The Official Guide to the New Years Resolution

Is it too late to change my New Years resolution? What's the official deadline that we have to have these turned in by? I think that there needs to be some official document on the rules of the New Years Resolution. In fact, let's go ahead and lay out some ground rules...

Official deadlines to submit resolution
- January 31: for all participants intending to actually keep proclaimed resolution
- January 15: for all participants who want to make a serious resolution but have no real intention of keeping it for more than a week 
- January 2: for all participants who just got caught up in the excitement of the toasts at midnight
- April 15: for all participants who resolve to do their taxes for the year
- December 31: for all participants who are compulsive liars

**All requests for deadline extensions must be submitted in writing to the Resolution committee which consists of myself, the Easter Bunny, Mariah Carey (pre-Nick Cannon)  and our Member at Large- Mickey**

Recognized Resolution Categories
- Personal Development: Including, but by no means limited to (depending on the severity of your neuroses): weight loss, quitting smoking, drinking less, exercising more, learning- see subsection 2A
- (2A) Learning: a lanugage, how to cook, how to remove your foot from your mouth, how to do your      taxes, how to catch your tail when chasing it, Bird Law
- Things that you've been putting off: how to ride a bike, how to swim, change your own fuses, change your own oil (and by this, I mean make your own oil change appointments), your friends' last names
- Activities: travel more, take more photos, go out more, join a book club, scrapbooking
- Relationships: Will I, Won't I, Will She, Won't She, Will He, Won't He
- Miscellaneous: Anything else

Rules for Proclaiming a New Years Resolution
All official New Years resolutions must be proclaimed by the appropriate date listed above. You must tell atleast one person what the resolution is. Unless, of course, there is no one else around, then you must just be really really honest about it.

Penalty for Abandoning New Years Resolution
1 year of shame and personal guilt


It's funny, I don't think that I've ever really tried to make a resolution or especially stick to one that I make, but this year it seems like something that I really want to do. I'm holding onto this idea fast and hard for some reason. Last year my New Years resolution was to be a vegetarian, but that mostly on a bet, and my competitive side kicked in. I think I made it a month before I got tired of being perpetually hungry and cranky.

Don't worry, I'm still going to learn how to ride a bike. I've already got one lined up. Also still going to learn how to swim. Just seems like one of those valuable life skillz (yes, I meant to spell that with a "z") that I should probably have in my back pocket. Ya know, in case I ever need to jump in a pool and save Mickey after he falls in while attempting to chase his tail.

But I've kind of realized that I have a better resolution for the year. And since I actually intend to keep this one, I have until Jan 31 to lock it in, per the rules above. And even if I need an extension, I have a pretty good feeling that the committee will rule in my favor (I know a guy). I went to Las Vegas last weekend with a group of friends and had a really fun time connecting with people that I really wanted to get to know better, and I think it was a big success. I always talk about all the travel that I want to do, and there are so many people and places that I keep promising to visit. So my NEW New Years resolution is to go somewhere every month of 2012. In the spirit of making and maintaining connections, I want to travel either to see old friends or travel for fun with friends. 12 months. 12 trips- minimum.

I am going this weekend to Houston to reconnect with a sorority sister from college (shout out to my Mags!), and I just booked a ticket last week to go to the Baltimore/DC area and visit some old college friends in March. I do have to give myself a break in February since I will be moving and have 2 trips in January. The bottomline will work out in the end, so this seems like a fair compromise. Eh? (Shoot, now I have to plan a trip to Canada)
So now that I have what I think is a more viable resolution to work off of, something that I can measure a little more readily throughout the year, I am now at the point where I need to start thinking about the trips that I want to take for the rest of the year. Who will kindly host me on their couch (futon preferable) and who is up for the odd random trip? Any recommendations for fun citites in the US to visit? Or maybe easy international trips?

I might not have my "BIG adventure" lined up, but I can certainly turn 2012 into a mini adventure. And of course, anyone who wants to come to Atlanta is always welcome!! Happy travels!

