now those will have to do. I'll write more soon.

Love, Becky