Late as usual

My New Year's resolution post is a week late. That seems typical for me these days. But, as I so often say during situations such as these, at least it's getting done at all.

First note: my dad's socks were finished at approximately 11:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve. Dad wore them to ring in 2009 and reports that they are very comfortable. I've got pictures, but am not sure where my camera has wandered off to.

Second note: I'm currently reading Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation and loving every page. But Erin, you might be saying to yourself, isn't that a book about American history? Yes, yes it is. Didn't you swear off history in your quest to get the fun in while you could? Yes, yes I did. But I don't care. This is her book about traveling around the country to see sights related to the first three presidential assassinations -- Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Why am I reading this instead of a romance novel right now (and there are a couple of those waiting their turn on the nightstand, too)? Well, it's about the "dirty" side of history, something I always enjoy, and I really like Vowell's deadpan (no pun intended) style (I'm a big fan of her appearances on NPR, too). But mostly, it's because this book is really about more than assassinations -- it's about the way that people remember, the way that we construct history and the way that we tell our story as Americans. It's actually an area that I'm very interested in, academically speaking. But it's not dry and boring like so many of the books I read last year for my exams (and will be reading again soon). I've often wondered if there's some prohibition against being an interesting writer and also being an academic. So often the two things are separate, and that's a shame. But that's also a topic for another time.

Now the real reason I'm here: Resolutions.
Here are mine: I'm not making any.
Well, that's not precisely true. I want to pass my exams. But other than that, no resolutions for me. And that's not really a resolution so much as it is a requirement by my academic program. I don't really have any choice on the matter if I want to keep going.

I acknowledge that there's room for improvement in so many areas of my life, and I do hope to take steps toward making those improvements this year. But my history of resolution-keeping is not that great, and frankly, I don't need the pressure right now. It seems unfair to me that we should be encouraged to upend our lives and reexamine ourselves so thoroughly at the darkest. coldest time of the year, right after all those holiday excesses. It's all party, party, party, then suddenly the lights go on and you're forced to stare blearily at yourself and your life in one of those hideously unflattering department store mirrors. No wonder it's so easy to make long lists of things to condemn and improve. Nothing and nobody looks good in those mirrors.

Over at Shapely Prose, they've got a great post about this that says it more eloquently than I can, encouraging us to remember what we accomplished in 2008 as we look forward to 2009.

Here's my brief list of what I'm proud of:
1. Passed my first field exam and my German language exam.
2. Wrote several catalogue entries for (eventual) publication.
3. Made it through a year of graduate school and a year of life in New York.