Half-past the hour of 2011. I'm home doing exactly what I hope to be doing most of this year: writing and working on personal projects; listening to music and reading.

Fingers crossed.

I'm not one for resolutions, but I can't say I'm starting off the year with anything less than a diet. More than one, actually.

2010, in spite of the world's financial woes, was a personal year of profligacy. Too much avoidance of the hard work, too much spending, and too much eating and drinking, at the expense of health and of advancing personal goals. If you want to know the truth about it, I'm pissed that I lacked the discipline to advocate for myself. (What's new?) So I'm on a diet: Light eating, back to exercising, a schedule for writing. And I'm instituting a dry January: no drink, no browsing. None.

I did write last year. I drafted a short story and began the long story. That's more than all other years combined.

Unexpectedly, I rekindled my interest in photography. It began with a Photoshop class and culminated in color theory. Now, I'm shopping for medium-format cameras and have a backlog of projects.

Other things to mention only because I failed to document them contemporaneously: hiking with Kate in the Dungeness, hiking with the guys and hanging onto the cliff by our fingernails, and visiting the Willamette Valley wineries with Pam. What else?

This morning I was checking in for a massage and inquiring about using the steam room when a stranger offered me her gift certificate for the steam and sauna. It was such a lovely and unexpected gesture that it's difficult not to see it as a sign linked to the New Year.

Starting the New Year by sweating out the vestiges of the old.

Looking ahead, I have ambitious plans for 2011. I'm nervous that I won't be able to achieve or sustain them all. We're hosting Andrew's family at Easter, and I'm hoping to drive the Alaska Highway in June. In July, we're attending a wedding in Hawaii. In August, we fly to Germany for Evoke, and then I hope to stay to spend the fall in Italy. In the background, I have two photography projects in development, and the stories, of course.

I've no longer the stomach for work, but I've made peace with it for now. It funds these adventures, and I've had some success time-boxing and delegating tasks.

The pops and fizzes of fireworks have erupted outside, accompanied by the whoops of thrilled spectators. It's funny to think that with all the wizardry of electronics available to us, good old fireworks still amuse as well as they do.

2010, over and out.