A new year and the book of doom

I don't make New Year's resolutions, per se, but I do appreciate the opportunity to mark the turning of a new leaf.

2005 was a bad year for me, and I self-medicated by skipping the gym and indulging in comfort foods.

2006 will be the year I get healthy again.

Here are my two daily goals for the year:

• Goal: Pack a lunch to eat at work. Four days a week. This involves waking up early enough to make a lunch. Reward: Get to read fiction over lunch.

• Goal: Get thee to the gym. I've been slacking off, ever since the tattoo, after which I had to abstain from germ-filled environments for two weeks. I never went back. Solution: Perhaps join the other health club in town. There are more people (and male people) my age that work out there; and there's an in-house tennis league. Reward: Look damn fine by this fall.

In other news, I picked up Connie Willis' The Doomsday Book on Saturday and have been completely sucked in by it.