First, I resolve to lose weight.

Supa’s description of my cat Guy seems to be a description of myself: “Squishy, furry, soft, adorable.” Well, maybe not “furry” and “adorable”, but certainly “squishy” and “soft.” The last time I weighed myself I measured in at about 250 lbs. I was surprised since the last time I’d measured myself before that I was 30 pounds lighter.

Sometimes I think back to my first couple of years at Towson University and I catch myself — I had a gym membership at Bally’s, and one summer I actually took up with Weight Watchers. Yeah, I know, “Isn’t weight watchers for women?” but the fact is I knew a guy whose roomate used weight watchers to drop a punch of weight, and until my will-power gave up (about a month in) I actually had some success shedding pounds. Then I found the frozen food aisle at the grocery store and budget-saving “eat at work!” brainstorms and out the door went Weight Watchers. As for the gym membership, it’s hard to get yourself out the door at 6am three days a week once you’ve stopped for a period of time — there again, my will power simply wasn’t up to the task.

With the help of a secret-conspirator who is currently a Weight Watchers attendee and who has offered to duplicate her Weight Watchers’ materials, I will be resuming the Weight Watchers diet which, as I recall, is actually pretty painless — limit calorie intake, don’t eat after seven, and every now and then, eh, use your flex points and binge. I should take a photo of myself sometime soon and at the start of each month do a “Resolution Update” and post more recent photos of myself.

(An overwhelming urge to bellow “The Snay Gut Challenge Begins NOW!” thankfully passed without me belting out those words.)

Second, I resolve to get a Job.

“What’cha talkin’ ‘boot, Snay? Don’t you already have like, two, jobs?”

Yeah, and pizza delivery has its advantages — flexible schedule, it’s easy, the money’s good [& stuff I don't want the IRS to know], free food … but the simple fact of the matter that while it’s cool as a college-job or a second-job, there’s nothing really beneficial to a person doing it as a “career”, which, frankly, I’ve sort of been treating it as. Unless you’re willing to go into management (limited career opportunities & a huge cut in pay), a “future” is very limited, and there’s essentially zero self-respect to be had in this line of work.

I’ve worked with (past & present) several older folks — older by ten, fifteen, even thirty years. Some do this job as a post-retirement hobby. Some do the job on weekends so they can have a bit extra cash to help send their kid to college. Some do the job because it’s all they know how to do. It really scares me when I think about The Future and I think, “Holy cow, am I still going to be working this ten years down the line? Heck, five years down the line?”

It panics the hell out of me.

I’ve worked pizza delivery in some form or another since December of 1998. I did it part time most college semesters, and one semester I worked delivery only one night a week — the other six nights a week I waited tables and worked in the English Department’s computer lab. Actually, it was my last handful of semesters at school that brought me to where I am now: overworked at work and overloaded with classes, I finally burned out Fall ‘03 and decided to spend some time “just working.”

Two years later, I’m still “just working” and not really getting anywhere in life, which brings me to …

… Three: I resolve to go back to school.

Even if I’m not back in classes by the fall semester, I’d at least like to be working a job that provides for tuition reimbursement, and figuring out what I need to get re-enrolled.

I’ll be honest, I probably should’ve left school for a few years after my first couple of semesters — I’ve never been a great college student. I was inattentive, unmotivated, and I squandered a good opportunity for a decent education. By the time I was focused on my schoolwork, I was already many thousands of dollars in debt and rapidly drowning in a completely packed schedule of eighteen-credit-hour semesters and working three jobs at the same time.

So I gave up on school. For the time being, anyway. I’m starting to get anxious about going back. I really have no idea how to start the process of getting back into Towson, but it’s something I need to start thinking about. Part of the problem — and why I’d like tuition reimbursement — is that my first few semesters I hadn’t figured out the “withdraw” system, so in addition to the 9 credits I need for my degree, I’d probably be well off retaking half a dozen or so classes for a new grade and a higher GPA.

Ideally, I’d like to at least have the option to go for my Master’s Degree in the not-entirely-at-the-moment-forseable future, but really just getting my Bachelor’s would be enough motivation for me to dance around my apartment in my underwear singing something, well, something catchy enough to sing while dancing around in my underwear.

I think I’ve got my work cut out for me this year.