Are We Done With 2010 Yet? We Are? Good.

2010, you were not my favorite.

I tried SO HARD to like you. I gave you chance after chance, but you constantly beat me up. I lost 30 pounds, but then you made me gain it all back. You let me sit in a hospital room for a week and watch my grandmother die. You made me feel completely worthless as I applied for job after job after job and didn't get anywhere. And you made me burn my mouth on a jalapeno popper at lunch. Jerk.

One year ago, I made a few resolutions. And although 2010 did everything in its power to stop me, let's see how I did.

Resolution #1

Always wear my seatbelt. I am happy to report that I have completely broken the bad habit of not wearing my seatbelt. I think that making it somewhat of a competition helped. I don't think I have EVER successfully seen a resolution through an entire year, so I wanted to beat my stats. And I did. And now, I will not die because of not wearing my seatbelt.

Resolution #2

Don't eat at McDonald's for an entire year. Well…….I wear my seatbelt, ok? Listen, this is what happened. I did great for 6 months. Didn't eat a thing from McDonald's. But in the summer when I was in Fresno with my grandmother in the hospital, I slipped up. I had gotten about 2 hours of sleep and my mom said she was going out to get breakfast while I took a quick shower before we went back to the hospital. She brought back McDonald's breakfast. C'mon, what was I supposed to say? "Sorry your mom is dying, but can we perhaps swing by Starbucks on the way to the hospital?" Um, no. So after that, I had it every now and then. Not nearly as much as I used to, but once I broke the resolution I kind of just said screw it. (Hence, the 30 pounds…)

Resolution #3

Get something published. Well, I didn't go about it in the traditional way since I self-published, but by golly I think I kicked this resolution in the ass. Sales for my book have been exceeding my expectations. In just a couple of months, I've hit 35,000 downloads. And while a lot of those were free downloads, I have sold over 1,000 copies in the month of December alone. Sold, not freebies. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded my book – you have made it possible for me to hate 2010 a little less. Also, you've paid me enough so I can finally get that iPad.

Perhaps I'll make a tshirt – '2010: You killed my grandmother, but I got an iPad!'

No. Too soon, Heidi, too soon.

I'm only making one resolution in 2011. Quite frankly, I'm too exhausted to focus on more than one. Are you ready? Here it is:

Resolution for 2011

To always take shopping carts back to either the front of the store or a designated cart collecting area in the parking lot. I have a bad habit of leaving shopping carts anywhere, because I'm lazy. I don't leave them in the middle of a parking spot or anything, but I will shoosh them off to the side or find a little corner for them to reside in until some poor store employee has to schlep out and retrieve it. No more, I say! I am not so busy that I can't take 30 seconds to put the cart back where it belongs. So let it be written. So let it be done.

There was one more good thing in 2010 that I have not yet mentioned…I finally had a job interview. On December 23, no less. Talk about getting it in just under the wire. I have a second interview coming up in a few days, and if all goes well I'll have an announcement to make soon. A new job/moving announcement. Although I think you'll be surprised when I tell you where…

CLIFFHANGER!