Today's Moment of Clarity: Resolutions

I've gotten a bit off track since moving to LA 15 months ago.

You can't blame me, derailed from the job I moved here for, with little time to figure out what I wanted to do next until the next opportunity just dropped in my lap.

In fact, it's kind of amazing I haven't gained any of my 50 pounds lost back. That's what would've happened five years ago.

But that doesn't mean I am on track.

In January, I made my New Year's Resolution to "Stop barking up the wrong tree" (conveniently phrased in six words).

But a couple of months into 2012, I don't much like the idea of my only goal for the year being stopping. I never wanted to run away from New York; I wanted to run towards something. I'd rather regret the things I do than the things I never did.

At work, over the last few weeks, I've made it my goal to "maintain sanity." But that's not enough for me as a person.

So now I resolve to get on track and start doing more, to recapture some of the things that have fallen away:

• learn French again
• rejoin Weight Watchers meetings (and figure out a way to actually work some shifts)
• network network network
• maintain professional visibility
• write for more than just my own blog
• perform more than just Tuesday nights

Maybe that means I'll have to take some time away from hiking (which is what I should be doing right now on a cool, sunny Saturday afternoon) or my nightlife, but it's a worthwhile sacrifice.

Even just starting (I have gotten to all of the above except Weight Watchers) feels good. I feel better.

A little.

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Today's Moment of Clarity: Get Out of the Car

BALLARAT ->

STORE MUSEUM INFO

DRINKS RESTROOMS

CAMPING SHOWERS

You LEARN NOTHING BY

SITTING IN The CAR

Out here in LA, it's easy to get wrapped up in the car culture that has dominated the West since the mid-20th century.

Although I don't have a long morning commute to work - living only about a mile away from the office - I still drive it every day, even though it's easily walkable and bikable.

I drive six hours each way for a brief weekend getaway.

And sometimes, barreling down the freeway, I have to force myself to pull over and go look at something, go climb something, instead of hypnotically following the road.

And as Roc, the caretaker of Ballarat, a ghost town outside of Death Valley, reminds us: you learn nothing by sitting in the car.

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Today's Moment of Clarity

This was when the goats at Greig Farm were still letting me be egalitarian with them and give each of them the same amount of feed. Shortly thereafter they started butting heads and leaping on top of each other to get to my hand, greedy guys who'd already been fed stomping on the hungry babies.

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Today's Moment of Clarity

Ring-tailed lemurs at Bronx Zoo's Madagascar exhibit

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