New Goals

So I know this blog is primarily dedicated to informing our adoring audience (aka: our families) of our sometimes exciting lives of adventure and ravenous passport-stamp-collecting in South East Asia, complete with pictures and anecdotes about my always entertaining husband...but I have been reading some of my friends blogs, and some of their friends blogs, and I have been inspired to write more and about more things. And, after a binge of vacations...we are getting ready for a vacation drought, so there will be many fewer opportunities to post fun pictures of our crazy trips.

Now.... just have to decide what things to write about.....

One of the reasons that we (and by "we", I mean me, but technically it is "our" blog) only seem to post things when we have fabulous vacation pictures to share is that when it comes down to it, life here is pretty un-interesting and if we are being honest, sometimes it can be sort of depressing. I suppose most people's lives do not provide daily blog-worth events to discuss with friends and family. My typical day of wake up-go to gym-go to work-eat lunch-more work-maybe more gym-home-tv-sleep, is really not notable or anything people want to hear about in detail. But more than the fact that my day-to-day is not that thrilling is that I find it easy here to get a case of the blues. It is all understandable- we are far away from our friends and family, we miss the comforts of home, Singaporeans are super annoying, its hot as hell here, our jobs are lame... there are lots of things that can drag down my mood a little bit... or a lot, depending on the day. And I know the last thing anyone wants to read about is how much I think Singapore/my job/Singaporeans/Asian food/Asian grocery stores suck on any given day. So instead, I abstain from blogging about anything.

Dave thinks we need to hit a hump and we will magically have better attitudes about Singapore. I think he is crazy, as usual. Regardless of whether there is a magic mood-changing hump right around the corner or not, we are doing just fine here and are even sometimes having a great time. What has become clear, to me at least, is that I don't *hate* Singapore. There are things about the country and the people that drive me up a wall... but there are also some really wonderful things about living on a tropical island blessed with mostly good weather, great food and interesting neighbors. The bottom line is- I'd just rather be in New York. There are positives and negatives about NYC too... and when I lived there I routinely bitched about how expensive things were, how dirty the city could be, how cold it was, how crowded Trader Joe's is (oh god, I would trade a kidney for some TJ's in my life), how annoying tourists are.... but despite all its flaws- I just love me some NYC and right now, there is no place I'd rather live. Which can make it tough to be stuck half a world away. But, my re-dedication to NYC is itself a positive step. Before we left NYC, I was feeling unsure about my future in the city. After just 6 short months away, I am in need of the bright lights of the Big Apple and plan on staying there for a good-long-while.

While this time in Singapore so far has had ups and downs, one thing it has provided me with is the opportunity to reflect on my priorities and set goals for the future. I thought I would start my new plan of blogging about things that are not Singapore and vacations by sharing some of my new goals, big and little, and then hopefully I will find the motivation and time to write about my plans and progress on the new personal life to-do list.

1) Be more positive.

2) Become a more healthy, natural and sustainable eater. This includes going for a "meatless month" challenge. (Eek! But I love steak......)

3) Get back into running- and run a 1/2 marathon in December (starting with 2 10K races in October!)

4) Learn to live more in the moment and worry less about what's next

5) Finding more enjoyable things to do in Singapore and make a bigger effort to brave the heat and spend more time outside.

So wish me luck- and stay tuned for updates!

Xo-E