2011 is the year of the rule of three.

I can't let a New Year's pass without writing a little about what I have to look forward to in the coming year. So here's my requisite New Year's post, and I want to direct your attention to the title. 2011 is the year of the rule of three. I've been blogging intermittently with my "three things" theme, and I recently had a discussion about focusing on three things and only three things in order to make one's life more manageable (a variation on the "jack of all trades, master of none" idea). I follow the time-management three things rule, too. So, in an effort to live a consistent life, I've decided to carry over my rule of three to the new year, and instead of making resolutions or declarations on this New Year's Day I'll simply talk about the three golden rules I will strive to follow this year.

Rule 1: Practice a commitment to physical and mental health.
This rule is something I try to do each and every day, but, as with lots of things, sometimes I fall off the wagon. And I've accepted that I'm going to fall off the wagon. And, I'll admit, sometimes I even plan in advance to fall off the wagon if I know a special day or event is coming up, such as last night when Doug and I had Five Guys for our New Year's Eve dinner. Classy, right? But the point is that even with these little deviations from my first golden rule my ultimate goal is to stay healthy. Eat well and get plenty of physical exercise. Not necessarily hours at the gym, but just an active lifestyle. Walking, biking, hiking, yoga, the gym... all of that. Because all of that helps me stay calm and balanced, alert and able to focus. And able to be on the path to follow my other two golden rules for 2011, the second of which is:

Rule 2: Live my values. Do I sound like Real Simple or Self yet? Bear with me if I sound a little new age-y. This rule has much to do with me having confidence in myself, in what I believe, in what I want, in what I know, in what makes me comfortable, in what makes me happy and content, and in doing it. If I think it's important to spend more time with my family, or to remain connected to friends, then I'm going to do it. If I think that sitting on my couch and quilting my way into the New Year is a viable activity for a thirty-one (good god, almost thirty-two!) year-old woman, then I'm going to do it. Because I want to, because I can, and because it's okay for me to live how I want to live.

All of this brings me to my third and final golden rule for the year, which is my Rule 3: Less thinking, more doing. The more I sit and think about being healthy and active, the less I'm actually out there being healthy and active. The more I sit and wonder what my values actually are, and if they are actually viable and realistic and accepted/acceptable values, the less I'm actually living them, or even knowing what they are. So... less of that. Less of that stuck in my head and more of going out there and doing. Like this morning, when I woke up on this fine and relatively warm first day of the new year and told Doug that I wanted to stop off at Minute Man State Park to walk on one of the trails there on our way back from selling a couple of his speakers to this guy Doug met on Craigslist. I could have (and probably would have) debated this idea with myself in my head before asking Doug what he thought we should do, because I would have been concerned about having enough time to do all the things that I wanted to do that day, but instead of all of that headgame I just said, "Let's do it." So we did it. And I felt good because I was practicing rules number one and two - and rule number three. I started the new year off on the right foot. And spent some time with Doug, who got to practice rule number three with me today. I think I might get him to practice my rules this year, too. Or might get him to make three rules of his own. Or, more appropriately, might inspire him to make three rules of his own. Because 2011 will be a year of good things, just as 2010 was, and being able to inspire each other to live these lives that we know will lead to good things will just lead to more good things.

Okay, I've gotten a bit too John Tesh-y for my own liking. Time for dinner, for more Netflix, and for more quilting. Time for living my three rules. I could really get used to this, and I hope I do.

I have to write more about the Olympics.

I know I wrote a little about the Olympics before, but I have to write about them again. They are taking over my life, and in a good way. Each night I come home from work and eagerly anticipate watching what we DVR'd that day. I am so enthralled by the music, the colors, the people... it's great television. Great stories. Great inspiration. The problem is that I can't seem to watch more than an hour or so before falling asleep. This is putting me way behind schedule. For example, last night I tried to finish watching Wednesday night's prime-time coverage (Wednesday night I got through the men's snowboarding qualifying round and a wee bit of speed skating, but then promptly fell asleep). Last night I got through a little more of Wednesday night's speed skating and some of the women's alpine event, but then fell asleep again before I could finish with the men's snowboarding event. Which means tonight I'm on tap to finally finish Wednesday's events, get through Thursday's, and then maybe start on today's events. Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm aiming to finish Wednesday's events and start what we recorded on Thursday. I have to be realistic.

