The first month of 2009 is almost over – I’ve got mixed feelings about this, to be honest. I walked into the new year with so many questions and uncertainties. As it winds down, I appear to be approaching a good place with direction, focus and blindingly obvious reasons for why the chaos and avalanche of work ahead is necessary.

I took photos today for the first time in ages and it felt extremely good. That was one of my new years goals…so here’s to keeping it up for more than a day!

Girl With Camera has also been ‘revolutionized’ with a classic  theme from Brian Gardner. As soon as the idea took hold, it had to be done. The Black Canvas theme is a huge improvement from what was there before (too bad I don’t think ahead when I get this urge and take a screenshot for a ‘before’ look…) – and thankfully is also insanely easy to use. Publishing photos should always be this easy.

Alright – enough said…bring it on, February.

I deluded myself into thinking a move down the hall would be a-okay, no problem at all. I was wrong. There was one one crucial piece of the equation I missed entirely…the minute enough stuff was in the new place to make it feel like home, all I wanted to do was forget about the stacks of books, piles of paperwork and closet of “stuff” that I don’t use anyway.

Where did all this crap come from?

I’m not really sure, but I’m even less sure about what the hell to do with it all. Our storage locker downstairs (still occupied by three large boxes of crummy magazines owned and neatly packed away, but discarded, by the previous tenant) is smaller, we’ve cut the closet space down in half and my kitchen…oh, the kitchen.

Cabinet space is at a minimum, but the thing we regret overlooking the most in this teeny little cooking oasis are the drawers. There isn’t a cutlery organizer around that will fit in this mini sized drawer – not to worry…that’s what IKEA is for, right?

Maybe not. We came home with a jar that might be useful for storing cutlery on the counter and a giant piece of artwork that my artsy friends would shame me for owning.

Damn you, IKEA. You and your twisty hallways and decorating ideas.

From yesterday’s lament, some of my goals for 2009 might not be so surprising. But here they are.

Take more photos. I miss my camera. A lot. I’m carting a laptop/camera bag around without any camera equipment. I may not be able to stick to a daily photo schedule, but darn it…photos will be taken.

Read more blogs. I’ve been missing out on a ton of conversations. Yep, my blog reader is full of articles, pontifications and predictions I missed.

Figure out what I really want to do with Debanter. Randomness be damned – I’ve got to figure out some sort of editorial structure here or I’ll be wandering off again faster than you can say lazy blogger.

Take a vacation. So many places to go, so little time. Just a little mini break would be oh-so nice and i’m determined to fit it in somewhere (if I put it in writing, it’ll happen…right? Right?).