It’s that time of year again! In Episode 565: Resolutions Old, Resolutions New, just like at every turn of the year, we look back at the resolutions we set for the previous year and discuss whether or not we accomplished them, or at least got close. This is often a very cringe-worthy exercise.
Undaunted by any failures, we also set resolutions for the coming year.
Don’t miss this fun annual tradition!
You can listen right here, or find the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and elsewhere.
Related Episodes:
Episode 514 Did We Keep Our New Year’s Resolutions?
Episode 462: Promises Kept and Promises Broken
Episode 410: Books, Horses, Lard and other New Year’s Resolutions
Episode 349: A New Year Begins: 2021
Bittersweet Moment #188: Aurelio’s New Year’s Resolutions
Bittersweet Moment #39: ROMAN RESOLUTIONS
Five key takeaways from the episode:
- Katy and Tiffany review their 2024 New Year’s resolutions, discussing successes like Katy’s “no screen January” and reading challenge, and Tiffany’s “no buy month” and increased travel.
- They set new resolutions for 2025, including Tiffany continuing piano lessons and morning walks, and Katy finishing her novel and taking an archery class.
- Katy considers removing her long-time belly button piercing as a resolution, citing potential clothing damage and symbolism of letting go.
- Tiffany aims to have at least one phone-free Sunday in 2025, acknowledging the challenge of completely avoiding smartphone use.
- They promote their upcoming Rome tour in October 2025 during the Jubilee year, highlighting the city’s renovations and beauty, and encourage listeners to join them.
Full Episode Transcript:
Katy
Hello. This is The Bittersweet Life. I’m Katy Sewall.
Tiffany
I’m Tiffany Parks.
Katy
Tiffany in Rome, Katy in Seattle. And today we do our annual look back at our New Year’s resolutions that we promised to do last year as we entered 2024. We’re going to see if we did them, and then we’re going to make promises that we will or will not keep in 2025. As you listen, I hope you also reflect on what kind of resolutions, if any, you want to make this coming year as we kick off the new year in just a couple days. All right, as usual, Tiffany, I have pulled the tape from last year to listen back to what we promised to do and to see if we accomplish those goals or not. So let’s start with my first one, which I almost didn’t air because it’s a repeat resolution from the year prior. But let’s just go ahead and listen to it anyway. Here we go. This brings me to my first resolution of the year, is that we are currently trying to do the no television, no video January again.
Tiffany
So did you succeed, Katy?
Katy
I did succeed, yes. We did another no screen January. And it’s funny what, you filled the.
Tiffany
No screen at all?
Katy
Well, I mean, no, not exactly at all. Basically, the intention is no video, no games, nothing that you would sort of fill your time with on your phone and then no television, no watching TV shows at night. So that’s. And you know, and you try not to see the tv. Like if you’re out in a restaurant and there’s a TV in the background, you’re trying not to watch it. Yeah. So it’s not no screens entirely. Our jobs both require screens. So. But yes, it’s kind of the no screen entertainment is the idea. And always certain things rise to the surface. And this particular year, 2024, Derek particularly filled a lot of that time learning very esoteric card games. Card games you could play with other people, card games that you could play by yourself. A lot of things that were not solitaire, you know, that you can play alone. They’re just totally different games. So he went down the rabbit hole in that direction. I did a lot of reading. And we are going to do this again this year. And so I’m not going to talk about this res solution anymore. This is now becoming a thing, so I’m not gonna keep bringing it up every year. Now it seems that we like to challenge ourselves in January to Do this. So we’ve already started preparing for what will we do this year for Christmas. Derek bought me a cribbage board. We have a brand new game. We’re talking about having him read a book aloud to me. While I do what? I don’t know. Do you think I should take up cross stitching of something? I’m not sure.
Tiffany
Knitting. Knitting is wonderful. If someone would read aloud to me while I knit, that would be. That would be kind of top for me. Like, I love to knit, but I don’t knit anymore because I would rather be reading.
Katy
Yeah, well, maybe you. And maybe you could have Claudia read to you. Yeah, you could have Claudia read to you in the January.
Tiffany
I suggested that to him because we have friends who do that. We have a couple who are recently married and they read some mega books to each other. He reads to her and he does. He does all the voices. He happens to be a voiceover actor.
Katy
Oh, that helps. Yeah.
Tiffany
Makes him particularly good. Yeah. At doing. At reading just in general and also doing the voices. And so they were currently reading the Brothers Karamazov this past year. So I said to Claudio, let’s do that. And he was like, no, he, like shot that.
Katy
Shot that out.
Tiffany
I know, I know. I was. I was really bummed. I thought it. I thought that would be really fun. You guys should do it.
Katy
Well, yeah, Derek is a much better reader than me, so usually he wants to be the one to read. So we’ll try it. I’ll let you know how it goes. All right, let’s listen back to your first resolution of last year. Here you go.
Tiffany
I would like to try to do a no buy month.
