February Resolution

Since I made my New Year’s resolution I have managed to finish reading about 6 books, and have also managed to start but not finish another 6 books. And I haven’t written about any of them. I don’t like my resolution anymore. I think I’m not finishing books just so I don’t have to write about them.

Short summary of my reading material highlights (I actually finished these):

Some Mrs. Pollifax novels by Dorothy Gilman (re-reads, I love these books)
Hush Money by Robert B. Parker (a Spenser novel. I have read almost all of these)
Harry Potter, the first one (another re-read, and my favorite one of the series)
Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Read (another re-read….)

I listened to The Notebook on audio cd while commuting. Not bad. Overrated. This is why I avoid reading bestsellers. I can see how it might be a better book than movie actually.
I also listened to some young adult fantasy/sci-fi book called The Wall and the Wing by someone whose name I’ve already forgotten. I enjoyed it; it was different, and weird to start with, but came together nicely at the end.

And, I’ve started several books that I haven’t finished, which is rare, because I normally always finish books. Most of them were by authors I hadn’t read before or very much, whose writing styles or characters I didn’t connect to easily, and I don’t like working at reading.

At the end of this I’ve concluded that I’m getting set in my ways at way too early of an age. The busier I get, the more I want to pick authors and books I know I’ll like. I have much more limited reading time than I used to, so I want to get the most of it - I want to know I’ll enjoy reading a book.

This really isn’t good, though, or at least I don’t like this un-adventurousness about myself.

So… my new resolution is to try new things! In many aspects of life! To be brave and adventurous and look for the experiences that will make me think and be challenged at least a little. To try things I’m not comfortable with, and to hopefully succeed, and then think, “wow! piece of cake” or “I can’t believe I was afraid to try that”. This kind of ties into my post about being all afraid and stressed because of our wood stove. After I wrote that I decided my problem isn’t that I’m afraid, but that I’m a chicken. I need to be brave. I can be afraid and accept that and go on inspite of it. Or something.

So this weekend I started on my new resolution (already doing better on it than on the first one). Mike and I are making dining room chairs. Up til now it’s mostly been Mike doing the making, and I’ve been providing moral support and minimal actual involvement. Normally his dad helps him, but his parents are in Florida, so it was just him and me in the shop on Sunday. We decided our chairs needed splines in the front joint to make them stronger (look at Mike’s Flickr pics if you’re curious). Mike was cutting the chairs to make the spot where the splines would go, and i was moping around feeling useless, realizing that if his dad was there he’d be helping and doing things to expedite the whole process. So I volunteered (after a good ten more minutes of indecisive moping) to cut the splines. Using power tools. That can chop off your hand. Eek. Mike was game, showed me how to use the two saws I needed (a chopsaw for the 45 degree angles, and a radial arm saw for 90 degree straight across cuts - see, I learned the names too!) and let me go. And… it was easy. And fun. Mostly, it was fun to be involved, and useful.

I have a new skill. I am a little bit less of a chicken.