Whatcha gonna do?
I'll be spending the night with friends, so I'll be there on New Year's Morning to watch the Cotton Bowl with them.
As I started writing this, it occured to me to be grateful for the things I DON'T have to resolve to do in 2008, like. . .I don't have to make a resolution to stop smoking, because I did that many decades ago. I don't have to resolve to lose the 15 pounds I lost last year. I don't have to resolve to meditate every day. It's really NICE to have some things I'm already doing, instead of thinking I ought to be doing.
Is there anything you don't have to resolve to do? I think that's worth celebrating. I know that Family Man doesn't have to resolve to relax more. :) Kimberly doesn't have to resolve to sell her novel. :)))) If there's something you've accomplished so that you no longer have to resolve to do it, breathe a sigh of relief, raise a toast of gratitude to yourself, and here. . .have some more champagne.
59 comments:
Or apple juice, if "no more drinking" was ever one of your resolves.
Since I'll be gone on New Year's Eve and the next morning, this post will probably stay up until Wednesday.
G'night. See you in a few hours.
I don't have to resolve to not make resolutions because I never do.
I wanted the Monday Picture Post to be appropriate for New Year's Eve:
A year flows by.
Congrats on all that you achieved this year, Nancy! And everyone else - it's a good day to look at what we DID accomplish, instead of focusing on what we didn't.
I'm staying quietly at home tonight, watching the ball drop with a tequila toast. Tomorrow it's parades and football, and back to work.
Nice way to show the seasons turning, andi!
Happy New Year's Eve, y'all. Be safe.
I'm going to bring in the new year the best way I know how: sleeping!
I'm sure I could come up with any number of things I don't have to do in the coming year. I don't even know where to begin.
Morning Nancy and everyone.
I'm not much for make resolutions myself. As far as naps, if I resolved to take more of them, I think I would be in a coma. :)
Great picture(s) Andi.
Everyone have a great and safe New Years Eve.
A cornucopia of Andif! Thank you!
Happy NYE, beth, pablo, family man.
Must have coffee. Then I have to go back to the Richard North Patterson novel I stayed up way too late reading last night.
Well, Nancy, that's a crooked piece of pie.
I don't have to resolve not to have an affair this year because I didn't have an affair last year just to feel bright and young again.
And I don't have to resolve not to be Jack Nicholson, because I wasn't Jack Nicholson last year nor ever was. Although I have been compared to Jack Nicholson.
Unfavorably.
The bride said some time in April, "Randy, you're not Jack Nicholson."
"And I'm not Stephen King, too," I said. "So there!"
But it's a crooked piece of pie not to have to resolve not to have an affair. It makes me dull.
So maybe, just maybe, I will resolve Not to run naked through the Pizza Hut at midnight.
P.S.
Andif, I love the waterworks! Thanks!
Ghostie, you could resolve not to not run naked through Pizza Hut at midnight.
Very funny crooked pie. But no no, it has to be something you once resolved to do, or not do, subsequently did, or didn't, and now are free from needing to do. Or not do. This is assuming, of course, that you never actually have run naked through Pizza Hut at midnight, which may be a risky assumption. :)
I knew I could count on you to pretzel this further. ::big happy smug smile::
This is assuming, of course, that you never actually have run naked through Pizza Hut at midnight, which may be a risky assumption. :)
Indeed. Risky, too, because, honestly, those tables are just at penis high. Better in the 70s to streak events where people were standing up.
This could make it interesting - we resolve not to do the crazy stuff we've already done... hmmm ...let me think about that one...
Cute, ghosty - very cute.
Sounds painful, ghost. Esp. with those metal strips they put around tables in some places.
Beth, see how many interpretations there are for this exercise? That's one that never even occured to me!
Whirling. Dizzy. :)
Who's still on the couch with Sniff today? Are you feeling any better, Beth?
Almost back to normal. Just a few sniffles. And I'm almost caught up on Saturday's lost sleep. So there's room on the couch if anyone else needs it! I'm back to taking up my usual space in the corner with my laptop.
