oceancat11

Some years I do New Year’s resolutions, some years I don’t. I think I did last year – something about putting myself out in the world more… I don’t remember exactly… at least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I don’t think I’ll have any this year, just a general sense of approaching the world with a better attitude – I think that pretty much encompasses everything I need to improve. And I’ll probably just also make shit up as I go along.

I liked 2007. At least, I was all prepared to have liked 2007, but then I remembered that 2007 brought a lot of crap with it. But also good things. So I could choose to look at 2007 as a year of crap, or as a year of some very good things. Today I’m going with #2. Considering 2007 was the year I found the Ditty Bops, and all the good stuff that goes along with that, I think I’m just going to overlook the crap.

I won’t let it catch me off guard if 2008 turns out to be a lot of crap, too (I know, nice positive way to start a year), but I think what will change will be the way I handle it. I don’t know if that’s technically a resolution, but it could be fashioned into one, with a little work.

I’m actually pretty excited about 2008. I might deny it, but I am. Yesterday started out full of potential – got up and brought my scope to Moonstone Beach to look for birds; saw a short-eared owl and a female harrier over the marsh. Went for a drive to look at new places to live (more on that later), and after that Beth and I were going to have New Year’s dinner with friends in Millbury, MA. So why is it that every time Beth tries to go to MA these days, it snows like the dickens? We called to see if it was snowing hard in Millbury (it was), but we decided to go anyway, then it got worse, so we called for like the fifteenth time to say now we were turning around. So I felt like a giant L since here it was, the first day of a new year, and I was still the one who always calls and cancels plans. Crap. But you know what? I got over it. Maybe 2008 means accepting that sometimes shitty snowstorms cancel plans and it’s OK. And really, it was. So there’s my lame first day of 2008 story, but somehow it just ended up feeling like a fine day, and it’s the only first-day-of-2008 I’ll get.

So far the second day of 2008 has involved getting up at 5:30 a.m. to help Beth pack to leave for the new job in MA, then going back to sleep and getting out of bed at 11:00. And that’s just sweet, because when’s the last time I slept past 8:30? I’m allotting myself one chill day, and then I have to get my ass in gear because I have a lot of writing to do in the next two months.