New Years Resolutions

February 6th, 2012. Is that too late to be making resolutions? The optimist’s always say “it’s never too late!” so I am going to stick with them. Besides, I had already decided on this resolution back in January but it has been recently reinforced in my mind. I am not one for making resolutions. I can never think of anything I need or want to do bad enough that I need to make it a resolution. However, I have finally found something that I feel needs to be changed and am determined to make that change.

2012 is going to be the year where I am going to:
Take more pictures along my travels, where Matt and/or myself, are the subjects, or at least part, of the picture.

As I look back at my pictures from Paris, Düsseldorf, Bamberg, Regensburg, and Munich (all taken over the last 4 months), there are maybe 5 good pictures of the two of us and the rest are of buildings, nature, and animals. They get a bit boring to look at after a while and really, if we’re not in at least a few of them as the physical proof, who is to say the pictures are even of our trip?! Not that I would go taking other people’s travel photos and claim I was there, but you get the idea. I want to look back at these photos and remember that we did this year abroad together. I want to watch overtime how long I let my hair grow before I get fed up and let someone who isn’t my normal hairdresser cut it. Finally, I want to remember the fun and “interesting” times we had along the way, not just what we saw, but the experiences we had getting there.

It will help you, the reader; understand the situation a little better as well. If there’s a picture to go along with the story, you too will see how amazing (or awful) it is, instead of imagining what it must have been like. It will make my blogs, that much better.

There are a number of reasons (excuses) I have for not doing this already and include the following:
1. I hate to bother the people walking by me and ask them if they would mind taking a photo. Not that I mind when other people ask me.
2. I am not great at taking self-portraits, at least the ones that include the scenery behind me. That scenery is the key.
3. I don’t like asking Matt to constantly stop, and pose for photos. Not that he complains. I apologize, and he smiles and says it’s okay, but when the fourth self-portrait or night landscape we’ve taken still hasn’t turned out to my liking, and I say “just one more” I know he just wants to move on, especially when it’s been particularly cold.
4. Germany’s humidity levels seem higher than those in Canada, causing my bangs to flip up in some weird unattractive manner and I don’t want a reminder of that.
5. I just, flat out, forget to take a picture.

However, I have purchased a small and inexpensive mini-tripod to help me out with this resolution and am determined you will see evidence of this, right in this very post!

Standing in front of a German restaurant called Der Nassauer Keller,
known as the restaurant with the little door

There I am. Proof of my existence over here in Nürnberg, Germany. Proof that I have not cut my hair since 3 days before departing for my year abroad (4 and a half months ago).Proof that I am able to get along without my straightener, as you may or may not recall, I had to leave it at home (instead, I used a clothes iron and a pot holder). Finally,  in case you were wondering, I am 5'5, that is indeed, a small door, and this photo took 3 attempts to get right.