Thanks for asking, Nancy! Hope andi and Kelly and Mrs. Kelly are back up and at 'em - and on the couch just because they want to be, not because they have to be.
I resolve to stay away from Pizza Hut -- and stop picturing Naked Men Running through the restaurant.
And I resolve to continue the improvements at Eat4Today. To make it a seriously useful tool for people trying to get/keep a grip on life.
Funny, ghostfolk, made me chuckle as I prepare to take down the Christmas decorations. Anybody else do this? I confess to being a touch superstitious about it. Something about starting the New Year out cleared out of the old.
And it's good you're feeling better Beth.
And seriously, two resolutions I don't need to make this year: Finish the w.i.p. and send it out (done) and a personal trainer certification (done).
Hi Conda, how do you get a Personal Trainer Certification?
LOL kb! You're right, somehow going to Pizza Hut will never be the same...
I'm going to post my resolutions at my place tomorrow - that gives me another day to think of them!
I think I can safely resolve never to agree to meet Ghost anywhere when he promises "a surprise."
:-)
Then again, I might miss a lot of fun!
Yay Conda!!
Hi Beth -- I'm so glad you're feeling better. -- More room for me on the couch!
Just kidding.
It's great to see you.
Really lovely photo, Andi. I'm always drawn to a series that highlights the constancy of change in the sameness of place. I don't know why.
I DO know why I don't make New Year's resolutions, though -- can't take the superstitious pressure associated with feeling like if I mess those up, welp, there goes the whole year. Makes no sense, but there it is. I have far more success with spontaneity.
Best wishes to all for a fun close of 2007 and a better 2008!
Hi Jen,
Best wishes to you too. I particularly hope you feel much better in 2008.
And it's great to see you here in real time.... It's been months, I think since that happened.
Jen, I wrote a sample column for the Parrot that basically said, resolve to do things you either like to do, or already do, and you'll be the only person around who actually KEPT their resolutions!
Thanks, kb - it's good to be back, and almost healthy again. :-) Hope you went to bed earlier last night!
Hi Beth -- I did. I think I was asleep by 12:30. Which is probably about how long I'll last tonight too!
Yeah, me too, since the New Year's Eve shows don't play my kind of music any more. What a fuddy duddy. :-)
I wrote a sample column for the Parrot that basically said, resolve to do things you either like to do, or already do
My kinda resolutions! heh.
Thanks for the good wishes, Katiebird, and they are reciprocated, as always, in my hopes that you're able to continue your string of admirable successes with your Just 4 Today philosophy. :)
I took Andi's advice last year and resolved not to make resolutions. I'm not going to break that resolution on the last day.
Happy New Year everyone.
Andi, your seasons are spectacular.
Hey, jen, katie, and maryb!
I love this. Old Blog Week.
But listen, she said sternly, this is NOT about making resolutions. It's about congratulating yourself on stuff you've done in your life--hard stuff that took resolve--and which now you don't have bugging you anymore. Maybe you did it in 2007, or maybe you did it 30 years ago.
If I were a writer, I'd know how to phrase this better, lol.
Feel free to ignore me. :)
Maryb, have you had non-stop snow or ice, as we have? Punctuated by enough warmth to melt it now and then?
Good reminder, Nancy. I'm thankful that three years ago I finally decided to REALLY work at being a writer, instead of just talking about it. And loving the process, even if I never get published.
And letting the negative people in my life go.
And starting a blog, where I have met lots of wonderful new positive friends!
Oh, I've already resolved that I'm going to sell a story in 2008. Other than that? What… ever.
I'm borrowing FM's recliner so I can get my leg up & still bang away on the laptop. For some reason, I'm catching up with podcasts today. Has anyone else sub'ed to Stranger Things? It's video podcast, with a very Twilight Zone-ish feel. Some really weird storylines. They threw in a couple of audio-only podcasts; right now I'm listening to their copy of a "Writers Talking" podcast where the producer & another guy talked about screenplay adaptations.
Chatter chatter, will type some later. I have a FAR Future episode to put up today.
Pretzel it? Nah.
The trick isn't to twist what you're looking at, but to look at it from a twist.