Being realistic is not really in the Olympic spirit, though. I mean, take a look at Shaun White. (This photo is from Shaun White's website, so not taken by me and probably not legal to re-post, but I'm taking a risk out of my great enthusiasm for the games.) Shaun White, at 23, snowboards for a living. He has a compound in Colorado where he and his trainers and team (his own team of people!) spend their time inventing and practicing new and exciting moves. When he displays these new moves, everyone wants to be like him and they try the moves out for themselves. And when Shaun has already clinched the gold medal, again, for the second time in the halfpipe, he still goes out and displays his new and crazy good moves even though he doesn't have to. Because why not? If you're going to get out there and do it, you might as well go all the way. That's the Olympic spirit. If Shaun White were "being realistic," do you think he'd have a compound where he could invent new snowboarding phenomenon? And do you think he'd still bring it to the competition even when there really is no more competition?

This is why I love the Olympics. The games remind me that I limit myself each and every day. Olympians do not limit themselves. They have a goal and they go for it, as Doug said last night, balls to the wall. So how come the rest of us don't go for it balls to the wall? Some people do, but not in sports. Some people pursue their job with great passion, some people pursue their outside interests/hobbies with great passion, but few really commit to one thing the way Olympians do. Is there a gene for that kind of commitment? Is there a way to develop that kind of determined, goal-oriented living even when you're past your Olympic prime? The answer is yes, or course, because the Olympians are doing nothing special. Just going after what they want, what they believe, and what they love, and that's certainly something everyone can do each and every day. Thank you, again, Olympics, because every couple of years you help me get back on track, and I cannot wait to see you up close and personal in Rio in 2016 (slight revision in location, but same determined desire to get there).

Mangy Moose.

We went to Maine this weekend, and it was very, very fun. Sure, there was a small hurricane (or at least a threat of one), which caused it to rain non-stop from Friday night through late Sunday afternoon, but we didn't let that stand in the way of a good time. Doug and I didn't get there until late Saturday afternoon (much later than planned, unfortunately - we got caught up in trying to do house stuff, and Doug also made a birthday pie!), and once we got the tour of the fantastic-looking house we all headed out for barbecue. I will let Cotton talk more about the food, since that's his blog forte, but I will simply say that it was definitely one of the better barbecue places I've been to. The biscuits were EXCELLENT. Worth the price of admission.

One of the things that I love the most about girl Chris is that she puts you right at ease. Of course, I don't know if I'm ever truly at ease since I'm borderline socially deficient, but if there's anyone who doesn't make me feel overly self-conscious it's her. And her house is so warm and inviting. I say her house, knowing full well that the decorating and arranging was a collaborative effort between her and boy Chris, but still, from the moment you walk into their home you feel girl Chris in every space. The color flows from room to room, the decorations and accessories all have a definite style and theme, and everything just makes you want to put down your bag, sit on the couch and stay a while. I find that our house in Dedham has not reached this point yet. Not that I don't love our house, because I do, A LOT, but I don't think that we've hit that decorating/accessorizing breakthrough that has happened in Maine. Case in point - our bedroom. Now, before we moved into the house here I had visions of having a very put-together bedroom. One with a definite scheme and theme. Doug wanted a neutral color on the wall so we tried off-white, but that just washes out the room too much because there's nothing else in the room that is overly colorful, and the color looks more buttery than white. And we have that tired cow blanket on the bed and the rug that was in the living room in the apartment that now looks polka-dotted because the cats puked on it so many times (cats as in Wyatt, the barfer), and even though we tried to liven the room by painting one accent wall an earthy green color it just is not working. So I am borrowing some inspiration for our bedroom from the Chris's guest bedroom - this blue flower picture. Maybe the camera didn't quite capture the exact hues, but the teal green of the frame and the yellow of the center of the flower (I am forgetting the technical term for this part of the flower - the stamen maybe?), just really appeal to me. So this artwork will be the inspiration for our new bedroom decor (and I hope and pray that girl Chris and boy Chris don't think me really off my rocker for taking a photo of their house and posting it on my blog!). I am planning to start painting after I get back from the Internet Librarian conference.

After an afternoon of retail therapy in Freeport (and Doug decided against buying this VERY HOT looking shoe shown here, which is supposed to be some kind of shoe that when you walk in it increases buttock activity by 9% and quadricep activity by 12% and also makes you entirely unappealing to the opposite sex, the same sex, or maybe even dogs and cats, who knows), we (we as in Doug) helped Chris and Chris set up their sound system. Their house is wired in each room for sound, which is way cool, but only if it works, and now it finally works. Wham! in the kitchen while making dinner, Wham! in the great room, Wham! in the bedroom, and best of all, Wham! in the bathroom. A whole house of Wham!. This is truly a great feat. CHRIS and Doug worked hard to make the system work, and now that it's all figured out girl Chris's great vinyl can be heard again. I think that finally everyone can appreciate the vision that the previous owner had when he rigged up that very complicated sound system. And I for one know that that Wham! record will make its way onto the turntable a few more times, because no one Wham! raps better than George Michael.