NEW YEAR'S PRESERVATIONS, NOT RESOLUTIONS
After the toasts, kisses and well wishes come the New Year resolutions.
My resolutions usually revolve around weight loss, growing five inches and becoming a blond. The first would be easy if I had an attention span that lasted 12 months rather than twelve minutes. The latter two have been on my list since I was five years old. I will never be taller than I am and the one time I tried to go blond I ended up looking like Jane Fonda in Klute (Google both to satisfy your curiosity).
So, that brings me to today – January 1, 2011. I have resolved to make no more resolutions. Instead, I am embracing New Years Preservation. I have identified the good things I had in 2010 that I want to keep in 2011.
1) My husband and kids. I like them. We think each other are terribly funny. Good laughs and great conversation make any day of the year better.
2) My friends and other family members for the same reason as my husband and kids.
3) My car. It’s like a little black dress – nothing fancy, fits me well and I can take it anywhere without embarrassing myself. It is ten years old (the same age as my LBD). I think it has another ten years to go.
4) My writing jacket. It is an ugly, screaming yellow, fleece jacket that I bought for $10 five years ago. That jacket is the signal that I am working. My husband forbids me to wear it outside. I love that jacket. I want to be buried in that jacket.
5) My father’s fountain pen. He passed away six years ago. My mother gave me his pen. It looks like a skinny watermelon and doesn’t hold much ink. It’s about 60 years old. Great pen.
6) Dinner parties. Cooking and conversation are great together especially when you mix up the guest list. Definitely, I’m preserving the tradition. Your invitation is in the mail.
7) My sewing machine. It’s on its last legs. The buttonholer doesn’t work anymore but it sews backward and forward. We’ve been friends a long time and you don’t throw a friend away just because they can’t do the fancy stitches anymore.
8) My work schedule. I work a lot. I work 7 days a week. Sometimes I don’t have much to show for all those hours but sometimes I end up writing a pretty good book. Working hard, doing my best, that's what every year should be about.
9) Debbie, who has been cutting my hair for a year. It took me a long time to find her. I still like her. (Debbie at Trax Hair design in Torrance if anyone needs a good haircut.)
There should be a number ten but there isn’t. If the car still works, Debbie doesn’t have a meltdown and my family and friends are hanging in there with me by the time 2012 rolls around, I will be a happy clam. I’ll still have brown hair and stand 5’4”. I probably won’t be whippet thin but what the heck. Since I won’t be losing any weight, I won’t have to sew any new clothes nor will I have to worry about my roots showing.
Make resolutions and failure is waiting around the corner. Who needs it? Just gather up, gobble up, stash away all the good stuff you’ve already got and 2011 is going to be happy, successful, fabulous year.
Happy reading. Happy Writing. Happy New Year!
My resolutions usually revolve around weight loss, growing five inches and becoming a blond. The first would be easy if I had an attention span that lasted 12 months rather than twelve minutes. The latter two have been on my list since I was five years old. I will never be taller than I am and the one time I tried to go blond I ended up looking like Jane Fonda in Klute (Google both to satisfy your curiosity).
So, that brings me to today – January 1, 2011. I have resolved to make no more resolutions. Instead, I am embracing New Years Preservation. I have identified the good things I had in 2010 that I want to keep in 2011.
1) My husband and kids. I like them. We think each other are terribly funny. Good laughs and great conversation make any day of the year better.
2) My friends and other family members for the same reason as my husband and kids.
3) My car. It’s like a little black dress – nothing fancy, fits me well and I can take it anywhere without embarrassing myself. It is ten years old (the same age as my LBD). I think it has another ten years to go.
4) My writing jacket. It is an ugly, screaming yellow, fleece jacket that I bought for $10 five years ago. That jacket is the signal that I am working. My husband forbids me to wear it outside. I love that jacket. I want to be buried in that jacket.
5) My father’s fountain pen. He passed away six years ago. My mother gave me his pen. It looks like a skinny watermelon and doesn’t hold much ink. It’s about 60 years old. Great pen.
6) Dinner parties. Cooking and conversation are great together especially when you mix up the guest list. Definitely, I’m preserving the tradition. Your invitation is in the mail.
7) My sewing machine. It’s on its last legs. The buttonholer doesn’t work anymore but it sews backward and forward. We’ve been friends a long time and you don’t throw a friend away just because they can’t do the fancy stitches anymore.
8) My work schedule. I work a lot. I work 7 days a week. Sometimes I don’t have much to show for all those hours but sometimes I end up writing a pretty good book. Working hard, doing my best, that's what every year should be about.
9) Debbie, who has been cutting my hair for a year. It took me a long time to find her. I still like her. (Debbie at Trax Hair design in Torrance if anyone needs a good haircut.)
There should be a number ten but there isn’t. If the car still works, Debbie doesn’t have a meltdown and my family and friends are hanging in there with me by the time 2012 rolls around, I will be a happy clam. I’ll still have brown hair and stand 5’4”. I probably won’t be whippet thin but what the heck. Since I won’t be losing any weight, I won’t have to sew any new clothes nor will I have to worry about my roots showing.
Make resolutions and failure is waiting around the corner. Who needs it? Just gather up, gobble up, stash away all the good stuff you’ve already got and 2011 is going to be happy, successful, fabulous year.
Happy reading. Happy Writing. Happy New Year!
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