Katy
Okay. So, Tiffany, you wanted to try a no buy month, did you? And how did it go?
Tiffany
Well, if you listen to this show, you know that I succeeded more or less. I bought myself a pair of sneakers that I needed for our Rome trip. I desperately needed those. And. And so I did buy those, but other than that. And of course, groceries, bills, necessary things for Aurelio, like his school uniforms and books and stuff like that. But other than that, I did not buy anything in the month of September, 2024. And it was great. I really found it to be less of a challenge than I thought it would be. And we talk about this on episode, how to buy Nothing. I can’t remember the number, but it’s a recent episode. So if you want to hear more about that in detail, you can go back and listen to that episode. But I might do that again. I don’t think I’LL put it on my resolution list. But I like that as a challenge and I would do it again.
Katy
Okay, all right, I like that. And you went for September. I didn’t pull this tape. But in the original tape you said that you were going to do it in February because it was the shortest month.
Tiffany
So good for you managed to do that. I went to Germany. I went to Germany in February and so that was not possible.
Katy
All right, well, here is my next thing. It’s kind of actually a non resolution prediction, but it’s like a prediction about the book that I have been writing. So let’s take a listen at my prediction. My thought is that this year there’s no way it won’t be done by the end of 2024. That’s not a resolution. It just feels like, you know, what am I doing with my time if I can’t finish this book by the end of this year?
Tiffany
So this is the one I’m probably most curious to find out if you succeeded at or if you at least met your expectation about.
Katy
I mean, I did not finish it. And I love how confident I am in that. That quote I was.
Tiffany
You’re like, I have to finish.
Katy
Like there’s no way.
Tiffany
I’m not.
Katy
Well, as I put it, what am I doing with my time if I can’t finish this book by the end of the year? Now I think I know what I’m doing with my time. It’s this show. For what podcast? Yeah, it’s this show. It’s this show. And then I had a lot of family Travel last year. 2024 ended up being the year of family travel. Unexpected family travel in most cases. And those trips, well, they were totally worth it. Did not do the writing any favors because huge mega trips often derail the thought process that you’re in. And so every time I would come back from one of those, it would take me a good week to get going again and then something else would come and interrupt. So I do have an excuse, but. But no, my confident, like it’s going to happen. Now I will say with, well, I’m not going to say anything about it. Maybe I’ll say something about it. Maybe I’ll say something about it at the end of the show. But we’ll see. Okay, but let’s do your second resolution. Let’s take a listen.
Tiffany
I want to travel more.
Katy
Okay, so you wanted to travel more. Kind of a big open ended resolution. Do you feel that you accomplished that goal?
Tiffany
I definitely traveled far this year. You know, I was on three different continents this year. So I suppose that’s got to be pretty good. I. Thinking back, I can’t remember when I. When we made that episode, if we had booked our trip to Japan. But yeah, we went to Japan. We spent two weeks in Japan and Okinawa. We went to the States, both Arizona and Boston. I went to Germany to visit my friend Maeve, who I’ve talked about a lot on this show, the opera singer. That was a short but wonderful trip. We went to Umbria in August. So I feel like. I feel like I travel quite a bit this year, so I’m happy with that.
Katy
It.
Tiffany
What I feel like is lacking is the short sort of weekend trips that I feel like we could easily take that we don’t end up taking, especially because we have friends in so many European cities that are so close. I feel like we could do that more often, but I feel like that was a. That was a success.
Katy
Okay, we’ll check it off the list. Yeah, those wide ones are always hard to be like, did I do that? But I think you did okay.
Tiffany
I think so.
Katy
Here’s Katy’s resolution number three. Here we go. Let’s take a listen back. My intention is to read all 10 of the New York Times Best Books of 2023 in 2024.
Tiffany
Did you do it, Katy?
Katy
I did. I read all 10 books. Five fiction, five nonfiction. Let me tell you, most of them were absolute tomes. They were massive books. They took up quite a bit of my reading year this year, particularly the nonfiction ones. They were all extremely well written, but they were a lot of subjects that I wouldn’t normally be gravitating towards. So I’ve now read and informed about a lot of things I wasn’t planning on ever reading about or being informed about. So I guess that’s a good thing. Fiction wise. I thought the fiction choices were pretty great, with a few exceptions. I don’t know if we want to throw anyone under the bus on this one, but for me, a couple of them I didn’t love. But overall, it was a really good experience. I’m glad I did it. And I was thinking, like, should I do that again this year? But I’ve decided not to. It was a worthwhile experiment, though. Everything in the list was extremely well executed. And sometimes when you’re looking for books to read, you’re casting about, you know, hoping for good writing. Sometimes you find it, sometimes you don’t. I did find that that list directed you toward really great writing. So that was good. That was good. But yeah, it was a big commitment. I didn’t finish reading all of them until I entered into December. I was still reading the last fiction book when I came into December. And granted, I mixed other books in there along the way. It wasn’t like I was just reading those, but they did last me all year long. All right, let’s listen to your next one. All right, this is your third resolution. Let’s take a listen.
