Happy New Year - Now Let's See How I Did!

I remember around this time last year posting several New Year's Resolutions on this blog. A sort of 30 before 30, if you will...which gives me the unique opportunity to check back and see how I did! Because while hitting all those goals definitely didn't happen, turning 30 was guaranteed to. Isn't it funny how aging works? Anyway, 2015 really was an incredible year, but it had its low points for me too. Beginning and ending a relationship that was kind of a full-time job in and of itself made it so I didn't have much time to really do the things I'd outlined, but it did bring lots of other meaningful goals and personal achievements. And while I'm really looking forward to a fresh start in 2016, I hope that reposting my New Years Resolutions from last year as more of a continuation (let's keep this party going!) would be kind of cool. We're all a work in progress, right?

So...without further ado, my 2015 Resolutions! I will cross out things I genuinely did and offer some background commentary on the things I did not...

1  Keep an up-to-date calendar/planner (past March...)
Yeah, this is just never going to be a thing for me. But I keep trying! I'm currently trying to focus my planner just to blogging goals and planning content so I don't just...casually step away for four years again! So that is my amended goal for 2016.
2  Keep my desktop/workspace clean (spot clean every day before leaving work)
3  Take an improv comedy class  
I still really, really want to do this.
4  Set up drinks/dinner with a new female friend
5  Blog at least twice a week
Hah! A likely story... But, I'm upping this to 3x in 2016.
6  Wear makeup everyday (bonus points if I put it on at home and not at my desk)
I definitely upped my makeup game in 2015, but yeah...it mostly happened at my desk. Not gonna lie.
7  Go kayaking at Riverside or Brooklyn Bridge Park
Still on the list!
8  Go skiing at least twice this season
9  Pay off my credit card
Almost there, but working on it! Definitely happening in Q1 of 2016.
10  Take a design/art workshop or class
11  Buy a sketchbook and start to doodle again
12  Learn to make simple things I haven't tried i.e. whipped cream, poached eggs, roast chicken 
13  Find a general practitioner that I like, and have a full check-up (I'm embarrassed to say I haven't been to a GP in 3+ years)  
I did find a GP, but I haven't really made an appointment yet. I'm waiting for a big cold so I can kill two birds with one stone. 
14  Buy a new mattress
15  Stick to my diet (I do Weight Watchers, and I always nail it perfectly for 2 months, and then fizzle for a month, and so on...this year I'm going for consistency!)
Yeah, this definitely did not happen in 2015, but I'm trying again this year, and changing it up with #Nutrisystem. Stay tuned for more posts on this! I've already lost my first 10 pounds, and I just feel like 2016 will definitely be the year of my best ever body.
16  Read at least 20 books
17  Aim to go on at least one date each week
I did do this right up until I started my relationship in March! I would like to do this again in 2016 maybe?
18  Get weekly manicures and DON'T chew fingernails  
19  Cut way back on the booze and the occasional cigarette (very important!!)
Still working on this, though I do think I made some great strides this year.
20  Don't just remove makeup, focus on using my Clinique Sonic System brush for a deeper clean daily
21  Cook for myself at least two days each week
I really did do this for most of the year, so I'm crossing it off!
22  Make my bed everyday (this is so sad...I'm going to be 30, it's time)
I don't nail this every day, but I definitely do it way more and it's been great. 
23  Never visit someone's apartment empty-handed (hostess gifts are in your future, friends!)
I can't remember if I really paid many people a visit this year, but I'm keeping this on the list because it's a nice idea and I think something people always appreciate and remember.
24  Make a point to send thank you notes, birthday cards, other meaningful communications Really still working on this. I would love to become a thoughtful, classy, adult lady this year.
25  Never go a full week without doing yoga
I did not do this but, if I'm honest, it's not really a goal anymore. I hurt my foot very badly last spring when I took a spill on my apartment stairs and it's still not quite yoga-ready. 
26  Try at least one new recipe every 2 weeks, to broaden cooking/eating horizons
I used Plated for part of the year this year, and I really enjoyed it! 
27  Moisturize hands/face/skin daily  
28  Drink water (i.e. no more than 2 Diet Cokes per day, how will I ever do this?)
I started really doing this in the back half of the year, and I really do want to continue to work on it in 2016.
29  Go on a relaxing vacation (preferably out of the country)
Sadly no vacation this year. If I hit my weight loss goals, maybe I will take myself to the beach?
30  Feel good, stay positive, be happy 

Total resolution score: 17/30 (Over half, not too shabby!)

