B E B E R E

On looking back over the past year, I can say that things have improved somewhat. There's still a lot that needs fixing, but I think I might be able to do it. Not immediately, but eventually.

Goals?

Find a new job: Never easy for anybody, I know. This place is kicking the crap out of me both financially and self-worth-wise, however.

Get back down to my fighting weight: I'm at the second highest I've ever been: 184. My general practitioner tells me I need to lose 40-45 lbs. I don't feel comfortable with that, though, as the last time I was in that weight range, I was in elementary school. Fighting weight for me is fitting into the gorgeous black interview pantsuit I wore to get this damn job: a size 12. I'm a size 16 now.

Get the paperwork together (and the counseling) to continue schooling: As I may or may not have mentioned before, my undergraduate major was French Literature (with a minor specialty in Music History). I currently work as the red-headed stepchild of my company's IT and Finance departments. Interestingly enough, the work isn't unpleasant at all. Just unchallenging and unchanged since about 2002.

Some options I've been thinking of: move further along with literature (a love, but not very practical); find a way to mix writing (hopefully translating), IT and Finance/accounting; dump all this for something else (what, though?).

Immediate goals are to finish this up (three courses under my belt before I crashed and burned) and to prepare to take the TEF (Test d'évaluation du Français) (hopefully by next Spring at the latest). Beyond that, well, I don't know.

Find a new place to live: Found the house at about the same time I got the job and the now-ex boyfriend. I'm no longer with the boyfriend (we broke up a year ago), and I'm laying the groundwork for new work. I've not been happy in the current house for perhaps 2-3 years now.

If I get even most of this accomplished, I'll be pretty pleased. All of it? Downright amazed. We'll see.