Tiffany
I really want to be more productive with my time. My plan is to create some kind of time blocking system where I, like, put it into my calendar, structuring my day almost as if I were in an office.
Katy
Okay, so how did the time blocking system institution go?
Tiffany
Well, I wouldn’t call this a total failure because I did create a time blocking system. I did do that. Now, whether or not I actually followed it is another question. But I came up with a sort of system in which I had, you know, separate blocks during the day when I had open time to work. I have a very hard time sticking to. It’s hard. I mean, it’s kind of the kind of thing that you. You gotta. I’m still. I’m still working on it. I’m still working on it. You can kind of make your. Because I. I still can’t decide which is the right way to do it, which is the right way to go about it. Because I. I did try sort of two different ways, and neither of them really work. I don’t know if it was me not being disciplined enough. But first I tried, like, sort of open blocks where I’d be like, okay, work block number one. And then I’ll see what I need to do that day. And at the beginning of the day or the night before, when I know what I need to do, I’ll fill in that work block and be like, okay, I’m gonna. I’m gonna work for an hour and a half on this and then 45 minutes on that. And then, of course, I have to go pick up a really. Or make him lunch, yada, yada, and then I’ll have another maybe hour later. I felt like that was maybe too loosey goosey for me. And I ended up just doing whatever. So I thought, okay, I need to be more. I need more specific. And so I would write out, okay, I’m gonna work for half an hour on this, like the week before, or just put it in there. Put it in my schedule. And that didn’t work either because it was like, some days I have more work to do on the podcast and less Work to do on, I don’t know, a tour that I’m organizing or vice versa, or I’m just. My work is so varied and can be sporadic that I don’t always have to work on the same things. And so I’m going to say that’s more of a failure than a success. I did attempt to do it. I made a really good effort, but I haven’t figured it out yet. Let’s just put it like that.
Katy
Yeah. You found that perhaps what you’ve come up with so far doesn’t really work for you is what you’ve learned. Yeah. Which is a valuable lesson, I think. All right, jumping ahead, this is my final resolution. If you’ve listened to this show for years, and if you’re new, I should tell you, I always try to do one resolution that can be done in a day. It’s actually my favorite resolutions. I’m not a real ambitious resolution maker like Tiffany is. I much prefer resolutions that are like, this is a thing I’m gonna do this year, and if I can, I get it done in one day. And that is my favorite thing. So here is my resolution of what I was going to get done in a day. My get it done in a day is that I’m going to try to walk into a small music venue, just pick somebody’s name off whatever their concert calendar is, or just notice it while I’m walking by. Don’t need to know a single thing about who this person is and what they’re doing, and just buy a ticket and go see what’s up. Okay.
Tiffany
So did you do that, Katy?
Katy
I did, and I accomplished it in January. I do have a clip of the music I walked into. Do you want to hear a slight example of what I started to think of as discordant jazz in my head?
Tiffany
Oh, geez, Discordant. All right, make it short.
Katy
All right. Here’s a sample of what I found when I didn’t plan what I was going to go see. So that. There you go. It was actually a blast of a night because it’s just so unexpected, and you just don’t know what you’re in for. But like I said, calling it discordant jazz. I watched this show, and the whole time I was thinking, I mean, and this is just one example. It gets weirder if you listen further in the recording. I was sitting there thinking, I can’t tell if this is jazz that’s really bad or if it’s so good that I don’t really understand what it is. They’re doing. And so I sent it to my cousin who is a jazz organ player, and he said, well, you know, and his review was like, well, I mean, they’re definitely moving the time around on purpose. And then he would just make comments about the individual players. The drummer really knows what he’s doing. And then he’d say, oh, and this person really knows. His overall review was that he really liked it. So maybe they were so good, I didn’t quite get it. That’s definitely possible. But what I really loved about this definitely happens. Yeah. What I really loved about this resolution was I decided to keep it going and try to hit some unplanned music thing every single month through the entire year. And I did it. I missed one month. And so I’ve put together a little montage that will play as this show ends. Every time I went to something, I recorded a little bit of what it was that I heard. So you’ll. If you listen through the end of this show, you’ll hear a montage of all the different types of music that I stumbled my way into over the course of this year. It ended up being a really fun resolution. Very cool. Yeah. And it reminded me to seek out music more often.
Tiffany
Nice.
Katy
All right, here is your final resolution. Taking a page from your friend Katy, trying to do a resolution that you could get done in a day. Here’s what you said that you would do. You were figuring out. To be fair, you were figuring it out live on the show. So. So here we go.
Tiffany
Maybe a cuisine. Maybe like a. Like an ethnic cuisine. I could go and eat at a Ethiopian restaurant or something. I don’t think I’ve ever had Ethiopian food.
Katy
So did you have Ethiopian cuisine during 2024?
