begin at the beginning

New year, new blog, new resolutions, great big fucking new stage in my life. 2007 is going to be a very interesting year...

2006 was amazing, without doubt the most interesting, eventful, intense, unexpected and formative year of my life. I did so much, had so much fun, changed so much, and ended the year in a completely different way than I ever could have expected. I travelled loads, made some brilliant new friends, got closer to old friends, ended a long term relationship in the most amicable way possible, had a wild and ridiculously enjoyable summer of unparalleled freedom, met someone special but tried not to fall in love again, moved to Italy, discovered I was pregnant, went through some intense decision making and self reflection, got hospitalised, put on bedrest and scared out of my mind, moved back to Leeds, realised I had fallen in love again, and ended the year 5 months pregnant, happy and excited and on the brink of a whole new adventure. It has been something of a whirlwind, but even the scary, horrible bits have made me far stronger, and I truly don't regret a thing.

New Years eve was pretty good, considering. I don't think I have been sober on NYE for many many many years, and it was the first occasion since I found out I was pregnant that sobriety has really felt like a challenge. For some reason I actively encouraged my fella and best friend to get wasted so that I could entertain myself by watching them, which worked for a while but then became somewhat annoying. We counted down to midnight in the Hyde Park social, then headed to a squat party for a while. Thought I could deal with big parties even being sober and pregnant, but it was harder than anticipated. Loud bass, shaking floors, thick clouds of weed smoke and getting repeatedly rammed into made it a bit difficult and I only lasted till about 3am. But it was nice to have a little bit of a dance (with Mark protecting me by dancing in front!), see people and get repeatedly congratulated by everybody and their dog. Yeah, I'm glad I went really, it was fun in parts. And being stone cold sober at a squat party confirmed my long ago suspicions that drugs are bad, kids. Haha. Yeah, I've really ruined my life by being with child and no longer able to go out and get fucked, it's just such an attractive prospect when you see people gurning their faces off, talking utter shit and looking like they're effing possessed...anyway, I'm glad I at least got to go out for a while, cos I'm sure next NYE will be even more sedate for us!

So, resolutions. I love resolutions, new starts, lists, blank pages. Maybe I put a little too much emphasis on them, but they put me in a good mindset for sorting things out. I'm going to try to be reasonable with this year's. I know that the year will be unlike any other, and I can't set unreasonable goals when the vast majority of 2007 will be spent heavily pregnant/caring for tiny baby. So here goes:
-Learn to spin
-Sell some handmade goodies
-Generally knit and sew like a maniac, get better at both
-Eat healthily, really healthily, for pregnancy and beyond. 2 packets of Thorntons butter tablet is not just giving into a craving, it's a full on sugar binge...
-Really, really get rid of excess stuff. This is the perfect opportunity to do so (moving into a new place soonish, all crap stored at parents house at the moment and they'll be moving soon too)
-Buy nothing new, as far as possible given the circumstances.
-Study as much as I can, especially with the free time I have at the moment.
-Get organized, be more frugal, be sickeningly responsible.
-Educate myself as much as I can so that I have a good chance of having a great birth and a fulfilling first few months of motherhood.
-Keep up the progress I made with my self esteem and strength of character during 2006.
-Take more photos.

Whew, think that's enough. It's gonna be a fun year...