Welcome, 2009!

Exactly 2 hours and 49 minutes are left in the year 2008. I will greet 2009 quietly alone, and I’m very okay with that.

My beverage of choice this evening is a steaming mug of Hot Buttered Rum; since I hate rum, that leaves me with Hot Buttered Milk.  Spicy, sweet, soothing, and eternally boring in the minds of most.  Call me a drip, but I prefer to start the new year sans a hangover.  The future and all its inherent possibilities seem so much brighter when viewed through a clear lens.

New Year’s resolutions aren’t my thing.  If I need to make a change in my life on May 23^rd I see no reason to wait 7 ½ months to take action. 365 days from any given morning constitutes a year, so I “reform” on an as-needed basis. In lieu of making resolutions destined to be invalidated at the first opportunity, every New Years Eve I prefer to engage in a personal assessment of the things I’d like to do, accomplish and/or experience during my time on earth, whether during the New Year or at some point in the future.  This list is subject to change without notice and my mileage may vary; be that as it may, here it is, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, till death do me part or I simply change my mind.

In 2009 I want to:

ü  learn to make home-made pastrami.

ü  read The Agony and the Ecstasy again.

ü  spend a weekend in my jammies watching old reruns of TV shows from my childhood: I Love Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore, That Girl, Bob Newhart, Little House on the Prairie, Hazel, Dark Shadows, Gilligan’s Island, the Flintstones and the Jetsons.

ü  spend another weekend in my jammies watching movies I hear people raving about but I’ve never seen because I can’t sit still long enough to make it through a commercial, let alone a movie.

ü  never, ever be afraid: of the dark, the unknown, or what I might miss.

ü  write a book that makes the reader say “Wow!”, out loud, when the last sentence is read.

ü  make my kids proud to say “That’s my mom!”.

ü  meet someone who’s genuinely genuine; without pretense and comfortable in their own skin.

ü  convince Brad and Angelina that American orphans need love, too.

ü  grow a tomato that would make my grandpa proud, and savor it slowly in a BLT (minus the lettuce) with crisp bacon and extra mayo between two slices of soft, squishy white bread.

ü  find a friend that is my equivalent of Oprah’s Gayle.

ü  ride a horse through the countryside in France.

ü  live in a cottage in the Cotswolds and ride a bicycle to town.

ü  listen to my granddaughter laugh, hold her when she cries, and relish, once again, the miracle of just being through her beautiful brand new eyes.

ü  really and truly “be the change I want to see in the world”.

After all that soul-searching, 45 minutes now remain in 2008.  The beauty of it all is that every day is the beginning of a new year, so there’s really no rush.  Ultimately it’s not about the destination, it’s truly about the journey.  Will I get there today?  Tomorrow?  Next week or next month?  Heck no.  But what I don’t accomplish today I can work toward tomorrow.  Or next week or next month…

And I will.  And the list will grow and change and evolve.  And, God willing, so will I. 

Happy New Year… yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Life is good.