So this is the New Year

MMXI, hooray for Roman Numerals.

I rang in the New Year the way I have for the past 10 years: watching movies with my sister and our old friend Lexie (Seriously, I remember ringing in 2000 with her. I think we watched Quest for Camelot). This year, it was a festival of Miyazaki movies (all in Japanese, not the English dubs) with Inception for dessert.

This year, however, we were graced with a rare treat: snow! Being Californian and therefore wimps, we stayed shivering on the porch and watched it fall for 30 seconds before returning to Nausicaa, but it was beautiful nonetheless. I did crash my car into a ditch on the way home, because apparently my Bay-Area conditioned Tercel isn't quite up to handling an inch of snow. I'd never lost control of my car before that night, and it was the first time I'd ever felt as though my fate was not at all in my grasp. Even with my hands on the wheel and my foot on the brake (which, I know, actually made the car skid more, but I was panicking), the car was moving of its own accord, and it was not up to me whether it would crash in a ditch, into a tree, down a hill, or into a lake. Luckily, it chose a shallow ditch that I could easily get out of. I went 5 mph the rest of the way home.

It was also the first time I've ever understood why someone might need an enormous car, with the exception of carting around stuff and people. My little car might be relatively eco-friendly (25 mpg!), but up against wind and snow it doesn't fare too well. We're not talking massive storms, either: just foothill flurries and mildly upsetting gusts. Oh well.

I did get myself the most epic journal for this year. At Staples, I asked the clerk (who, incidentally, was an old friend/actor of mine), "Do you have any notebooks with, like 500 pages?" She answered, "No," and so I moved on. Target was a similar failure, though my sister tells me that we shouldn't shop there because they gave a lot of money to an anti-gay rights group. But at Barnes & Noble, I found this beast:

(Appx. thickness: 1.5 inches)

And I said, "MINE."

Because of the monstrosity of this notebook and the limitations of my bank account/gift card stash, I was sadly unable to join the fountain pen club that has become quite glamorous at my school. I'd only lose it, in any case, and I have terrible handwriting.

I haven't had much chance to think about my resolutions, mostly because I have such a poor track record with keeping promises to myself (I hate failure). But apart from the usual (be friendly, eat well, start flossing your damn teeth...) I've come up with these three:

1) Do something physical every day
2) Do something musical every day
3) Write something every day

Oh, and blog more :)

Happy travels!