I know all of you are sick and tired about hearing the horrors of my 2015. So let’s just simply move on and focus on the goals and wishes for a much, much better year in 2016!

I mentioned in the previous post that I am wishing for a more active self, more excitement and to establish more of a personality. However, this was a very vague description of what I hope to do.

So I’ll get my New Year’s Resolutions out of the way now (which include more than finding true love as well as reconciling with my ex-best friend), since I highly doubt things will change between now and then …

1. Have a favorite sports team for baseball, football, basketball, and big colleges. I watched as the White Sox won the 2005 World Series, and rooted against the Cubs during the playoff run this season. But I didn’t have a very religious following for anyone, in baseball, basketball or football.

   Perhaps the one big team that I tend to follow more than anyone else is the Chicago Blackhawks, despite knowing very little about the game of hockey.

   When it comes to big colleges, I never attended one to really have a following for one. I just happen to work in the territory of the only college alma mater I have – Sauk – and it would go against my journalism ethics to state that I “root” for them. However, I remember the written words of a sportswriter from Rockford who once wrote, “We can’t root for any of our area teams, but we can simply wish them well.”

2. Plan more time for social occasions. This is going to face extreme resistance from my workplaces, but last year it came to mind that I was missing out on many things because of either the need to work, or put in a position that I had to work when it called for it.

   Let me simply say this: A happy Cody is a happy employee Cody. My workplaces will have my promise that I won’t scribble all over the calendar each month.

3. Plan more family time. The work grind in 2015 denied me a lot of time to visit my parents, brothers, grandparents and other family. This didn’t really hit me until everyone kept asking me when I had to work next, or if I had the day off from one or both jobs.
4. Mow my own lawn. I only physically mowed half of my lawn all this year because I was either too busy or too tired. My brother Danny would get my lawn whenever he would do my grandparents’ empty lot next to my house. That being said, Dan will be getting a big payoff from me at Christmas. In addition, it’s more physical exercise for me … a point that I will get to a little later on.
5. Post less depressing stuff on Facebook. I look at writing – typing on a keyboard – as therapy toward getting thoughts out of my mind and onto a platform of some sort (such as this). I’ll post such stuff on Facebook, or on this blog, hoping for some help from different sources. While I indeed have, I know no one wants to hear about my whining and crying all of the time.
6. Shave more. As odd as this sounds, I notice a change in how I feel about myself when I don’t have all of that gruff on me. And I want to feel better about myself, right?
7. Design a page in the newspaper with ease. I have been at SVM for just over a year, and my expertise is covering games. Page designing has been left for the full-timers, although I have dabbled in it a little bit.
8. Find more things to talk about. Part of the reason why I started writing in blogs was to make it an everyday routine to keep my writing fresh. This involved finding things interesting, to which lately there hasn’t been a whole lot with the work-sleep grind.

   I have found that with working with at least one other person at Casey’s has improved my spirits, since I have someone I can talk to during my shifts.

9. Project my voice. I am a soft talker, and that comes with not having to talk a whole lot; and when I do talk, there isn’t a whole lot of noise around me. I have difficulty finding that gray area between annoying and mumbling.

   I know I have a lot of trouble talking through the cubicles at the newspaper, especially when everyone else is in a cluster, and I am across the short walkway, trying to get past two or three short walls which are meant to block noise.

10. Lose SOME weight. I make weight loss a NYR every year, and it doesn’t go anywhere. Right now, I could stand to lose about 150 pounds. Probably the biggest problem is that I’m not active enough. Fixing that may lead to less depression, which will lead to better eating habits, and perhaps even a better bank account that what I have now (and I have a fairly healthy bank account).

    Winter time is a difficult time to get weight loss started, because the brunt of winter takes place during January and February and I am lazy at home.

    I’m not giving myself a goal weight with deadlines. I just have numbers that I don’t want to surpass going upward. I want more clothes to fit, I want to be able to move around better, and perhaps break out a dance move or 10.