Obligatory Introductory Post

 Photo from cherryblossom.org.

This marks about my 1,000th attempt to start a blog. I always have a lot of grand ideas - I love to write and wish I did more of it; I have a lot of varied and sometimes contradictory interests; and most of those interests have some bizarre goal.

So that's the point of this latest blog. We're thisclose to either the end of civilization or a new year, and either way, I'm prepared to start anew in either the netherworld or 2013. Either or. My hope is to post something every day, or at least five days a week, and subjects are varied. Some options:

• My dog. Sorry, I'm borderline obsessed. But I'm also toying with the idea of having him trained to be a therapy dog, which would be its own adventure. Charlie is a sweet little corgi, albeit a little hyper, and kids just love him. And adults. And the elderly. I'm thinking after two, maybe three, classes, he's drafting peace treaties with North Korea. 
• Running. I run. Oftentimes, I don't really like it. I took it up two years ago as a way to get in shape and lose weight, and it worked. I keep myself motivated by continuously signing up for 5Ks, and I keep myself motivated for THAT by starting my latest goal: finishing a 5K in as many different states as possible. I'm up to four (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Connecticut) and I just found out today that I was accepted to take part in the Cherry Blossom 5K in Washington, D.C., on April 7. That means running alongside the reflecting pool and passing the Lincoln Memorial. So cool. My experiences in my 5Ks - large and small - have all been outstanding, which is enough to keep me motivated to run five days a week to stay in shape. 
• Baking. I run hard, I eat hard. I try to make my "cheat" days/meals as worthwhile as possible, and I truly do love baking - trying out new recipes, making things pretty, decorating cakes and cupcakes. I'm in the midst of my annual Christmas cookie explosion, so my freezer is officially Cookie Central. Chocolate chip cookies with red and green chips; chocolate cookies with dark chocolate and mint chips (aka Andes cookies); peanut blossoms; candy cane sugar blossoms. It is insanity. I'm pretty sure I've already gone through five pounds of flour and a pants size.
• Reading. I'm a librarian and a writer, so - SPOILER ALERT - I read. A lot. I'm kind of snooty about what I read - a lot of classics, a lot of the highly regarded literature - but not TOO snooty. I just can't get into the supermarket fiction of James Patterson and John Grisham (although I love a lot of Grisham's older works, like A Time to Kill and The Client). I have a creepy obsession with Stephen King and after reading about The Guardian's James Smythe's attempt to read every King book chronologically, I, too, am game. I've already gone through Carrie, 'Salem's Lot and The Shining, and I'm in the midst of Rage, the first Bachman book. Admittedly, it feels a little wrong now, after the tragic events in Newtown, Conn., so I'm on a bit of a hiatus, focusing on catching up on my magazines until it seems more appropriate. I'm also in a Snooty Book Club, started when a friend of mine couldn't stomach a few hundred pages of Fifty Shades of Grey to join a different book club. I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which was amazing.
• Traveling. We don't travel as much as we'd like, since all those lottery tickets we don't buy never seem to pan out, but we do as much as possible. We're also really good about being tourists in nearby places. We walked the Freedom Trail in Boston this summer, an all-day activity that was more or less free. My Race Across America 5K project is a way to remind us to keep exploring, even the strangest of places, like Williamsport, Pa. 

There are other things I'm interested in and you'll probably see them. If, of course, I don't forget about you in a couple of weeks.