• I became a card-carrying (err… degree-having?) librarian;
• I got a full-time job;
• I moved into my own apartment;
• I knit 28 things;
• I read a lot (including nonfiction!);
• I started a work-related blog, where I maintain a professional reading log;
• I got really into biking and participated in the Five Boro Bike Tour; and
• Along with 4 coworkers, I presented at a large IT conference.

When all is said and done, I completed 8 things from my list of goals for this past year.  That’s kind of awesome.  The remaining goals from that list hold true for this year, too:

• Get published;
• Keep apartment tidy;
• Cook more;
• Blog more;
• Read the newspaper; and
• Learn to crochet.

I’d like to add a few more goals:

• Be more productive (at work, at home, at life);
• Join a gym (as I’m far too sedentary); and
• Be more active (socially).

Here’s to a healthy and prosperous new year!  :)

• Knit more! I really need to learn how to knit in the round (maybe consider buying circular needles) and work on the various increases/decreases.  I also just need to knit more to get better at it.  (As the saying goes, practice makes perfect!)  I need to learn to measure gauge and work on keeping my tension even.  And get started on that Ravelry queue!
• Make handmade gifts! With my new knitting skills in hand, I want to be able to make gifts for everyone this year.  Luckily, I have a small, close-knit (har!) circle of friends and family… so this should be relatively easy.
• Learn to crochet! It just seems to go hand-in-hand with knitting.  Learning to crochet, however, is not crucial so I won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen this year.
• Read more! For pleasure, that is.  I’ve missed books so much over the past 1.5 years… I really need to get back into it and start devouring novels.  Maybe consider trying nonfiction this year?  (I don’t know what it is… but I hate nonfiction.)
• Get published! I have ideas for an article that I can/should write, now I just need to start researching and writing.  Always easier said than done, no?  But I’ll only be working a maximum of 25 hours per week so I should have plenty of time to achieve this goal.
• Find a full-time job! Hopefully getting published will help with this but I would like to find a full-time gig at a college library.  (Not like I’m not looking… but still.)
• Cook more! I love cooking but I haven’t been able to do much of it over the last 1.5 years (*shakes fist in general direction of grad school*).  I want to learn to cook with more exotic ingredients so I’d like to try new recipes every once in a while.  Perhaps one new recipe per week?  And maybe blog about it?  (That will help with another goal, see below.)
• Go on a short bike tour! In November,  I mentioned that I want to bike from NYC to Bear Mountain State Park.  Well, I’d actually like that to happen!  So I will need to train (maybe consider getting a temporary gym membership to use their stationary bikes or buy a bicycle trainer to exercise on my actual bike) and prepare for the trip.  Buy maps!  And necessary equipment.
• Keep apartment tidy! This is probably the hardest of them all.  Somehow, after I clean my place, it gets trashed within minutes.  There are suddenly books, papers, envelopes, cups, snacks, etc. everywhere.  Hopefully not being in school anymore will help with this.  (Over the last 1.5 years, I attended school full-time while working about 30 hours per week.  I was always too beat to do any cleaning by the time I got home.)
• Start paying off school loan! Ugh.  I dread this one.  Grad school was way too expensive… and now I have to start paying off the loan.  So I need to learn some money saving techniques and begin paying off the government.  This is a goal that will take many years but it’s one that I want to start addressing this year.  The sooner this gets done, the better.  (I downloaded GnuCash to help me keep track of my assets and liabilities… and started clipping coupons to save $$$ when shopping at the supermarket.)
• Bike more! In an effort to be fiscally frugal and environmentally friendly, I really need to embrace my bicycle as my main mode of transportation.  Or combine it with mass transit to make it feasible here on Staten Island.  The first thing I will need to do is figure out a good route to my (brand spankin’ new!) part-time job.  I have to keep in mind that bikes are not allowed on buses so I will have to use the train or bike the 8 miles up there.  (Eight miles sounds easy but this is alongside cars… whose drivers are not used to cycling commuters and usually have baseball bats under their seats.  I’m just saying.)
• Read the newspaper! I am guilty of only logging onto NYTimes.com when I have absolutely nothing else to do at work.  That means that I’ve been on the site maybe 8 times over the last year.  What a shame.  I need to start reading the paper and becoming more aware of current events.  Currently, I get my news via WNYC… which is fine but it only happens in the car since that’s the only place I listen to the radio.  However, it’s rare that I am in control of the radio dials when I’m in a car.  (I carpool to work.)  So figure out a way to get the news!
• Blog more! I don’t blog like everyone else blogs… but I need to start.  I need to find others with similar interests and form a community.  This will motivate me to blog more (which will help with the writing skills necessary to get published, see above) and I’ll have a network of similar-minded acquaintances to whom I can turn in times of need.
• Get a new apartment! I currently live in the boondocks of Staten Island… rent-free but still in the boondocks!  If I stay on the Island, I’d like to move north to be closer to the Bridge and the Ferry (and, thus, closer to Brooklyn and Manhattan, respectively).  However, this goal interferes with others (i.e., “Start paying off school loan!”) while aiding others (i.e., “Bike more!”).  I’m not sure how I feel about this… but I would love a new apartment.  (I currently live in the basement apartment of my parents’ house… hence the rentlessness.)

Whew.  OK.  I think I need to get started on some of these now.