New Years Resolutions 2016

1. Get a job! I've just graduated from PTA school and REALLY need to get a job. I've applied to 5 jobs and no word so far.
   
2. Buster becomes Therapy Dog Certified: It's kind of a main theme of my blog here. We're working on it! Right now the earliest Therapy Dog Training class is in April '16, but hopefully we can find something in Feb or March so we can get the ball rolling.
   
3. 30 Days of Yoga: This was a previous unmet new years resolution. Yoga classes are up to $20 each so this will be done with videos/books at home.
4. Move: I want to move back to my childhood city and rent a home there during my first year of work. My must-have is a fenced-in backyard for Buster.
5. Zumba Once a Week for 2 months: There's so many cheap Zumba classes (as low as $4) so there's really no excuse.
6. ASL Class: I'd like to become fluent in American Sign Language. I've always been fascinated by the language. I still remember (and have) my Sesame Street Sign Language book.
   
   I also read a great non-fiction book in 2013 about sign language called "Talking Hands" by Margalit Fox. I will most likely never become fluent in a second (speaking) language, but I think I would enjoy becoming fluent in ASL and it would be a valuable skill to add to my resume. Not many PTAs could treat a deaf patient. I'm considering taking classes through a local community college in Winston Salem, a church I don't belong to whose classes are free, or through the Communication Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Greensboro. Will blog about my choice later.


7. Bustle Reads Challenge: I found a website that posted a reading challenge to encourage readers to read out of their comfort zone in 2016, but also to explore more women and non-white writers. The book world is still dominated by white, male writers. And there are some excellent books by them. But I find that I rarely read books written by non-white people or from a non-western country. I read books about other countries, but they're usually by Americans. There are 20 challenges and I've done many of these, but not in one year. So here it goes:
1. Read a book by a woman under 25
2. Read a book on non-western history
3. Read a book of essays
4. Read a book about an indigenous culture
5. Read a book before you see the movie
6. Read a young adult book by an author of color
7. Read a book set in the middle east
8. Read a book about women in war
9. Read a graphic novel by a woman
10. Read a book about an immigrant or refugee to the US
11. Read a children's book aloud
12. Reread your favorite book from childhood
13. Read a memoir by someone that identifies at LGBTQIA
14. Read a work of post-apocalyptic fiction by a woman
15. Read a feminist sci-fi novel
16. Read the first book in a series you've never read
17. Read a book set in Africa by an author from Africa
18. Read a book in translation 
19. Read a contemporary collection of poetry
20.  Read a book by a modernist woman writer

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