life and puppies

Happy New Year! Happy month of birthday, Kate!  Seriously, though, happy new year.

Ok, so it’s a little after 3 pm on January the first 2010, and I’m still in my pajamas.  An inauspicious start to the new year, you may be thinking.  I respecfully disagree with that assessment, however.  After sleeping till noon, which I permitted myself because (a) I do that kind of thing; (b) we were up until almost 3 am; and (c) I’ve been really sick, I have been quite productive.  Really.  I took down all of the ornaments, the lights, the Christmas candles and whatnot and took the tree to the curb.  I vacuumed, which took quite a bit of time due to the crazy amount of pine needles.  Aaron took care of the kitchen, with me annoyingly coming in every five or ten minutes with a new champagne glass I found buried in a hidden spot.  The box of Christmas stuff is now in the basement and the sheets — washed on hot due to aforementioned sickness — are now drying in the dryer.  We are sitting on the couch watching About Aniston, an all-day love fest to Jen on Lifetime, while puppy snores sweetly in between us.  Ah, the holidays are over and, signifiicantly, our hosting duties of 2009 have come to an end.  Having done Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, I’m officially spent. 

Anyway, so it’s 2010 now and I’m fairly optimistic.  I hope for good things this year.  Specifically, my list of resolutions includes the following:

• Drink more tea.
• Blog at least once a week (I think the routine will be good for me).
• The omnipresent exercise more (which I actually began to put into effect in December 09 and want to make sure to continue).
• Be at least 1% less insecure.
• Take better care of my teeth.
• Learn sign language.

These are all fairly selfish things, I realize, but I’m going to keep it that way for now.  I always strive to be nicer, more sympathetic, and more generous and I really wanted to try to be more specific.  I often put on the list things like, “Volunteer more,” but truthfully, I do a fair amount of that and recently I’ve found some of the things I’ve chosen have made me an unhappier, crankier person, which isn’t good for anyone, especially for the people around me whom I love and don’t deserve to put up with even crankier me.  I quit the Regent Neighborhood Association Board a couple of months ago after being treated pretty unkindly, I thought, and I’m putting less effort into being the mentor that I’ve been to a very sweet 16-year old girl for a little over a year.  She’s totally adorable, but she’s hard to schedule things with and she often cancels.  And the most recent was an incident in which I showed up at her house to pick her up for breakfast and she was still at a sleepover and her mom coudn’t get a hold of her.  I am not at all angry about this — she’s 16! and a really good, smart kid (I actually don’t think she really needs me at all) — but I’m going to try not to worry about it too much.  I just don’t think it makes sense to do so.  Anyway, so all of that was to vent some guilt I have, I guess, about having resolutions that are much more about me than about others. 

So, welcome 2010.  I think I’m ready for you.

Oh, and totally check out my friend’s new music.  It’s really good.