1 Week, 1 Photo, 1000 Words (2011.01 #2)

Greetings from West Covina, CA, USA!

As hinted in my last entry, I made a few resolutions for 2011. The first was to restart this journal and write at least one entry monthly. Contrary to its name – 1 Week, 1 Photo, 1000 Words – I can’t commit to a weekly cycle right now. I could re-title this but I’ve done that a few times already and grown attached to the current moniker. Instead I will aspire to work my way back to that schedule. Regardless of the frequency, I am happy to resume writing. Fortunately the photography never stopped.

I never did new year’s resolutions until a few years ago. I did just one for 2009. I wanted to ease my debt load by reducing my number of creditors by 50% which is different from reducing my debt by 50%. Unfortunately by February 2009 I had to put it on hold as my freelance job came to a sudden end. By the start of 2010 I was employed again and decided to retry the resolution. At my worst the list of who I owed had broken the double digits but I succeeded in cutting it down to 5. Whew!

While one thing was cut in half, another thing was doubling. I had a not-so-small pile of unread novels that was growing. My job is directly across the street to a shopping center with a bookstore. Throw in a continuous supply of emails with vendor coupons and I was rapidly expanding my home library. For 2010 I added a second resolution – read at least 1 book. I’m not talking Dr. Suess nor War & Peace, just something in the 100 to 1000 page range. I barely got halfway through a 200-page book before giving up. My work and commute were draining me of too much energy.

But like my creditor resolution, I am making a second attempt for 2011. The book will be A Wrinkle in Time. As a teenager I enjoyed reading it and its two sequels. About five years ago I learned that the trilogy had become a quintet. I decided that I could best enjoy the entire series if I reread the first three before the last two. So while my goal is to read just one book, I’ve set myself up to read five – an approach of “If I’m in for a dime, I’m in for a dollar”.

I have yet to pick up the book but, as I write this, we have just begun the second month of 2011. Meanwhile resolution #2 – a minimum of one entry in this journal monthly - is well under way. if I succeed with both resolutions and got a flower - like the one in the accompanying photo - for every book read or entry written, I’d have a lovely bouquet by the end of the year. And that would be the sweet smell of success!