Non-new year resolutions

I don't do new years' resolutions. I've always thought them a little silly, and arbitrary. Why January 1? If something's that important, does it need to wait until the new year? And then am I setting myself up for failure if 2 weeks into the year, I've quit my diet, or broken the prayer chain, or started swearing again, or whatever...? The best resolution I've ever made - and probably the only one I stuck to - was when I was about 10. I distinctly recall sitting at my Grandma Mazzaferro's house, at her kitchen table, making my list - and putting "eat more ice cream!" as my resolution. Clearly, I took resolutions very seriously then too.

But, there are some things I want to accomplish in the next year. Ideally in the next six months. So here's my list. We'll call them goals, objectives, Erin's to-do list.

1. Get tattoo #4. I have the design. I just need to find someone to do it. And commit to the placement. (I think I have those two things backwards.)

2. Find an organization to volunteer with. When I was in CT, it was Columbus House. I need something like that in my life again. To add meaning, depth, substance. And because to whom much is given....

3. Attend at least 10 live concerts. This year I think I will have made it to about 6. 10 isn't even 1 a month, so that seems feasible. Especially if Newport 2012 is on the schedule.

4. Take a vacation somewhere I want to go, not somewhere I feel obligated to go. Me time. With or without anyone else. Where along the way did I think it was okay to give up the space I used to carve out for myself?

5. Plan the next 5 years of my life. (That's a joke. I've never had a five-year plan. I'm lucky if I can see 4 days ahead. For as much of a planner as I am, I've never been able to plan the big things for my life. I just can't "see" them.)

6. Or rather, the real 5. Make 5 new friends. This should take me about 18 months to accomplish, at very least. I am not good at making friends, not good at being social, too good at being alone, too comfortable in my own space rather than entering that of others. I feel like I don't know where to begin to make friends here. Church? That's loaded with all sorts of other issues. A dog park? That would require a dog, which I do not have or want. A gym? Ugh. That would require exercise, which seems like a lot of work just to try to make a friend. Maybe I'll put this one off until 2015. Or 2017. Yeah, making friends the year I turn 40 sounds perfect. I'll check back on this in another 5 years or so. I might have acquired a dog by then. :)