Va: You are one of the most driven people I know.
Me: Thanks. … But I am actually disappointed that I didn’t do more when I was younger before I was married or had kids. Chalk it up to finding myself, I guess.
Va: A lot of people would disagree with you on that.

A good friend and I had that conversation this week . . . I made an offhanded, but serious, comment about being a millionaire by 30 and needing my book to hurry up and come out. I know I am harder on myself than anyone else is on me, but I have very high expectations of myself. I have a lot of goals.

This past year has been a whirlwind. It seems like just yesterday I was in Miami, enjoying the sights, tastes and sounds and taking in my first-ever professional football game in the rain (how awesome is it to have the Super Bowl be my first?!?). In the months that followed, I signed to write a cookbook, got pregnant, wrote that cookbook, my office moved, my son turned two, I learned how to save and had that baby. As far as I am concerned, 2007 went way too fast and I didn’t get a chance to stop and enjoy it enough. The holidays — St. Patrick’s Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas — all flew by in one great big blur. And summer was over before I realized.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this post and how to say what it is I want to say best. When I sit down to write it, it just doesn’t seem to come out right. So, I am going to say it in the simplest way possible and hope it makes sense to everyone else.

The New Year is more of a symbolic thing than an actual change. Still, it gives us a chance to let go of all the things that annoyed us, pissed us off and hurt us. It’s a chance to start over with a fresh, unburdened outlook on life and to be a better person. So, that is exactly what I will be doing this New Year. I am letting go of the past and forging ahead with a renewed drive to tackle my goals and live every day to its fullest. If there is anything we can learn from all the death and destruction around us, it’s that life is too short to get caught up on things that don’t matter. And it’s too short to keep yourself surrounded by people who don’t bring any value to your life . . .

So, I am starting 2008 surrounded by people who are important to me with a clear conscience and a happy heart. I hope you do the same.

Coincidentally, have I ever told you about my 100 Things list? It’s a list of things — goals really — that I want to achieve in my lifetime. Unfortunately, although I started the list a few years ago, I have only checked one off so far . . . This is the year to tick away more though. Forgive me for the poorly worded entries.

100 Things
(I want to do)

1. Walk down the red carpet at a movie premiere
2. Be a best selling author
3. Publish an adult novel
4. Publish a children’s novel
5. Publish non-fiction
6. Write a recurring column
7. Appear on the Today Show
8. Be recognized
9. Visit Mayan pyramids
10. See Italy’s countryside
11. Eat sushi in Japan
12. Buy a home in Manhattan
13. Live in London, England
14. See Africa
15. Get my PhD
16. Get an MFA in Creative Writing
17. Go to J-school at Columbia
18. Teach a writing class
19. Be a professor
20. Give a commencement address
21. Sit on a Board of Trustees
22. Buy a bigger house
23. Pay for my children’s college education
24. Be a millionaire
25. Invest in real estate
26. Take a road trip with friends
27. Have lunch with Anna Quindlin
28. Have a clean house
29. Learn how to keep a clean house
30. Be in a movie
31. Make a difference
32. Be known
33. Write a cookbook
34. Be published in a consumer magazine
35. Help others
36. Move back to New York
37. Have my own cooking show
38. Sit on the other side of the interviewing table (as in get interviewed myself)
39. Be an editor – Accomplished Sept. 2006
40. Have a successful freelance career
41. Learn to enjoy wine
42. …………………..to be continued