Body pretzel, Nancy, I guess. :-)
Or just to see, you know, what the cat is seeing when Ned throws the porch chair through Matty's French door.
Really, this is one way a fiction writer can take a reader on trips to places the reader doesn't usually go or has never been before, don't you think?
Just as you are taking us into the New Year on your Resolutions Already Met bus. It's a wonderful ride, even if we are motoring in reverse. :-)
Matty: You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.
& thank god someone does. Whew.
And letting the negative people in my life go.
Nice one, Beth.
Thanks, ghost. Now I just have to learn not to let them IN in the first place!
And we like you, smart, pretzeled, naked, or otherwise.
I'm with Andi on the no resolutions front. Never had them, never will. BTW, very nice panoply of seasons.
Feeling better now, oh, and Laura managed to mostly dodge a bullet on this cold, very brief flirtation with bing sick, so she's fine as well.
On the patting self on the back front, I've managed to stay on pace to right three novels in 18 months, or possibly 17, depends on how January goes. Of course, I was shooting for 16, but this last one got sideswiped by a book launch and teaching. Ah well.
Resolutions Already Met Bus! I love that, GF. Thanks.
And I love your list, Beth. Now you will never have to feel that pang of "what if," or beat yourself up because of another year of Not Writing. You've written. You're writing. You did it. You're doing it. No matter what happenes next, you have given yourself the chance.
Did you lose the neggies on purpose, or did they just kind of slide from your life? Ghost and I know all about losing neg peeps--or at least, one peep--on purpose.
I am staggered with awe of your year, Kelly.
I don't usually make resolutions, either--at least not the New Year's kind. But I'm seriously thinking of doing one this year, and maybe even using this blog to check myself on it. I have a hideous habit of letting emails get away from me. It's so damned rude. I hate it. And then I feel guilty, which makes me avoid them more. . .
And most of them are even nice emails!
Thanks, Nancy! Now I'm learning to say "I'm a writer" without feeling like a fraud.
I divorced two of them. :-) The rest I've just let disappear, like my dad's family. Life is too short to visit people who bitch the whole time you're there, and make you feel guilty about not visiting more often. Blood isn't a good enough reason to stay in touch with mean people.
And if they're still in my life, I'm not putting much energy into them. Glad you and Ghosty were able to lose yours. Some people just suck the life right out of you, while others make you feel beter just thinking about them. I try to stay on that side of things!
"Blood isn't a good enough reason to stay in touch with mean people."
Amen, Sister Beth.
Thanks, Nancy,
I'm pleased but I believe I can do better. I just need to figure out how to get my first half pace up to match my second half pace. I tend to steadily accelerate through a book until close to the end when I start doing 3,000+ words a day five days a week.
Oh, and my mom is reading and loving The Virgin of Small Plains--we gave it to her for Christmas.
I'll second that amen.
Oddball out-of-place movie review before I go.
C. Wilson's War. Philip Seymour Hoffman was so WONDERFUL doing Aaron Sorkin dialogue! Wow. A match made in heaven.
Did anyone else notice the Hammett / Chandler lines early in the movie? For about two minutes, Tom Hanks sounded just like Humphrey Bogart. I tired so hard to push the reverse button in the theatre that I burned my thumbs on the seat.
I used to read Albee plays because I thought they were better than novels( If you like Barthleme, Nancy... hint, hint ). Now, though, I think I have to order me some Sorkin scripts.
Meanwhile, I thought this movie was damned scary.
Kelly! You must be drinking from the Holy Grail. Wherever did you find that thing?
Beth, what pisses off both Nancy and I about our negative person was how deeply involved with her we first allowed ourselves to become. And for how long.
We're older now. And, really, don't you LOVE NANCY's BLOG! because it is so positive from the outset (despite my occasionally wayward posts)?
Maybe that's your Not Have To resolution, Nancy, that matters most to us. :-) Thanks for doing it, girlfriend.
And thank everyone who visits here, too. Thank you for helping make a space on the internet among kindred folks and for the likes of me to visit with such requited anticipation of the best way I can think of to start my day.