If I had to add some new ones for 2016 (in addition to the above that I'm still working on) they would have to be:

1  Upgrade my wardrobe to start phasing in more high-quality staple pieces and more polished accessories
2  Give my room a bit of a facelift. I love the décor in there, but a few things need to be tweaked.
3  Start my JennaSaisQuois YouTube channel - Coming soon!
4  Once the credit card is paid off, start an IRA to save for the future
5  Learn how to blow dry my hair!! This is a basic life skill I do not possess...
6  Take a dance class or something fun to get my body moving
7  Really try to take the subway instead of Uber or a Taxi unless it's an emergency or I'm carrying something heavy
8  Stick with Nutrisystem for at least 4 months (longer than I have ever stuck with a diet ever)
9  Do another KonMari style purge of clothing and other clutter at some point
10  Say THANK YOU more often, which I think is such a simple thing that takes no effort and really makes a difference to people

Mad Men Recap: The Doorway

Season 6, Episode 1: The Doorway brought back all of our favorite characters, up to their usual tricks, during the holiday season of 1967. Honestly, I was always a bit scared for the show to move out of the pseudo "perfection" of the late 50s and into the cultural turmoil of the mid-to-late 60s. But mostly what truly worried me was the fashion turmoil. Of course, taking one look at the style evolution of either Harry Crane or Joan proved my suspicions to be correct. Though one character has calmed my nerves about the fashions of the time period, and her name is Megan Calvet Draper.

In this episode alone, Megan rocked an amazing bikini, 3 punchy printed beach coverups, an ahhmazing sunhat, round sunglasses, and that was just in Hawaii! Being back in NYC brought her into a fabulous leopard fur coat with an epic hat to match, effortlessly glam New Years Eve sportswear, and her very own fondue pot from Bloomingdale's...She is a soap opera star now, so aside from being a rich advertising executive's wife, she could further up the ante with her wardrobe in a way that would make Destiny's Child "throw their hands up at her." If you can forget the fact that Don hiring her for that national commercial is what enabled her star to rise. And let's not forget that while Don keeps pretty classic when it comes to the east coast, whenever he's on vacation, he loosens up...just a bit.

In the world of Henry and Betty Francis, they seemed to have taken an orphaned teenager, and her violin, under their wing. This new character, Sandy, seems to have made an impact on nearly every member of the Francis clan... from Bobby's obsession over how her instrument case looks like a coffin, to the suspicion that she may be a future love interest of Sally, or possibly the distant fantasies of Henry or maybe even Betty (in probably one of the most disturbing scenes of the episode, we get a dark glimpse into Betty's ability to talk dirty). Though, I think Betty's opinions about this child show a level of maturity and nurturing in her character that make me think she's reached the age where she truly should have become a mother, versus the neglectful, selfish, wine guzzling, dry-cleaner bag days of her past.

Peggy is back and better than ever...ish. She has truly been able to thrive after escaping from the offices of SCDP, and from under Don's shadow, and she seems to be able to manage crises with confidence and New York chutzpah. Her new boss, the ubiquitous Ted Chaough, seems to trust and respect her in a way that Don never really would or could. It has to be said that I don't get the feeling things are very hot and heavy with her live-in boyfriend, but her listless late-night calls to Rizzo back in the old creative studio make me hold out a certain hope that she is still on the path toward professional and romantic happiness.

Now, catching up and fashion assessments aside, this episode set a tone for season six that leads us all to believe it's the beginning of the end for many of our characters. The opening sequence puts us in the point of view of someone who is being resuscitated after a heart attack. We then immediately transition to Don on the beach reading Dante's Inferno. Roger also must confront the idea of his own mortality when his 91-year-old mother passes away, though his constant need to use his humor as a defense mechanism remains undisturbed for the most part. Until his ex-wife brings her new boyfriend (husband?) causing Roger to lose it and cry out "This is MY FUNERAL!" Interesting... It should also be noted that Don, struggling with his own fears and uncertainty about death, vomited into an umbrella stand during the wake and all hell truly broke loose. Inferno, indeed. When Roger's shoeshine man mysteriously passes away a few days later, it all proves to be too much and we, the audience, see him in the middle of an emotional breakdown that only the likes of Joan has witnessed.

When Sandy, Betty's teenage friend, ran away to New York City, presumably to a shanty town in The Village with no running water where dirty hippies make goulash in a dirty pot using a dirty hunk of snow, Betty had no choice but to follow her there and intervene to make sure no one would end up contracting dysentery. But when one of them confronts her, and calls her hair "bottled", she heads home without Sandy in toe, as a brunette! Jaw, please meet the floor as Bobby tells her she's ugly and he hates her in the sensitive way that only an eleven-year-old boy could muster. Poor Betty. It always seemed like the less she knew about life, the happier she could allow herself to be. But all that's gone now that she's more self-aware than ever.

I'm sure I'm missing a few important elements of the episode, like the fact that the young whipper-snappers we met in the early parts of the series, like Ken Cosgrove or Peggy, now have a sort of high-and-mighty opinion about the new crop of young bloods in their respective offices. Ken gives the new account man with his uncomfortable amount of caffeinated enthusiasm and inappropriate bestowal of a deli spread at Roger's mother's funeral, a spectacular tell-off. And Peggy rips a few new "you-know-what's" on some young and lazy creatives regurgitating 3 versions of the same tired idea.

In the final pitch of the episode, Don reflects on his vacation to Hawaii in a proposed campaign with visuals that seem a bit more akin to a suicide at sea than a tropical vacation. He relates the Royal Hawaiian hotel to paradise, and to heaven, by saying "to get to heaven, something terrible has to happen to you first." All in all, the episode featured 2 deaths, a heart attack, a disappearing teenage runaway and more than a few unanswered questions, as creator Matthew Weiner sets the stage for season 6.