Tiffany
No, but I don’t consider this resolution totally failed, because what I very. The very first thing that I said was, I want to try a new cuisine. And I did try a new cuisine, and that was authentic Japanese cuisine. And I’ve eaten at Japanese restaurants in Italy, in the United States. The stuff that’s going on over there seems to me quite different. And one particular night, we had a meal that was part of the price of the place. We were staying one night in Kyoto, we stayed in a ryokan, which is like a traditional Japanese hotel with the tatami and the futons on the floor, and very, very, very traditional. And at this particular ryokan they had. Dinner was included in the price of the. Of the room. So we went, and it was. I mean, So I was so proud of myself because I’m not a very adventurous eater and know there’s lots of things that I don’t really want to try or, you know, kind of gross me out or whatever. I’m definitely much, much better than I was as a young person. As a young person, I ate nothing, which is a really. It’s for me. But I made. And I. If you’ve ever, you know, had traditional Japanese food, you know, it comes served in, like, you know, tiny little bowls. Like, there’s, like, 12 different things, maybe more on, you know, your spread, and then tiny little bowls and tiny little plates, and I made sure that I tried some of every single thing.
Katy
Wow. Yeah.
Tiffany
And there was some fruits and. Or vegetables I’m not sure that I had never seen before. Had no idea. I’m like, I’m gonna put this in my mouth, and I have zero idea of what. What I’m gonna. What taste is gonna happen. And some of this stuff was amazing. Some was not so great. But what I’m really proud of is I ate sashimi, which, for sushi lovers might be, like, that’s the best thing in the world. But for me, eating a piece of raw fish with nothing on it is. I mean, I.
Katy
It’s a challenge. It’s one of the layers of hell. Yeah.
Tiffany
Yeah, yeah. And so I did it. I. I ate. I think I ate all of the sashimi. It wasn’t a ton, but maybe like four or five pieces. It was a real challenge. And then breakfast was also included in this. And the breakfast was a traditional Japanese breakfast, which you get things like a bowl of what looks like a kind of clear broth with very, very, very thin pasta in it. Noodles, I guess I should say. And an almost completely raw egg. Like an egg that has been poached for 10 seconds or something. And so I had that and all the other very savory things for breakfast that, you know, we’re not often used to. But, yeah, I. I had everything, and I was very proud of myself. I was very proud of myself at one point during the dinner. They brought a fish. I took a picture. I’ll try to remember to post it. They brought a fish that was. I’m not sure how they cooked it, but it was a whole fish. It was small, but it was the whole thing. Head, eyes, tail, fins, everything. Mm. And I was like, I don’t know how to get into this fish. Like, I don’t know how to cut. It’s like, I have no knife. How do I. How do I debone it. Everything is in there. It hasn’t been gutted. It hasn’t been deboned. She’s like, oh, it’s very soft. Just use your chopsticks and you’ll be able to get it open. And she was right. I was able to tear the skin very easily with the chopsticks and I just picked out the meat and it was exquisite. It was so, so good. And if you’re wondering what the name of the fish was, I don’t remember the Japanese name, but I did look at it in the translator and it was just. It just said sweet fish.
Katy
Okay. So we don’t know.
Tiffany
I don’t know, but it was so good.
Katy
It was a very sweet. Yeah, that’s lovely. Well, I’m going to count that one as a yes, I feel, because the intention of the spirit of it was there for sure, you know.
Tiffany
Yes.
Help us balance the books!
Katy, popping in real quick. The holidays are about giving to those you love. And if you love this show, I have a request for you, a Christmas holiday request. With the turn of the year, The Bittersweet Life always gets walloped with the biggest bills of the year, the annual bills. We’re talking hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars of things that come due annually. We would love your help tackling these bills as we enter 2025. If you love this show and you want to give us a Christmas present, please join us on Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thebittersweetlifepodcast. Or give us a one time donation through PayPal. You can find links in our show notes. You can also find it at http://www.thebittersweetlife.net and one thing that we really, really, really need in the new year is a traveling microphone. Whenever I travel abroad, whenever we record roam episodes together in person, I am using a shotgun microphone. That shotgun microphone now is well over 10 years. I’ve had it since before this show was even born. And it is sounding pretty rough, which means it’s got to be replaced. If you really want to hear what Rome sounds like, I could really use donations from those of you who love this show, who appreciate it, who want to give back to pitch in and help me buy that microphone again. Like I said, one time donations at PayPal.com or through a monthly sponsorship at http://www.patreon.com/thebittersweetlifepodcast Those donations have kept this show going for 10 years and your donations are what will keep it going moving forward. We are absolutely so, so, so very grateful to you. And if you don’t have the means to donate or chip in in any way right now, especially around the holidays. Tell a friend about us. Help spread the word. We need to keep this audience growing to also keep the show going. So. So happy holidays. Thank you so much for considering us in your holiday gift giving. We appreciate you so much, and we hope that this show brings a lot of joy and entertainment into your life. Back to the show.
