Let the New Year's resolution list begin

I'm not really into the holidays.

Christmas is nice, but there's too much planning with family and friends.

It has become such a coordinated event for me.

My true holiday begins after Christmas.

It's the new year that I look forward to the most.

In the new year, I get a chance to look back at the past year, think about what worked and what didn't work and look forward to the challenges and goals of next year.

I'm big on New Year's resolutions.

It's rare that I stick to the resolutions, but that hasn't stopped me from making self-promises year after year.

Here goes some of the list.

One resolution is to learn more. Learn a new word, a new way of looking at things or learn something new about my friends. I just want to learn more, every day.

The next resolution on my list is to finish the books I've started. Right now, I've partially read about six books.

I want to do my house chores in a timely manner. This includes washing dishes, doing laundry and tidying up my desk area. I usually sit and stare at the domestic tasks at hand, justify that it's unworthy of my precious time and then let things pile until it becomes unbearable. I'd rather not let things get to that point this year.

I'd like to stay in touch with my friends at least a few times a month. I get caught up with my own life that I forget the importance of reconnecting with old friends. Seeing how they are doing and hearing their stories reminds me of the more important things.

Another resolution is to try to enjoy nature more. I'm not talking about the not-shower-for-10-days kind of nature, but I do tend to get bored easily. I'd like to try and learn how to enjoy the simpleness of nature and its beauty.

Next on the list is to keep my car clean. I recently got a new car, so I want to try to keep it as clean as possible. My old car had lots of paper and the occasional fast food wrapper in it. I hope to keep that to a minimum this year.

I'd also like to try and get at least seven hours of sleep on most nights. I shouldn't be making a resolution to do this, because truthfully, I can't function without sleep. I start not making sense, leave words out of sentences and write incomplete ideas. I can get into a rut of terrible insomnia and then it becomes a downward spiral from there. Most of my insomnia is due to my knack for finding incredibly engaging activities right before bedtime.

And then, there's always the gym resolution.

This year, I plan to continue on the same resolution I started a few years back.

The one where I started off wanting to hit the gym at least three times a week, then two times a week the following year and then once a week the year after that.

This year's gym solution is still, trying to make it to the gym once a week.

Amy Phan is the Columbia Basin Herald city and police reporter. Her coworkers are agreeing to a resolution to help Amy keep her resolutions.