Day 1

"A day without laughter is a day wasted" -- Charles Chaplin

The first giggles of a baby, the wild screams of a child being tickled, guffawing mightily with a good friend until you are crying -- laughing -- such a simple action reflecting a fleeting moment of joy. Truly the best medicine, of which I need my daily dose.

New Year's Day 2008

Every year I choose a theme -- 2008 is "The Year of Outdoor Living". There a several facets to this theme:

(1) Work on the backyard -- besides needing to refinish the pool, I'd like to expand our backyard to possibly include a vegetable garden, maybe roses/fruit trees too, a possible hot tub, fireplace/pit, expanded play areas, and fantastic patio living. Of course, this requires money so I doubt my utopia will be realized in full, but no progress is ever made without a vision first.

(2) Simply use the backyard more often --cooking, eating, entertaining, playing and relaxing -- all year round.

(3) I find myself inside too much (doing chores or unfinished art projects) -- my house sometimes starts to feel like a dreary cave. Besides taking our daily home life out back more often, I want to just be outside more often -- like exercising by running around the neighborhood lake (instead of at the gym), stopping spur-of-the-moment with the kids at the park, enjoying a sunny day with a hike or a local art fair.

(4) Give back to the community via the outdoors. Not really sure yet what this means to me -- perhaps cleaning up at a local park regularly, or sponsoring the planting of trees -- something along those lines.

A few more traditional items have also been on my mind of late:

• Training my dog Max
• Maintaining my new healthier self (keep exercising, eating right)
• Reading a book a month (joined a Book Club)
• Traveling to 6 new places in my home state
• Laughing everyday (New!!)

Twitterings: I can't believe I'm going to do this -- 365 days! Will I make it? So much of this is new for me -- journaling, blogging, self-portraits. I'm rarely in our photos -- always behind the lens. And I hate my self in pictures -- I always seem to looks bad -- eye half open, not looking, awkward and stiff -- always something. Hopefully this will help me to learn to love the lens......