Katy
All right, well, now we come to the. The final portion of our show where we promise things for the new year. I have to say that we resolve.
Tiffany
We resolve.
Katy
Okay. We resolve.
Tiffany
They’re not promises. There are resolutions. We’re gonna do our best.
Katy
We’re gonna do our best. And I have to say that this year, I don’t really have that many. And one Derek said was foolhardy and I shouldn’t say it on the show.
Tiffany
Oh, that’s the one you gotta say.
Katy
I mean, it’s pretty pompous, but.
Tiffany
Okay, I wanna hear it.
Katy
Do you wanna share one first?
Tiffany
Yeah, I’ll share first because I got. I actually have quite a few this year. Okay. But I will say this caveat. My new strategy for New Year’s resolutions is to start them well before the new year and start getting into a habit before the new year starts.
Katy
Smart.
Tiffany
Yeah. Because January 1st is no day for new beginnings.
Katy
Very true.
Tiffany
So one of mine is something that I’ve already begun, and that is piano lessons.
Katy
Yes.
Tiffany
And. And practicing the piano.
Katy
Nice. And this has been life altering so far. You just started a month ago or so.
Tiffany
About a month and a half. Probably maybe closer to 2 now. I only take lessons every other week. I try to practice every day. And I don’t know that I would call it life altering, but it’s definitely already bringing a lot of joy to my life and a lot of challenge. It’s so hard. It is so hard. And it’s so much harder than it looks. The hard stuff looks hard, but even the easy stuff, the stuff that looks easy is also hard for beginners. And I’m just thinking about how many different things you have to be able to do at the same time when you play the piano. Not just two different things with two different hands, but you’ve got the bass clef on the left hand and the treble clef on the right hand. So you’re. You’re having to be able to look at that note on the top staff and know that that’s a do, where the same thing on the bottom staff is a me. And, you know, you Keep them. Keep that separate from in your mind. You have to be able to play loud on your right hand while you’re playing soft on your left hand. Or you have to be able to do legato or, you know, connected notes on your one hand while doing staccato or, you know, disconnected notes on the other hand. Not to mention just reading the notes themselves as they, you know, the rhythm. The rhythm as well. You’re trying to. It’s so many. It’s like juggling. It’s really like juggling. And when I do it, I just feel like I can feel the gears of my brain turning. It’s unlike anything I think I’ve ever done.
Katy
I love that. So if this is a resolution for the coming year, what would it take to succeed in it that you just keep going through the rest of the year?
Tiffany
I just keep going. I keep going. I practice regularly, which I would ideally every day, but, you know, let’s say five days a week, plus my lesson day. So, you know, give myself one. One free day a week if I’m just totally slammed and keep up with my lessons every other week.
Katy
Okay. I like it. That’s a good one. That’s a good one. All right. I have two that can be done in a day this year. Okay. If you’ve listened to the show for a long time, you know that sometimes we dig out my lifetime goals or dreams that I wrote in 1994, some of which on the list I have checked off as if I’ve already accomplished them, including have abs of steel, which I no longer have, but I did apparently think I did at one time. But I always like to look at the list and see, like, is there anything else on here that I would really like to do? And number one on the list. Number one without a check mark next to it. It is the first thing I wrote down when this was asked of me. Learn archery. So the thing I’m going to do in the day is I’m going to take an archery class.
Tiffany
That’s wonderful.
Katy
And I guess if I really like it, maybe I’ll actually learn it more.
Tiffany
That sounds awesome. I love doing that. Every time I’ve had a chance to do it. I just love it. I just love how it feels.
Katy
Yes. I’ve only tried it once, and I was an 8th grader at camp the only time I ever went to camp. So we’ll see. That’s my get it done in a day resolution for 20, 25. Okay, give me another one of yours.
Tiffany
This is something else. I don’t even know if I want to say this, because this is kind of already become a pretty. Pretty steady habit in my life. I just want to make sure that I don’t stop doing it. And I would like to do it even on days when I feel like I’m too busy to do it or on days when it’s a weekend, like it’s a Sunday. I want to have, you know, take it easy. It totally changes my whole day. It makes me feel so much better. It puts me in a better mood, and that is taking a very brisk, long walk first thing in the morning.
Katy
Okay. I like it.
Tiffany
I’ve been doing that more days than not for at least the last six months. I think that more than the piano playing, that is life changing. Getting into the habit of getting physical movement every morning, getting sunlight in your eyes every morning, fresh air in your lungs every morning. I just. It’s so good in so many different levels. So I don’t know that that’s a resolution. It’s something that I want to make sure I keep doing okay. So I’m kind of being real easy on myself this year. Yeah. Giving myself resolutions that I already do.
Katy
I really. I really appreciate that. Okay. I’m gonna say for me, I am gonna finish this novel this year. Yay. I would like to think. I would like to think I will have it done, mostly done by the end of February or March of this year. But I am gonna say this is the year 2024. We thought it was the year. It wasn’t. 2025 is the year this novel will be done, and we’ll be out searching for an agent, and God willing, wouldn’t it be amazing if it also sold this year? That’s a little too ambitious. But. But I am going to get it done this year. No question. No question about it.
