New year, new.. blog?

This is at least my third attempt at blogging over the last few years. Clearly it hasn't worked out in the past, so here's to hoping I can stick with it!

I've welcomed the new year with open arms and am so excited to see what's in store for 2011. I'm happy, healthy, and finally feeling like I'm finding my place in such a big, grown-up world!

I'm so glad to have had the day off today. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! I'll be honest - I actually haven't worked much in the last week or so because of a nasty stomach bug, but it's so hard to enjoy a "sick day" when you're really sick! I finally felt well enough today to venture out for a mani/pedi and a little MLK Day sale shopping.

Keeping with the title of this post, here are a few of my goals for the new year ...

1. Get organized - and stay that way! I'm usually pretty good at keeping my apartment clean, but lately I've been feeling very disorganized. I think I've been watching a few too many episodes of the Style Channel's Clean House. I also have my eye on some new furniture, but before I make the purchase I want to get rid of a lot of things and organize the stuff I'm keeping. It's a lofty goal, but I'm making progress!

2. Work less, socialize more. I was quite the social butterfly in law school, but once I graduated, passed the bar exam and began working as an attorney I found that my social calendar quickly took a backseat to working long hours for very little pay. Now that I have a couple of years under my belt at my current office I finally feel like I can spend a little less time at work and more time doing things I enjoy. I'm not going to lie - this sounds a lot easier than it will actually be for me, but it's worth a shot.

3. Get back in shape and start running again. I tore the meniscus in my left knee (for the second time) while running the Diva's Half Marathon here on Long Island in October and have gotten very little exercise since. I was really disappointed in myself, my performance and for getting injured again, so I pretty much gave up running and basically all other forms of exercise in protest. Now that I'm sufficiently healed it's time to lace up my running shoes and get back in shape. It's a new year and a fresh start, and I'm looking forward to getting back into the sport. Now if I could just get the temperatures to rise and all of this snow to melt ...

4. Take control of my finances. I could go on and on about this, but I'll spare you the details. Just know that $160,000 in law school debt certainly takes its toll on a third-year county-employed attorney living in one of the highest cost-of-living areas in the country. It's time to take control ... so if you have any suggestions on debt management and money saving, please feel free to comment :)

5. Visit HOME more! It's so hard being so far from my family and dearest friends, but if I do nothing else on this list this year, I want to visit "home" more often.

So that's it. Well, maybe not IT, but those are the top goals on my 2011 "To Do" list.

Here's to 2011!