What is this?

I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing. I've had this ENORMOUS book of easy New York Times crossword puzzles (The New York Times Supersized Book of Easy Crosswords - 500 Puzzles!, 2006) for, literally, years. And, I'm not progressing.



What I want? To be able to complete a Sunday NYT crossword puzzle...in pen. And, when I allow myself to get really silly with the goal - to go on that nationwide crossword puzzle competition (I loved that documentary).



Why? I love crossword puzzles. They are relaxing and meditative for me. Also, they meet an innate need I have for tangible accomplishments. Fill in the boxes. Did it, done, good job.



But, I'm not progressing because I only answer the ones I know and leave the others blank, thinking I'll go back one day and look at those and learn them. Also, there's the whole sense of feeling like I'm cheating if I look at the answers...but how am I supposed to do it otherwise? But, even when I do look at the answers, it doesn't seem to actually seep into my brain.



So, my goal is to complete one NYT crossword puzzle each day (I have a job and a kid and a husband, so I'm not sure how realistic that is) and, when I am stumped, look up the answer, Google it, etc. What I know about myself and my learning style is that I need to know the story behind something in order to truly understand it and for it to sink into my brain. And, it has always been helpful for me to write something down in order to recall it later (I always did this in college when studying for tests). So, if the answer is some obscure musical from the 1940's that I've never heard of, if I Google it, research it a bit, get some context, etc., I've learned something and am much more likely to remember that answer in a later puzzle.



I'm discarding the huge book of 500 puzzles (which, in my defense, I did misplace for over a year) and just picked up The New York Times Easy Crossword Puzzles - 50 Monday Puzzles, 2009. I just realized that I'm not sure if they have books of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc. puzzles, but my intention is to easy my way up to - and master - Sunday.



Plus, it's just fun learning this stuff.