Tiffany
I think that’s great. I think you should total. I think I believe in putting things out there and. And making bold statements. It makes you more likely to do it.
Katy
All right. It’s gonna happen. We’re doing it. It’s enough. Let’s go. That’s my biggie for this year.
Tiffany
Okay. All right.
Katy
I have. I have two more. One’s the foolhardy one, and.
Tiffany
Oh, I thought that was a foolhardy one.
Katy
No, no. But. So go ahead. What do you have another one?
Tiffany
I do have a few more. This one I’m definitely going to do.
Katy
Okay.
Tiffany
I’m super excited about it. I’ve been thinking and scheming about it for the last couple months. And it has to do with reading. And I like to set myself a book goal, a reading goal for the year. And I usually, at least the past couple years have met my goal. But I want to do it a little bit differently this year. So usually what my. My goal is to read 50 or 52 books in a year. That was the goal for this year.
Katy
And.
Tiffany
And I’m probably going to finish the year with 56.
Katy
Okay.
Tiffany
So I like doing that. But what happens is when you have a kind of goal with that big of a number, you tend to not pick the big books off your shelf.
Katy
True.
Tiffany
I’ve definitely not picked up books because I’m like, there’s no way this is going to put me way behind on my reading goal. So my goal this year is I’m going to read 12 books, one book per month. And they’re all books that I already own in collector’s editions. Because I’m trying what I really want to do, and this is a much longer term goal, but I really want to read every single collector’s book that I have. So that. Yeah, and, and so these are. If you want, I can, I can read them off real quick because I’ve picked the 12 books.
Katy
Yeah, let’s hear it.
Tiffany
You want to hear them?
Katy
Do you already have them mapped out by month as well? Like January, this one?
Tiffany
No, I’m not going to do that because I might not feel like reading a certain book in a certain month. So. David Copperfield. I don’t. Do I need to say who these are by? I think everyone knows. David Dickens.
Katy
If you want, go for it.
Tiffany
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Now that’s not a long book, but Orlando is a book that has kind of daunted me and it seems like it’s hard to read. So not all of these are long, but I think they’re either long or they’re challenging or they’re both. So Orlando’s not particularly long. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Middlemarch by George Eliot. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man by James Joyce. I have a hard time with Joyce. That’s not a particularly long book, but I have a hard time with Joyce, so that’s a big challenge for me. Swan’s Way by Marcel Proust. Now this is the first volume of remembrance of Things Past, so I’m just. It’s just the first volume, though. It’s still really long.
Katy
Okay.
Tiffany
The Portrait of a Lady. Henry James is another author that I find very Challenging. I find it very hard to get through his work, so I might need a month and a half for that one. The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster. I’ve read every other novel by E.M. Forster. That’s the only one I have left. And it’s the longest and it’s like the most depressing.
Katy
Great. So.
Tiffany
And it’s like the least popular. But I really want to read all of his books. Okay. I. I want to have the Entire Works of E.M. Forster at least once read by me. Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Walden. Life in the woods by Henry David Thoreau.
Katy
Okay. Wow. Ambitious.
Tiffany
My list. Yeah.
Katy
I mean, middle March could take the average person like half a year. So that’ll be interesting to see. Okay. This is one I’m not sure I actually want to do. This is another one. And you can debate it with me. This is another one of those, get it done in a day. And I’m gonna make an admission here that most people don’t know about me. Ooh, and my mother’s like, oh, no, I have a belly button ring. Did you know that? Did you know that?
Tiffany
I knew you had one at one time. I didn’t realize that you still sported it.
Katy
Okay. Yes, I got it at age 16. Yes.
Tiffany
I think I remember when you got it.
