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Pique n' your interest

Resolution time again

I guess now is as good a time as any to dig out last year’s New Year’s resolutions and see what I’ve accomplished for 2002.

Sure, it might be potentially embarrassing but on the flip side, I could have made a few improvements too.

I don’t think it bodes particularly well for me that I can’t remember a single resolution for 2002 off the top of my head.

Luckily though I shared my resolutions publicly in this column last year – this is what sometimes happens when you run out of things to write about and need 900 words on the screen ASAP.

With just a few clicks of the mouse I can cull the Pique’s archives and ta dum.

Ahhh, there they are – the five resolutions I boldly made this time last year.

At that time I wrote that "having them published for all eternity in Pique Newsmagazine might give me some incentive to stick to them this year instead of letting them fall by the wayside, as is often wont to happen."

Well let’s see.

I’ll start with the last one first. It’s an old resolution staple that’s been many of my New Year’s resolutions lists: to learn to cook.

I’m almost positive this one will make the list again this year. Not unless I resign myself to that fact that Nigella Lawson I’m not, nor will ever be.

Let’s see. In 2002 I think it’s fair to say I tried a little harder in the kitchen. True, there was a small unattractive incident with Minute Rice that involved some stamping feet and loud indignation at my inability to follow three simple directions.

On the other hand, I managed to make two batches of jam this summer. The first was a mild success according to one friend. He is of course known to eat pretty much anything but that also makes him my favourite taste tester.

The second batch of freezer jam doesn’t appear to be as much of a success at first whiff.

There’s this pervasive smell of mould that wafts out every time I open a jar. Still I continue to screw the lids back on and put the jars back into the freezer. It at least makes me feel somewhat like Nigella when I see my little jars lined up alongside my black bananas that I swear will become banana bread one day.

I had also pledged to learn another language, preferably Spanish. This one was so close to happening but like many resolutions, it just didn’t pan out. Of course, I could say that I learned another language unto itself since moving to Whistler. This year saw the introduction of brand new words into my vocab. Words like pow, viz, huck and pineapple express were never there before. I truly thought that pineapple express was a joke when I first heard about it.

The next three resolutions were to start a novel, save money and to learn to ride switch.

None of these really panned out over the last 12 months.

Riding switch sounded easy when I wrote in on the list. But pretty early on in my snowboarding career I resigned myself to simply learning how to go one way and stay standing.

On the brighter side, I managed to compete in two races and only horribly embarrassed myself in one. They were charity races but still, when you’re staring down the racecourse at the top of the mountain, a race is a race.

I think that maybe I’ll set my goals a little more reasonably this year and just figure out how to ride powder. Again, there was an unfortunate incident late last season on a beautiful powder day. I was floating into Ziggy’s Meadows and fell at the bottom, at the flat part. I laughed and giggled in the soft fluffy snow as my boyfriend zoomed past me.

After struggling in the hip deep powder for about two minutes, I realized my predicament. It was going to take me a long time to get to my boyfriend standing nonchalantly on the horizon staring back at me. Taking my board off was just the first of my tasks that day.

Let’s just say I’ve had finer moments on the mountain then those next two hours.

This year I vow to master the powder so I will never ever fall on a flat stretch again and it looks like Mother Nature might just be co-operating on this front this season.

As for saving money, what was I thinking? This might be a reasonable resolution if I lived in Powell River, Salmon Arm or Squamish, but I live in Whistler.

I didn’t save any money this year but on the brighter side I enjoyed myself and really spared myself few pleasures. I bought a new mountain bike and managed to scrape enough money together to make sure I had a season’s pass this year.

So in a way, I saved money and then I spent it. Actually it didn’t quite work out that way. It went something like, I had no money in my bank account, decided I wanted a new mountain bike, bought the bike on credit, spent the rest of the summer riding it and paying off my credit card just in time to buy my season’s pass.

What’s the point of having money sitting in the bank after all when you can be floating over snow or riding through trails on it?

The last resolution was to start a novel. This one, I’m ashamed to say, didn’t even come close to happening. I didn’t even get a thought onto paper or a rough outline. I didn’t get a poem or a short story scrawled down. Of course, I talked about doing it a lot but somehow, even in my mind, I don’t think that really counts.

I may have out here. I’ve got less than two weeks now to enter a short story contest that I vowed months ago to enter. The requirement is a 2,500-word story double-spaced. I write three times that much on any given week at the Pique so I’m think I can pull it off ... if only the mountain wasn’t beckoning so loudly.

If I get it down then at least I could say I attempted most of my resolutions in some way. Looking back I think it’s fair to say that you win some and you lose some.

All of these resolutions are going back on the 2002-03 list along with a few others. I don’t think it was much help that I wrote them all down on my computer and then promptly forgot about them until I had to write this column, one year later.

This time I think it might be wiser to print out a copy and stick it up on my fridge as a constant friendly reminder of what may be.