1) Pay off debt & bank as much extra money as possible!

As the Great Dental Woes of 2011 have become the Bankrupting Dental Woes of the Two Thousands (or so its starting to seem as I guesstimated I’ve probably spent $10k out of pocket since having my own dental insurance policy in 2002!), I’m realistic in the fact I’m gonna probably end 2012 with a pitiful future house fund and a dentist that’ll be able to better clothe/feed his children at that expense. I do have every.single.intention. of being out of debt on the cc balance I have now (for spring 2012 tuition and a few dumb purchases in 2011) that’s locked in on a 0% BT through November 2012. I don’t plan to carry a balance on the other two cards that I use for daily purchases and gasoline and pay off at the end of each month (one nets me a decent cashback bonus of approx $100/year for using it & the other one nets me about $150/year towards paying off my student loan balance). My student loans will be paid in full by year’s end (they’re just over $2600 as of today). My car will be paid off by summer’s end; however, its falling apart slowly, out of warranty completely, and just surpassed 100k last month, so I plan to trade it in on something else that I hope won’t be falling apart before its paid off! … that’ll be sometime between September and December 2012. I am contemplating two weekend trips this year + possibly one longer trip in late spring that I need to save some money for … at least one of those I’ll have travel companions to split costs with, the other two I don’t know yet. Meanwhile I want to beef up my emergency savings, try to build back up my medical savings once I get past what has to be done this winter (its about 1/3 done now), and bank some biz income towards buying a 70-200mm lens for biz & personal usage. And maybe, just maybe, if the biz has a banner year beyond my expectations AND Canon finally releases a quirk free successor to the 5D Mark II, I’ll be able to afford to pay cash in hand for it late this year.

2) Get & stay healthier.

I’m gonna be open here but not to the point of TMI in hopes I’ll have some positive support in achieving this one this year. Family and some friends know about this, but I’m putting it out there for everyone else to help hold me accountable and be supportive (btw, if you don’t have anything positive to say, click the X in the corner now.)

I’ve been reading up on foods to help counter this pesky phenomenon known as Acid Reflux that I seem to have developed/inherited. I’d like to keep what teeth I have before it destroys them all. Having TMJ is bad enough, need to lower my stress and decrease the # of times I spend more than half an hour with my mouth being worked on so it will stop flaring up so often so I won’t have to take those pesky muscle relaxants that make me feel dingy. I’d also like to counter all these weight (30 lbs) that stress and PCOS have helped me pack on since 2007. I’ll be happy to lose 15 of it. My wardrobe budget would be glad too …

While this is a year-long goal, next month I’ll begin spelling out what small steps I’m working towards to achieve this. Right now I’m looking for the right workout regime and foods that’ll help both issues.

3) Focus on education/growth as a photographer.

Essentially, all those materials I didn’t finish last year? Gonna finish them if it kills me or means a little less sleep a couple evenings a week. Also I have two photo projects this year — a 52 week challenge (year three of shooting/blogging an image a week on my biz blog) + monthly self portraits inspired by a quote that speaks to me that month. Also going to invest in a few tools to challenge myself photographically (filters primarily).

4) Either make or buy American for part to all of every present I gift this year.

If you’ve seen the Made in America series that ABC News has broadcast about since last fall, then you know what I’m talking about … how many jobs we can help create/maintain if we buy American instead of cheap overseas crap. I bargain shop & buy gifts for people year-round as I come across things I know family and the friends I gift to will like, so usually they get twice as much as a result. This year I intend for at least one if not all of the items I gift them for birthdays/Christmas to be American made or made by me. I’d love to be able to do the same for baby and wedding shower gifts that come up during the year if possible … but I’m not going to hold myself to that one since those are usually purchased from registries!

Then today I volunteered my photography services for the local CASA’s 5k race. As much as I enjoyed photographing it and helping an organization I would love to volunteer for if it weren’t for the conflict of interest better known as my day job (being that CASA volunteers — Court Appointed Special Advocates – serve as advocates for children and sometimes their parents are defendants in criminal cases, which is what my day job involves), I realized I wish I had ran/jogged/walked the race today. 

(umm, sorry for that run-on!)

