Delving back into my childhood diary.
June 19, 1991
Dear Diary,
I’m sorry I didn’t see you yesterday. Well I’m having a great day. It has been fun. School is far off. You are one person I can trust and God and Jesus. Well bye. See you tomorrow.
Beings who didn’t make the cut: my pets, my friends, my family. Also, I feel like I snubbed the Holy Spirit.
My husband and I just booked a trip to Madison, Wisconsin, where our mutual love of all things beer was born. Can’t wait to return to our roots and drink some Spotted Cow. Planning this trip to got me thinking: where would I go for my ultimate beercation? Going home is always good, and that’s how I feel about Madison. But if I were to take a no limit beercation, I’d go to Belgium. I’m a huge fan of Belgian style beers but have yet to vacation there.
How about you? Where would you go for your ultimate beercation?
Me at Mickey’s Tavern, our favorite brunch spot in Madison. That’s a Bloody Mary with a beer back. What a way to start a Saturday!
Entries from my childhood diary:
June 16, 1991
Dear Diary
It’s fathers day. I had a great day, it was fun. I spent the weekend at grammy’s, it was fun. I had a great day. See you tomorrow.
And the next day:
June 17, 1991
Dear Diary
Today I went shoping. We went to the doctor, shopd for grocerys it was ok. Then we ate lunch. I got a skip it. My sister got a pony. We bought dad some launchairs for fathers day. I know it’s late. Well I’m spending the night at Marie’s tonight. Well bye see you tomorrow.
If I had to give my eight year old self some writing advice, it would be show don’t tell. But props for the correct use of it’s!
Do what you can.
Photo taken at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Next weekend, San Antonio will host the world’s largest math meeting. Thousands of mathematicians gathered in the same town? Now, that’s my kind of paradise. But David’s not attending this year, and since it would probably be weird for me to go without him, I’m staying home too. Sad we’ll miss out on the opportunity to connect with old friends.
Instead, I’ll be listening to this Kate Bush song about a man infatuated with pi and planning the party we want to host when the JMM comes to Atlanta in 2017.
Hope everyone attending the meetings this year has a great time. And good luck to those on the job market!
Having been trained in demography, I often come across statistics I don’t believe. For instance, this Vox article states “60% of New Year’s resolutions fail.” Given how difficult it is to change human habits and behaviors, this estimate seems unrealistically low.
According to the article, this number comes from a study that followed individuals over time to see how many of them kept their resolutions. As the author of the Vox article writes, at six months, “only 40 percent of those who had made a New Year’s resolution were still sticking with the goal.” The modifier “only” seems out of place here. If 40% of people managed to make the changes they wanted, that’s huge. Stating a New Year’s resolution seems like a good bet for modifying behavior.
The 40% figure is based in scientific research, but as a researcher involved in the study notes in another article that appears on the Time website, study participants are likely more successful in keeping their resolutions than the general population because they have researchers calling them every couple weeks to check in. These calls remind the people being studied about the goals they set and being asked about their resolutions provides incentive to stick to them.
I’ve made New Year’s resolutions in the past, but I can’t tell you what they were. I write them down in late December and forget about them at some point early in the year.
This year, I’ve got a general goal to be more effective with my time. To accomplish this, I wanted to develop a system that mimics the study. I needed to find a way to remind myself of my goal and create accountability over time. So I’ve designed a survey that I’ll take weekly. The survey asks what I accomplished in the prior week and what I would like to get done in the coming week. I’ll be reminded by email to take the survey.
The Vox article has some good tips for keeping New Year’s resolutions and one of them is to make goals attainable. My only resolution is to take the survey every week. And my hope is that making plans and reflecting on my progress from week to week will help me accomplish the more ambiguous goal of using my time more effectively.
Here’s hoping I stick to it!
2014 has been good to me. I’ve been nonemployed and able to pursue my creative ambitions full force. I met many new friends over the past year and had the opportunity to travel to beautiful places. I’ve got a lot to celebrate. Here’s a rundown of the highlights in no particular order:
Thanks to everyone who reads this blog. It means a lot to me to be able to connect with friends, family, and the greater global community through this space.
Happy New Year!
Beautiful walk today in Spring Grove Cemetery with my mom and my husband:
Inspired by this collection of vintage photos of people with their Christmas trees, I dug through some of my old photos and found this:
Me with my mom and my sister sometime around the mid-90s.
Feeling thankful today for holiday traditions–both old and new. And speaking of new, it’s about time for me to have a Christmas breakfast Bloody Mary.
Happy Holidays!
Sarah Zureick-Brown 