I don't tend to make resolutions, and I refrained from proclaiming that I was turning over any kinds of leaves - new or old - as the minutes crept closer to midnight.

Instead, I focused on the things that were important - debating the acceptable spin techniques used in the foosball game I was playing, making sure the glass of champagne waiting for the new year did not take a late 2005 tumble off the foosball table and onto the floor, and the rounds of hugs and kisses that waited for the ball drop.

So I feel okay, saying that the plans I've decided to put into motion aren't the stereotypical, quickly-broken, much-loathed New Year's Resolutions.

They're largely little things. More I Think I Shoulds than It's A New Year So I Wills.

- Wake up earlier in the morning and allow self time to dance around to the "Start the Day Early" Mix (10 points if you get the reference) that pipes through my iPod speakers around 7:45 a.m. (Status check: Handled the early morning relatively well today. Thank you, Black Crowes, for "Hard to Handle.")

- Retreat to bedroom early enough to allow guilt-free reading time each evening - and to actually get through the pile of books amassed over the last month or so. (Status check: Chuckled my way through Havel's take on "The Beggar's Opera" last night. Now I tackle an already-started Meg Cabot chicklit, "The Dante Club" and finish my re-readings of "East of Eden" and "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs.")

- Wear more of the jewlery made this fall. Make more. And mix it up. (Status check: Rocking two necklaces today, just because I can.)

- This ties into the previous one: look spunky, feel spunky, be spunky. (Status check: Just knowing that there's a Doors t-shirt on your body as you're being professional? How can you not feel good when you can pull that off?)

- Write something completely honest - for my eyes only - each day. (Status check: So far, so good.)

- Get back into the running I've been missing - and make my schedule work around it, not the other way around. (Status check: So far, so good.)

- Don't keep things to myself as much. Open up. Be more honest. (Status check: Working on it, although I admit that this one's going to take a bit more effort than wearing two necklaces.)

And, thanks to New Year's:

- Play more foosball. (Status check: Who's got a table?)