How Twenty-Aught-Five Worked Like It Has

· I spent the most time reading since college.

· I spent more time writing. This included poetry, personal essays, letters, a short story, and more emails than ever.

· One of my poems was published in a small St. Paul publication called Ripples.

· My consumption of doughnuts was up.

· I played piano for a group of people mare than ever.

· I learned from some mistakes.

· I was a nanny over the summer. This was my first full-time work in over two years and I successfully mislead the family that I’m an organized person.

· My oral hygiene has improved as I have starting flossing.

· I let go of my favorite players in fantasy football in favor of building my strongest team in years.

· I’m more responsible about my attendance in cases such as;

· I didn’t miss a day at SPA.

· I missed only one day as a nanny which had been pre-arranged

· One of the things I am most proud of is having not missed a DBT session, 56 in a row with four more left.

· I left Day Treatment under predetermined conditions instead of quitting which I had done the two times prior.

· I made a point to draw attention to myself for my birthday because my life is worth celebrating.

· This also included me baking. More specifically baking a cake with the frosted phrase “It’s pretty sweet not being dead.”

· I estimate having eaten 430 bowls of cereal this year. There’s still six days left too.

· I’ve more attention my diet.

· This includes increased consumption of whole grains and omega-3’s.

· I attended to my relationships much better than I used to.

· I used the phone more and have improved my return phone call percentage.

· I became more open to say what I’m thinking.

· I moved into a place of my own for the first time ever.

· I’ve taken better care of my car.

· I’ve done a good job of staying afloat with music during a year that has had an unusually large amount of influential releases.

· I’m writing this.

· I organized a poetry group at the end of my summer class that includes eight other people. We have met six times since then, all of which have been initiated by me.

· My sense of humor is as good as it has ever been. Being funny is now one of my top ten characteristics.

· I wrote a short story for the students at SPA that I read at the end of the year.

· I was pro-active in taking care of some faulty phone charges.

· I’ve been paying my bills.

· I am also saving money.

· I’ve been responsible with my medication and have made it a top priority when my prescription has expired.

· I take myself less seriously. This allows my to relax more which, in turn, allows me to deal with stressful situations more effectively.

· I played in a football league.

· I saw some amazing concerts and events such as

· The White Stripes

· Arcade Fire

· The Mars Volta with System of a Down

· Cirque Du Soliel

· Twin Cities Book Festival

· St. Paul Art Crawl

· Minneapolis Institute of Arts

· Death Cab for Cutie

· I volunteered for The Loft and SASE