Katy
The ring that’s in there is still the one that was in there when I got it at 16. So classic. Okay. Classic style. A super kind of 1990s style. I really like it. Okay. I still think it looks great. It taps into a great memory of getting it. It taps into very much of the young person that I was becoming and trying to be. Of course, doing something like that. I mean, people probably feel the same way about tattoos when you get them as a young person. It is a self expression when you’re sort of trying to come into your own. And it was very much a thing that my mother did not want me to do. And eventually, I don’t know if I convinced her to allow it, but you couldn’t get it underage. Like you had to be 18 to get a piercing back then. And finally, after much threatening that I was going to just do it myself if it wasn’t allowed, my father said, well, I’ll go. And so he and I went together and had it done. Anyway, so now it’s been decades and decades of having the same thing. I am considering taking it out. And I’ll tell you why. Because it seems to be contributing to ruining My clothing, there is something about it where it. Because it rubs on the same part of your shirt all the time and kind of is like, right where your zipper on your pants also rubs. It makes these little holes in the bottom of my shirts. And you know, and eventually, like, the holes multiply, you know, and so then you end up having to get new clothes. And so you’re like, well, how many shirts over how many decades am I going to destroy with this thing? Now, I have done research online and found that people who do not have a belly button ring also get these little holes in their shirts. So it’s possible that the belly button ring is not even the thing that’s causing it. Right. It could be something else entirely. But for me, I think it’s like the top contender of what is causing these little holes. So I am thinking about as a resolution that I can get done in a day, taking it out, but it is also a little bit of a. I don’t know. I would love people to weigh in. It’s a letting go of something that I’m not sure I totally want to let go of either. You know, like, almost like it symbolizes so many things now that it seems like a bigger deal to take it out than just, like, it’s ruining my shirts. Let’s get rid of it. It feels like a bigger decision, and one that I’m still sort of mulling over. There was a period of time where the piercings in my ears were also very 1990s. Like, I used to be able to identify other people who were my same generation. By the way, the pattern of the piercings of their ears, which was basically three piercings on the left ear. Some of you are like, oh, yeah, I have this three piercings on the left ear, one on the right down below, one on the right, up above. I never finished the pattern, so I never had the one on the right up above, But I did have the three in the left and the one in the right. And eventually I was thought, as I became, like, a professional and I was, I think, the program director of a massive performance venue here in Seattle, I was thought to myself, maybe it’s time to just even things out and only have two earrings rather than three and one. And so I stopped wearing the ones in the upper ear, the extra two on the left side. That seemed like a lesser decision than this one is, even though hardly anyone in my life knows that I have it, because nobody ever sees it. You know, it’s not like, you know, you just walk around and everyone’s like, hey, you know, check it out. Belly button ring.
Tiffany
Now you all know you’re not wearing little.
Katy
Yeah, I’m not wearing tons of cutoff shirts these days now. So. So, yeah, it somehow feels like a bigger decision, even though it’s a one that fewer people would know about anyway. So that’s on the list. We’ll see if I do it. Resolution. Take the belly button ring out.
Tiffany
All right, I’m going to give you one tiny nugget of free advice to everyone listening, actually.
Katy
Okay.
Tiffany
Which kind of has to do with this and kind of doesn’t. When you do your laundry, zip up all the zippers of everything that’s going in and button all the buttons. When I started doing that, I found that my clothes ripped less.
Katy
That’s good.
Tiffany
The open zippers can catch on delicate clothes and can cause them to rip. Now they’re probably not doing it all in the same spot, so it’s probably not just that, but just as a side in case your clothes are ripping and you wonder why.
Katy
That’s a good advice. Do you have any thoughts you want to offer as I weigh this decision in 2025?
Tiffany
I think you should do it.
Katy
Why?
Tiffany
I just think. I just think those kinds of things are. I mean, I’m not a tattoo person, so I can’t imagine having a tattoo for my whole life. I just can’t. So I guess with a tattoo it’s different, but with a piercing. I kind of feel like those things have like their era, you know, and it seems like you’ve gotten to the end of that era and that’s not. I could understand why you feel like you’re letting go of something, but just think of it as moving to a new era.
Katy
Okay, I like that. I like that. Okay. Do you have another one you want to give us before we’re out of time?
Tiffany
Okay, I have one. But again, like you, I’m not sure I want to do it. I’m not sure I can. I can cut it.
Katy
Okay, let’s hear it.
Tiffany
I would like to at least try. And I mean, if it goes well, it would. I would like it to be something that I do regularly. I would like to try to have like a no phone Sunday. But like not just once every Sunday.
Katy
Uh huh. This is funny because I didn’t pull the tape, but you alluded to this last year. Tiffany
Did I? But I know I talked about it in the past, but I wasn’t sure when, if it was last year or the year before.
Katy
Yes, but you didn’t Commit to it. And so I didn’t pull the tape. And so here we are again. You’re kind of not committing to it again. It’s like I’m kind of not committing to taking it out. I might, but I might not.
Tiffany
Yeah, it’s hard, I really. I gotta say. And I. This wasn’t a resolution this year, I don’t think, but I think it maybe was last, like the year, the year before. Toning down the cell phone use. I have to say I’ve made progress and I’m super excited about that, but I want to continue because I think I can. There’s more to be done, more work to be done on that. So. Yeah, I mean, I just feel like. I feel like it can take away so much from. But it’s a chat. It’s such a challenge. It’s not even like, oh, I really want to look at Instagram, or I really want to check my email. But it’s more like I really want to be able to take a picture.
Katy
Yeah, that’s the hard part. It’s all there. It does everything. It does. Yeah.
Tiffany
It does too much. It does too much. So, all right, maybe I won’t. Maybe I won’t commit to that yet. Maybe. Maybe I’ll say I’ll do it once. I’ll do it at least once.
Katy
Okay.
Tiffany
I won’t say every Sunday because that’s too hard.
Katy
Too big. Too big.
Tiffany
But I’ll do it at least once. So that’s my one to do in a day.
