1.15.2007

Makin' a list, checkin' it twice

New Year's:  Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.  ~Mark Twain

Does it count as spring cleaning if technically it’s still January, but the temperature is oh-so-springlike?

Is it slightly obsessive that I count Weight Watchers points instead of sheep when trying to drift off to sleep?

How sad is it that I’ve already misplaced the list I was using to get myself organized once and for all.

It’s that time of year again -- the time for resolutions and self-improvement and goals and objectives and blah blah blah. My list of To-Dos for the new year is extensive. And slightly ambitious.

Hone those organizational skills.

Develop better eating and dietary habits.

Write more on a consistent basis (I’m trying to crank something out every day. Might be good. Might be shit on a stick. But at least it’s me putting effort into getting words on paper.)

Get out and exercise (This is still in the planning stages. Although I have a nifty new pair of walking shoes, a re-vamped bicycle, complete with a cute basket with flowers on the front handlebars and a newly-assembled Ab-Doer. I’m ready to huff and puff and schvitz.)

Broaden my horizons by listening to new music, reading books out of my preferred genres, taking in more movies. It’s good to have attainable, pleasant goals on one’s list. I’m currently digging Belle & Sebastian (recommended to me by a hipster buddy whose taste I respect and admire) and Mose Allison (a recommendation from a person I adore whose taste is so similar to mine, it’s scary. No wonder I'm loving it.)

I've been on a diet for two weeks and all I've lost is fourteen days.  ~Totie Fields

I’m determined to either prove or disprove that crap about doing something for 21 days and it have it morph into a habit -- as of today, I’m two-thirds of the way there. My organizational skills still have a lot to be desired. (Although I consider my Piling System to be an outstanding one. Even though my desk has been taken over by all my piles of paper and such, I still pretty much know where everything is. Kinda.)

But... my taste buds are getting retrained to appreciate the healthy side of the dining spectrum. It’s been nearly two weeks since I’ve had a soda of any kind. Or even had a fleeting thought about McDonald’s french fries. And I have decided that non-fat iced chai lattes are just as satisfying as the leaded version. However, I’m still not reconciled to the fact that even though it’s basically manufactured chain food, the stuff that’s featured on Olive Garden commercials looks damn good. Especially compared to the Lean Cuisine tv dinner I tried to eat sensibly but ended up inhaling at the speed of light. No way does the low-fat cheese on my Chicken Cutlet Parmesan drip and meld off the fork like it does at the Olive Garden. But my mantra is thin feels better than fat tastes. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.  ~Mark Twain

There is much to anticipate already in the coming year. Will enters kindergarten in the fall. I’ve already been to check out a potential classroom for him -- and liked it, and the teacher, very much. He’s doing so much more independent walking and really appropriate talking. And potty training is in progress. There will be a great parade and fiesta the day I change my last diaper. Look for your invitation in the mail.

A trip to Vegas with friends (from all over the place -- internet buddies are we!) in the early spring is in the works -- a getaway, with mirth, merriment and Tom Jones on the agenda. And the very possible birth of a band, with me as a singer. Turns out that there are a couple of other middle-aged knuckleheads around who have always wanted to sing in a band -- and we found each other at a New Year’s Eve party. How’s that for serendipity. Or mutual insanity. Can’t wait to see how this one plays out.

A lot can happen in a year. Sometimes it feels like forever and sometimes it feels like you were ripping off that calendar page just yesterday. Two weeks into it and I’d have to say things are going well. *knock on wood*

And that’s not such a bad thing at all.

Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed. ~Cavett Robert

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