The 2005 Resolution List, Annotated

TO DO IN 2005

Live deeply, joyfully, passionately, and well.

Discipline
Cook a proper dinner for a friend once a month.
I made cranberry chicken for Ben on January 31 and I'm having my book group over for pancakes this Tuesday. . . . March-December is still open, though, so if you'd like to invite yourself over, I'm happy to cook!
Spend three minutes cleaning before going to bed.
Keep a plant alive all year.
My new plant is a philodendron named Philomena Loveday. So far, so good.
Save one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars.
Run at least three miles once a week.
Send more mail.
When I got my beloved new filing cabinet and I was organizing all the notes and letters from friends I've saved over the years, I decided I wanted to send more mail too.
No excuses, no fear.
Floss.

Experience
Watch a sunrise and a sunset.
Go rock climbing and kayaking.
Rock climbing was on last year's list and I never did it, and the city offers free kayaking lessons on the Hudson piers in the summer.
Picnic and play Scrabble in Bryant Park.
I've wanted to do this for years.
Visit Montauk Point.
The Exploration Resolution for the year to the northeast tip of Long Island, to parallel my 2004 trip to Breezy Point (one of the southwesternmost points of Long Island).
Touch toes with ease.
Rewrite and submit “Falling in Love” talk to a magazine.
This is my talk about how finding a publisher is like falling in love: an arduous but rewarding process where you try to find the right match.
Write a bad novel.
Try four new cuisines.
I've already had Austrian, and I have Filipino, Russian, and Senegalese in my sights.
Learn to knit/crochet.
Negative capability.

Read
The Iliad
The Brothers Karamazov
Daniel Deronda
Midnight’s Children