I’m writing a New Year blog post because my husband threatened to blow the lid off my secret. I cut back my blogging from three times a week to twice a week and I don’t think anyone noticed except him. Since he’s my biggest supporter and he wants to read three blogs a week, I’m going to try to step it up a notch. He also wanted me to blog about New Year’s resolutions. I try to accommodate my reader(s) as much as possible. Especially when the reader in question is getting ready to run into Home Depot to pick up a bottle of granite cleaner for me. (You know, if the rest of you did stuff like that, it would be great.)
I rarely make New Year’s resolutions. For many years I resolved to “get organized” but after 30+ years of trying, I think I finally finished doing that one. I’m organized enough that I can put my hands on the splinter tweezers, a lighter and the passcode for our security system in a flash.
With the “get organized” fallback resolution out of the picture, I’m forced to try to improve some other aspect of my life. Not to brag, but I don’t have a ton of bad habits. I don’t drink too much (yet), I don’t smoke, I eat fairly healthily, I exercise a little bit, and I’ve never been addicted to any drugs (except for a brief predilection for Alka-Seltzer Plus in the mid-1980s, which I went off as soon as I realized that I was drinking it like a beverage with Funyuns every night, even when I didn’t have a cold. “Where are you going?” my husband asked one evening. “In the kitchen to get some Alka Seltzer Plus.” “Do you have a cold?” he asked. “No.” “Then why -” “Get off my freaking back! I’m fine! I can stop whenever I want to! Now get off my case!”). That was a long time ago. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I don’t have a lot of glaring faults that need to be cleaned up so early in the year.
I’m well known for my addictions to things that I don’t put in my body – thinks like Tetris, making lists, and looking up useless information on the Internet. But I’ve harnessed them and now they work for me.
So I’ve decided to make three resolutions to make the world a better place for myself, for my peeps, and for everyone else. The last one, I strongly encourage everyone to do. I believe it was Margaret Mead or Eleanor Roosevelt or Julia Child or some other large woman from history who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Or some other inspiring, empowering statement.
For myself, I’m going to try to surround myself with more art, music and literature. This past summer for me was filled with wonderful art at some of the greatest art museums in the world. I’d like to make a habit out of that. I’ve gotten away from buying classical music and I’m going to step that up again. And I know when to not clap at the symphony. It would be a sin not to use that skill.
For my family, I’m going to cook more. I used to be a decent cook, taking after my mother. Now, we’re eating out entirely too much and it’s getting hard to work off the extra calories. (I went to Chili’s for lunch this past week and went to enter it into my Livestrong tracker and discovered that the Fire Grilled Bacon Chicken Ranch Quesadilla has 1,550 calories and 94 grams of fat. When you enter that into your tracker on Livestrong, you get a pop-up that says, “Try one of these other items from Chili’s instead of the Fire Grilled Bacon Chicken Ranch Quesadilla to consume fewer calories: Dinner Caesar Salad (1,030 fewer calories).” Oh, now you tell me. I don’t know if there is a single recipe I could make at home that could even have 1,550 calories in it. I’d have to wrap it in a giant Snickers bar and deep-fry it. Which I’m not inclined to do. The year 2011 is going to be full of homemade food for my family. Our arteries will thank me.
For the rest of the world, I’m going to try to reduce my carbon footprint. I tried this last year. (In fact, I think it was my New Year’s resolution for 2010. . . No . . . just went back and read my blog on New Year’s resolutions last year and I had seven things I was going to do – one for every day of the week and I didn’t do any of them. Maybe 2009? Nope, not then either. Three years ago? . . . Nope, not then either. Stupid blog remembers everything.) So I’m good to go with the reducing my carbon footprint this year. I’m going to try to drive less and walk more, even if it takes me longer and I have to carry heavy bags.
And because I’m writing this in here, I’ll have to follow through and do all three of my resolutions, right? It might take me 30 years, but I have high hopes.