Katy
Love it.
Tiffany
I will do a day without. Without using my phone at all.
Katy
Should I say my super full, hearty one or not? I probably have already promised to do enough.
Tiffany
Well, I did four, so you should do four.
Katy
Okay. I don’t know how someone can resolve to do this, but. So it’s no secret, if you’re a fan of this show, that one of the movies that I loved the most when I was a young person was the movie Last of the Mohicans. Loved, loved, loved that movie. And another thing I love about that movie is its soundtrack. I love its soundtrack. If you’ve never heard it before, just go listen to it today. You can find it now anywhere. It’s very orchestral, it’s very beautiful. I would love to see an actual symphony play the Lasso Mohican soundtrack, or at least part of it. At least a few songs from it. Now, I did do some research. This occasionally happens in the world. It happened in Wales a couple years ago where they played part of the Last of the Mohican soundtrack at a symphony. Here’s the thing that I want to have happen. Maybe I’m just putting it out there. Number one, I either want to find some symphony that’s playing it and go to watch it, or I want to convince the symphony to play part of it or all of it.
Tiffany
That sounds challenging.
Katy
I don’t have a lot of symphony connections, as Derek said. This sounds like a massive waste of time, but I feel like I kind of want to see if I can convince a symphony to do this. So that’s my full party.
Tiffany
I suggest you start with symphonies that play film music.
Katy
Right.
Tiffany
I don’t know about the States, but here in Italy, there’s actually an orchestra called something like the Italian Film Orchestra or something, and they play. Not only do they probably play the actual music that gets recorded to be put in the actual films, but they also play concerts of film music, oftentimes with the film being broadcast at the same time. I know they do this in the States, and I’ve gone several times here in Italy. So I would suggest maybe start there and maybe write to one of those orchestras that must exist in the States and be like, what? You know, do you have this on your program? Are you considering doing, you know, something like that?
Katy
I mean, the one thing that’s against me is that one. It’s not like the Godfather or something like that. It’s not some massive movie where it’s like the music from Star wars or something.
Tiffany
Star Wars. It’s a Star wars. Or the Indiana Jones, a Harry Potter.
Katy
Yes.
Tiffany
You know, all like the John Williams stuff or the Hans Zimmer stuff.
Katy
Yep. It doesn’t have a tie to the Pacific Northwest like I did last year. Get to see. My friend Joel took me to see them playing the music from Twin Peaks, the TV show, which is great music. And of course, it’s also set here, which makes sense for a Seattle Symphony to do it, But Lasso Mohicans came out in 1992, so a really long time ago. And it’s also set in. It was also filmed, I should say, in. I mean, in his set, also on the East Coast. So, I mean, it makes it a little harder, but it’s a great soundtrack, and I think it’s universally liked for its soundtrack. So here’s hoping.
Tiffany
You never know. You never know.
Katy
All right. All right. An interesting year of resolutions. Please do send us a note. Tell us what your resolutions are. If you want to weigh in on the big belly button debate, please do. You can always send us an email. bittersweetlifepodcast@gmail.com. Here’s another thing I would suggest that you resolve to do. Come to Rome with Tiffany and I this coming October. On October 5th to the 11th, 2025, it is the Jubilee year. Rome is at its most spiffy. If you follow anyone on social media who lives in Rome, who talks about Rome on a regular basis, they’re all going nuts right now about all these different things being opened up. Every day I see people going on and on and on about how beautiful and spiffy the city looks right now. This is the year to go, perhaps, and if you resolve to go, then maybe you’ll. This will be the year. If you resolve to go, this could be the year. As you said, resolutions are what not promises, but they are intentions. Tiffany put together a beautiful page on our website, http://www.thebittersweetlife.net that tells you about the trip, all that’s included in it. And you can always send us an email about that as well. We’re only offering eight rooms this year, so it’s going to be a very small tour, very limited space. So check out http://www.thebittersweetlife.net and read all about it or send us an email. bittersweetlifepodcast@gmail.com and boy, wouldn’t it be a good 2025 if you joined us in Rome when it’s at its most spiffy.
Tiffany
I mean, yeah, it truly is beautiful. We were walking through Piazza Devote yesterday and Claudio was like, look, the fountain basin is pink. The marble is pink. I was like, I never noticed that the marble of that basin was pink. And he’s like, yeah, because it was gray up until, until this month. Yeah. All of the fountains in, in Piazza Navona are just so incredibly beautiful right now. Yeah, it’s, it’s going to be a magical time to be here.
Katy
I can’t wait to get there myself. bittersweetlifepodcast@gmail.com or www.thebittersweetlife.net. All right, we’ll leave it there. Happy 2025. Hope it’s a good kickoff wherever you are in the world. And we’ll leave it there. And until next time, this is The Bittersweet Life. I’m Katy Sewall.
Tiffany
I’m Tiffany Parks.
Katy
We’ll see you in 2025. Bye.
Tiffany
Bye