2011, Time for You to Go

I've written this post about 12 times now, and each iteration is a completely different composition. I feel a drastic need to tie up some lose ends on the mess that turned out to be 2011. I use the term mess not in a negative sense, but instead a literal one. There was no organization, no real plan followed- merely a convergence of any number of events over which I had no control. And that's ok.

So, in an effort to better adapt for 2012, I am taking a page out of a company playbook. I am going to analyze the bottom line and prepare for the next year based on historical results. What that means to me is I am going into 2012 without any real plan. I have a few minor goals that I intend to reach, but any overall blueprint, I am abandoning. While this seems like a minor implication, this is a big deal to me, and I hope that a new approach to the year will help me temper the changes that I anticipate coming down the pipe in the new year.

There are several certainties that I am prepared for. 1- I am moving. Yes. This is the news of the hour. How can I be so certain? Well...mostly because I signed a notice of termination on my lease this morning, and have already set up living arrangements effective February 18th. So I think it's safe to say that this change is pretty definite. B- I am certain that I am uncertain. Clear as mud, right?

The unkown? Well, despite the fact that this is such a broad category and constantly evolving, I am willing to throw caution and planning to the wind and just chalk 2012 up to a year of growth and unknown. I have planned most of my life to a T (did anyone read the post about the importance of my calendar???). I usually have my days, weeks, and sometimes months planned to half hour intervals. I'm not promising that I can completely abandon the inherent planning that I need to survive, but instead I am blocking time for chaos. A week here and there where I will agree to not make any plans (does anyone have a paper bag that I can breath into- I think I'm starting to hyperventilate!!).

My goals for 2012 are strictly related to personal development and targeting issues that I have ignored for too many years. Starting with......I'm not sure anyone is ready for this open confession.....learning how to ride a bike. Yes, you read that correctly. I do not know how to ride a bike. And while this seems so miniscule and unimportant on a day to day basis, I am in a constant state of feeling left out by this life skill that has plagued me for years. Show of hands (or comments), who else does not know how to ride a bike? If I get even 5 confessions, I will be shocked. This is perhaps one of the darkest secrets that I have in my arsenal. And it's time to clean this skeleton out of my closet. So, any volunteers to help me learn? I turn to you, my dear friends and readers to help me make good on this goal for 2012.

Alright, here's the worst part...I have one other goal. I wish it were a prouder moment than the time I openly confessed on my blog that I don't know how to ride a bike, alas, it is also profoundly embarrasing. 2012 is also the year that I vow to finally, once and for all, learn how to.....I don't wanna say it.....

swim.

I know. I know. I know. This is pathetic. If it makes you feel any better, it's not like I would sink to the bottom of the pool if I were tossed in the deep end. It's just that I'm not sure that my arm flailing, leg kicking, head above water approach to staying affloat is really the way to float through life. What it really comes down to is that as a kid, my parents signed me up for swim classes- I went- and when I didn't feel like putting my face under water, no one really made me do it. So I just never learned. Kind of how I never learned to ride a bike. Once the training wheels came off, and I fell off the first time, no one ever made me get back. There was no powering through. And given my last year and half- I'm finally ready to power through. Time to ditch the training wheels. And if I scrape my knees up in the process, well then the scars will hopefully make for some fun stories to my grandchildren one day.

So now I turn to my favorite musician for some words of advice:

The best thing that I can give to you

Is for me to go,

Leave you alone,

Cuz you've got growing up to do.

                                                - Joshuan Radin

And while these lyrics have had very distinct meanings to me at different times in my life over the years, right now I recite them to myself. I am going to let go of myself for a year. Searching for my adventure, and attempting to learn along the way, a little more about who I am, who I want to be, and where I want to go. I ask you all to continue to read about me and who I am working to be, and help me to stay true to myself the best that I know how, help me keep good on my promises, and laugh with me when the occasion calls.

Now, as I wrap up my last post of 2011 and start to shift my thoughts towards 2012, I open the floor to you and your goals for the new year. If you can hold me accountable, then I hope to give you the same motivation which I seek. That's what we are all here for, right? Just people helpin' people.

Catch you in 2012. Happy New Year, y'all!

Sincerely,

Cindy L. Who.