Anticipating 2010

Rough Draft: Resolutions

1.) Avoid High-Fructose Corn Syrup. (That shit is everywhere.)

2.) Spend less time on the computer (seriously!). This translates as :

Read More

Write More (on paper, y'all)

Take Walks in both Fair & Inclement Weather

Get Out More/Be Sociable (heh.)

3.) Find opportunities to volunteer.

4.) Laugh more. Worry less.

5.) Perfect my Scrabble skillz. Also: learn how to spell without being silly.

6.) Send people cards instead of emails on their birthdays.

7.) Eliminate clutter. (This could take until 2012, though. Ugh.)

8.) Attend more poetry readings. Read more poetry books & chaps. For real.

Ten would have been a nice, round number, but whatever. That's all I can think of for now.

Hope you all have an awesome new year!

Things That Bother Me

Okay, so I picked up a cheap paperback thriller somewhere--like Walgreens or whatever--to read on days when I'm feeling brainless.

Anyway, I cracked that puppy open today while waiting in the car to pick up Z from school and the VERY FIRST SENTENCE HAD A COMMA SPLICE.

Okay, I think perhaps author-who-shall-not-be-named (but is raking in big bucks, I'm sure) is making a stylistic choice. Judge not and all that biz.

Flash forward 60 seconds. Two paragraphs down, there is a dependent clause standing alone as a sentence.

Flash forward 20 seconds: ANOTHER dependent clause sits there all by its sad little lonesome.

Umm... don't publishing houses employ editors anymore? No?

I shall be perturbed all day.

This Makes Me Happy.

I mean, how can I possibly be feeling blue when I know that somewhere in the UK, there is an octopus named Louis who likes to cuddle his Mr. Potato Head Doll???

OMG. He's Cuddling It With His Little Tentacles and Sucker-Thingies!! So. Freaking. Cute.

The octopus who loves his Mr Potato Head | Metro.co.uk

(Thanks to Clare Landry Martin and Dana Guthrie Martin for posting this on FB today. I feel better knowing such things exist.)

The Grand TO DO (List)

This time of year, I find that I need a mantra. Something along the lines of

It's all going to get done

and all manner of things shall be well

or something of that ilk.

Every day I make a list, yet I never finish it. But, I do make progress.

The holiday stuff seems to have taken over, while I'm still trying to fit in the never-ending job search, transition planning for Z., editorial projects, writing projects, and (of course) making-people-happy projects. I'm also looking for opportunities to do some volunteer work. I'm hoping to shift my focus away from all this personal stuff. It seems like it might be a good antidote for my long-standing malaise. Also, I'm beginning to suspect that I need to work on being a better human being, in general. I get lost in a life that is--at times--a bit too introverted.

I need to revamp the way in which I approach my days. A schedule, perhaps? I'm thinking of making a weekly spreadsheet to organize my tasks and projects, with adequate (ha!) time allotted for all my highest priorities. As I approach something resembling middle age (no? too young, you say? bless your heart.) I find there is less internal RAM to keep track of all the minutia. Is it just me?

Everyone else on the planet seems so enviably efficient. I should like to know their secrets. I suspect it's just spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are the answer to everything.

On the upside, I did get the tree up in a reasonably timely fashion. I have to admit, for all my crabbing and x-mas angst, it does look rather grand.

Proof that the Universe is Listening

So, I twittered (tweeted?) that I wanted to see more men in kilts a couple of weeks ago, and lo and behold, I saw a dude in a kilt on Deal or No Deal yesterday. Ask and ye shall receive.