That's the Resolution I Don't Have to Make now (hours under the wire) TO THANK EVERYONE WHO POSTS HERE. Thank you!
I can't say it better than Ghosty. Thanks, Nancy and all, from the bottom of my pea-pickin' heart.
Nancy,
We were far luckier than you this year. All the ice went north of the Missouri River each time. We had a really nice snow before Christmas and then it got warm and melted. So I really can't complain. Well, yeah, I can complain - we've had nothing but gray skies and rain, rain, rain. I really do think I have SAD. But, I'd take that over what you've gotten. We've been lucky in the ice and snow department.
Bless you guys. I won't go on and on, but I could, oh, I could drown you with appreciation.
Ghost, I adored CW's War! I had just the day before seen Hoffman in "Savages," which I didn't like at all, but he was even wonderful in that. It's amazing to think that the same actor who played that role, also played the role in CW's War, and ALSO played Truman Capote. Wow.
And now I'll make a point of checking out Albee's plays from the liberry. :)
3,000 words a day, Kelly?
You are a god.
Wow, everybody must have resolved to get chatty.
Happy New Year to everybody and glad to hear the cold crew is mostly recovered.
I took my cold out for a walk -- wouldn't want anyone to think that I ignore the well-being of my illnesses.
Sniff wanted to remind everyone that as you go out and about friends should watch our for friends.
SAD sucks, mb. Do you use one of those light thingees?
Ok, no resolutions. Just good health talk.
50 comments, Nancy & it's not even noon!
And Kelly -- GET that 3rd book written. I've been waiting months already and I want to read it now.
Maryb, I have a sister with SAD & she's lived in Seattle for 25 years. She loves the town, but suffers A Lot....
Katiebird--the certification was a bit of a process: I researched the certifications available, picked one, studied hard for six weeks (even though I knew quite a bit of what I studied, still) and took a proctored exam. And passed. Not as much fun as it sounds...
Andi, so sweet. I'm really glad you post photos of the Tailed Ones.
I have SAD, maryb. It gets worse every year. That's why I'm in Florida this winter, instead of Idaho. After a few days of gray I get homicidal AND suicidal - it's not pretty. The happy light helps. Sunshine helps more.
Sending sunny hugs your way.
And thanks for the pix, andi!
So much to comment on.
First, what Ghost said in terms of thanks for this space and all the folks who hang out here.
Also from Ghost's post. Is that what that battered old cup was? Now I'm going to have to dig it out of the Goodwill bin.
KatieBird, the third is written, in production, and will be out May 27th. Four is the one I'm chewing on at the moment.
Beth, (applause on the writing front). Own the phrase "I am a writer." It is a spell of great power and will carry you through the dark places.
Nancy, 3,000 is my closing pace and I've sustained it for periods of up to about a month, but I haven't figured out how to make it work for beginnings. Fast is one of my two big strengths as a writer, in part because it allows me a lot more luxury to throw away things that aren't working. That happens less now, but when I was starting out, knowing that I could always write another couple thousand words tomorrow made deleting the couple thousand words of dead end I'd written today. Of course, at least a couple of the folks I correspond with make me look sluggish, so everything is relative.
On SAD, I've got a friend who gets it pretty bad. One thing he found that really helps him is a ton (like 20-30) of full spectrum lights on in the house all day long in winter.
Andi -
Amazing pics! I love water pictures. Were these taken in your woods too?
Nancy -
In 2008, I resolve to have more fun.
Everyone -
Happy New Year!
Kimberly, it depends on how you define "yours" -- the place in the pictures is part of the camp with which we share a property line (and where we go on a lot of our walks) but the Pack considers anywhere we wander "ours".
Kelly -- GET that 3rd book written
OK, Kelly says it's already done, but waiting 'til May? LATE May? ARRRRRRRGH!
pssst. Hey Kelly, could you get them to move the date up to the 25th? That's Mrs. Fetched's birthday, which would give me two reasons to celebrate…
How Frustrating FAR -- missing it by just a couple of days.
has Mrs Fetched read Kelly's books?
Post a Comment