It’s ya girl, hat in hand at the end of another year, with the results of my 2022 New Years Resolutions.
Completed: 9
Incomplete (I bet you can guess!!!!): 1
Grow my Los Angeles community.
While this didn’t go a ton of places (I was hoping to have regular professional reasons to leave my apartment, get introduced to reps or at least people willing to work on indie stuff with me, etc), I did really try to go out and talk to/meet people in LA.
Write 2 new original pilots.
COMPLETE! One was good and is currently in decent shape, one sucks but that’s fine.
I also wrote 3 romance novels which is lowkey kind of the thing I’m focused on right now, which absolutely was not the plan at all. But here we are.
Good Eye, Natalie Green follows Natalie Green, a broke aspiring cinematographer who, after a chance encounter, accepts a production designer position for the directorial debut of her long-time celebrity crush, former child star Rowen Kelly, who’s been something of a hermit from the film industry since a mysterious stint in rehab a few months prior. This novel is about idealization (of celebrities, in relationships, of yourself) and the destructive (yet deceptively subtle) power of the patriarchy.
Good Deal, Meg Carraway takes place after a staged New Years Eve kiss between event planner Meg Carraway and the ex-boyfriend of Meg’s high school bully Cam MacKenzie turns into a months-long fake relationship. Meg needs to perpetuate the false love affair to get her toxic ex to accept their breakup until she can get a new job to distance herself from her past once and for all, and all Cam asks in return is she plans their 10 year high school reunion, an event she didn’t even plan on attending. This novel is about the dangers of building your identity around your productivity and other people’s expectations.
Good Catch, Nora Bly follows Hollywood studio lot tour guide and movie buff Nora Bly as she reluctantly enlists the help of her nemesis, the prickly stage manager and avowed fun-hater Penn Spade, to investigate why their workplace is in danger of going under before they both lose their livelihoods and, though neither will admit it, each other. This novel is about the challenges of becoming a caretaker, the value of art and artists of all kinds, and how there is no such thing as an unimportant story.
Quit 2 of my jobs.
The difference in stress level this year, despite getting married and planning it/paying for it ourselves, has been monumental. I am too old to have that many jobs, and I’m incredibly lucky to have been able to take a step back from constant income paranoia. Yayyy boundaries!
Save $5k.
Let’s not talk about how much a wedding costs, but technically yes my savings account is doing ok and has more than $5k more in it than at the start of the year.
Spend my energy better and more strategically.
I’m gonna call this a success, because of the success of the resolution below, the fact that I quit
Take 3 full days off a month.
I think I can officially not need to make a whole resolution about taking breaks… two years ago that would have been unthinkable. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and over the past two years I have made major improvements to my work/life balance thanks to resolutions like this, silly though they may be to not me peoples.
Take 3 trips with Quinn unrelated to our wedding/honeymoon.
Get active at least three times a week.
Sigh. Listen.
Incorporate healthier meals into meal planning.
Wedding trip and then immediately getting sick at the end of October/start of November definitely threw a lot of our well-laid meal prep plans into chaos, but overall I feel really happy with our regular recipes and our ongoing attempt to curb our order-in addiction!
Embrace what’s next rather than what if.
Of course I have my moments of frustration and angst about my future career, my future life, etc, but I feel a lot better equipped to handle unexpected situations and an ever-evolving industry with my new mindset here. Some days are easier than others, but overall, I’m in a much better place today than I was when I set this goal. Neat! (reminder what this new mindset means)