Its been twelve years since I ran a race — the 400m to be exact — and thirteen years since I ran a distance race (2 miles for cross-country). I haven’t ran actively in two years, prior to that, I hadn’t ran actively in nine years due to knee problems and life getting in the way. I was at a mile and a half in 20 minutes when I gave up at that point — found out that I was way down on the wait list for phase II of the FBI Agent Applicant program and wasn’t gonna get that call anytime soon. Back in cross country, my best one mile split was seven minutes for the first mile. Best finish was in the sixteen minute range for two miles — two races, one of which I was sick as a dog and a cold front hit that morning (in Houston at regionals), after training and running races in 90 to 100 degree heat all season. 

So its safe to say I’m seriously out of shape. Which is obviously why I didn’t sign up to run but offered to help in another way.

And due to a nice little pesky health condition I was diagnosed with over a year ago, I’ve been battling weight gain that diet alone isn’t countering — so that has me motivated to get back in shape too.

Coincidentally, I discovered that someone had distributed entry forms on all the windshields for a 5k on June 19th in a nearby town when I got back to my car. I decided right then and there that one way or another, I’ll be in that race, whether its running, jogging, or walking the distance.

So now that I have some motivation and want to, I need someone to hold me accountable to training. I have approximately eight weeks, one of which I’ll be traveling out of state. I’d ask my brother, but his idea of motivating me isn’t my idea of motivation and he has an injured knee, so he can’t run with me. Not that he’s ever ran more than 800m at one time as it is …

… powernaps. are. awesome. Have become an almost daily routine of late.

… which now means I use the alarm function on my cell phone more than I use the phone to talk.

… medicine the doc put me on has horrible side effects. Stopped taking it after a week (which was last week) because I couldn’t take the combo of nauseating headaches and the queesiness hitting at random or not knowing what would trigger one or both. It got so bad I fought the temptation to go home on two different days and caved on the third. At least I know now that the nauseating headaches the past couple of days are allergy related by the pollen forecast. Still need to call the doc back to find out if there’s a lower dosage or alternative to that Rx.

… same Rx also has led to a slight change in diet. Must lower sodium intake. Do you know how tough that is? Go look at every. single. “healthy.” frozen. meal. box. Or lunchmeat. Best alternative I’ve found have been the Steamfresh microwavable veggies — the plain white rice w/ veggies only has 15mg per serving. By cutting back at lunch, watching intake w/ beverages and breakfast, I can eat a ‘normal’ meal in the evenings.

… oh, and I’ve *lost* 3.5 lbs in the past two weeks. Have to assume its the salt because its the only actual change I’ve made to date.

… speaking of salt and lowering my consumption, I’ve had to cut back on one of my favorite beverages: orange gatorade. I. ♥. that. stuff.

… dad: if you’re cutting back on salt, you’re gonna have to give up the gatorade
me: but I love orange gatorade.
dad: it has too much salt.
me: so?
dad: switch to orange flavored water or koolaid
me: not. the. same. trust me.
dad: trust me, you don’t need the salt. find an alternative

… I haven’t found an alternative to the orange gatorade dilemma yet. Orange Sunkist and Sunny D just aren’t the same as much as I love them.

… speaking of loves, I have a new photography gadget in route that I snagged from a fellow photographer late last week. Had planned to wait until next January to snag one, but since its not being produced anymore, bargains are hard to find.

… while now on the photography tangent, I’m rotating sneak peeks on the biz blog from three sessions earlier this month through the end of next week. A fourth session is currently in the queue to have its own entry after I wrap up the editing on the first three.

… I’ll no more wrap all four of them up than I have at least three more next month (plus second shooting a wedding) to shoot and edit.

… Which means I have a dozen or so partially completed biz projects that are taking forever to finish.

… I also have to find a new webhost (for numerous reasons). Anyone absolutely love their’s — need unlimited add-on domains, unlimited mysql databases, linux server (no Windows servers!), little to no downtime, quick support response, and a whole lotta server space. Leaning towards Dreamhost or GoDaddy at the moment.

And with that, I probably stop now that you’re completely lost and don’t remember how I started off this entry …