My 2008 Report Card

My 2008 Report Card
One of the only things I miss from my school days is the sense of renewal the beginning and ending of each school year brought. Adult/work life is just one big blur without the chance to stop and reflect. I guess new year's day is a grown up chance to reflect. Although January 2 isn't that much different than Dec. 30 to most of us. Anyway here's my own personal report card for the previous year:

weight - D-, I'm 5 pounds heavier than January 1, 2008, having been unable to sustain any sort of diet for longer than 1 week. Once again, I'm starting one. This time, its the Weight Watchers approach. Write down everything you eat, eat whatever you want but keep your total consumption less than a particular "point" amount determined by your present weight. Each food is assigned a point value and you have to be aware of it. Veggies are zero points so are highly recommended. Anyway, we'll see how long it lasts this time.

exercise: C+ I was better here. In August, I signed up for a 5 AM boot camp class at the local community center. I have actually been fairly consistent about attending over the past 5 months. I aim for 3 times a week and this coming year hope to average 4 times a week attendance. Wow, 5 AM is tough but there are no other schedule conflicts (excepting sleep). It does kind of put a damper on the evenings knowing that I've got to be up in 6 hours or so. I can do 25 push ups and can run more than a mile, so the exercise has "taken" to a certain extent.

husband: B- I was ok, but can do much better maintaining a positive outlook on a daily basis.

dad: B+ I did ok with the kids this year. I needed to adjust my approach as my daughter became a teenager and as my son grew taller than me. As a parent of a special needs child, I carry constant doubt/guilt that I'm not doing enough to improve the prospects for my son. Am I too accepting of his condition? Should I be doing more, pushing more, demanding more? The medical profession still knows next to nothing about autism and my own view is that to attempt to discipline or modify some of my son's autistic quirks would be like yelling at someone with a broken leg for limping. I could be wrong and I could just be lazy. Or I could be doing the right thing. I'll never know though. With my daughter, I consciously changed my dealings with her to treat her more like a young almost adult. We had a couple of rough patches but are doing pretty well imho.

Handyman: D I did a good job in trimming my trees and improved the appearance of my back yard. But thats all I did. I've got a broken fence panel and 2 gates that need hanging. Not sure when those will get done.

Work: C- I don't want to dwell on it but my work situation has been less than ideal. I now work for a micromanaging boss who doesn't particularly trust me. I often feel like a misbehaving school kid. But its a good secure job and I'm still ok at it. So the positives far outweigh the negatives.

person- C I feel like I've become more self-centered and introverted. I can do better.

golf - B This is a good one. I didn't break 100 this year, but came close a couple of times. I did break 50 for 9 holes a couple of times. And best of all, my partner and I won the 2 man team league championship at our workplace. First place out of 36 teams. Of course, we had high handicaps that greatly aided us, but still: "WE DID IT!"

Here's to 2009 and being a better person.
Happy New Year.