Happy New Year's Eve

Another year over, a new one just begun.

Well, almost.

Happy New Year's Eve.

I finally fell asleep around 5 a.m. but I woke back up at 9:30 a.m. I was dreaming of decorating the bedroom. Man, I've got it bad! And I'm going to be such a joy to be around later tonight if I don't get to take a nap today.

So let's reflect a little on the past year. What did I accomplish? What can I vow to do better next year? Let's see. . .

Well, the year started out quietly enough. I can't recall a single interesting or out of the ordinary event happening near the beginning of last year. Not a thing.

Oh, wait, yes I can.

My shins. I had stress fractures in my shins from this running program I had started the previous fall. I guess it was April before all that was taken care of. Or was it June? I'm awful at remembering dates. I have tried to run again since, off and on. More off than on, though. Stress fractures are no fun.

Hmmmm, so what else?

Oh, yeah, we found Amanda's father, Thomas. Not sure that was such a great discovery, in retrospect, since it would seem that Thomas never did manage to shed himself of his low-life, white trash ways, but at least Amanda got to meet him and now she knows for herself who and what he is. And I got a new roof on the house out of it. Although that took a lot of patience on my part and more than a little harassment of Thomas to get the job finished (after he finally managed to get it started).*

*Note to anyone reading who doesn't know who I'm talking about: NEVER contract Thomas Bugbee to do anything for you. You WILL regret it. Not the he does bad work because he doesn't. He does pretty good work--it's just getting him to do it that is the hard part. That and you end up feeling a great desire to take a shower after spending any time around him.

Other accomplishments?

Well, I'm officially only one year away from finishing my degree! Can I get a big "WOOHOO" for that one?! And this past semester was actually hard. The entire time I've been taking classes (and that's been, what, seven years now?) I've been amazed at how dumbed down they are and I've never really broken a sweat over any class. Never, that is, until Intermediate Accounting. *Shiver* Just the thought of that class gives me chills. It was hard. Truly hard. Because unlike a math class steeped in logic where you have a definite outcome and you're either right or you're totally wrong, and unlike liberal arts classes where as long as you can substantiate your opinion with something that sounds semi-intelligent you're OK, accounting is not intuitive at all whatsoever and, while there is some modicum of logic in the fact that your pluses have to equal your minuses, where you put those pluses and minuses is usually open for debate, although not too much debate--unless, that is, you have a good attorney. I just can't put into words how glad I am to have that class over.

Only 27 more credit hours to go.

Career-wise I feel as though I've grown a lot. Although I'm not terribly happy with the group I'm in--officially in, I mean, not the group I'm currently working in while on this "secondment," that group is great and I wish I could stay there--I think that my talents are more or less appreciated and will, hopefully, be rewarded and utilized even more this coming year. It's either that or I'm going to be out of a job. (The whole GMS finance department is undergoing a review--something called ACVA, which I cannot for the life of me remember what that stands for, but it essentially means reorganization and we all know that usually means layoffs.) I'm trying not to stress about my job at all, though. I figure either something will work out for me there at GSK in 2006 or they'll let me go. If the latter, I'll get three months compensation and that's plenty of time to find something else. Billy can insure the kids. It'll work out. One way or the other.

Other than those things, though, I guess the biggest thing that I'll remember 2005 for is it was the year that we lost our minds and decided to go into major debt by buying a new house in which to house my grandmother.

Yep, that's the biggie.

So what do you suppose 2006 will have in store for me?

William will get his license and will be driving independently come June. Will all my hair turn white with worry when that happens?

Even though I'm not worrying too much about it, I still have to wonder what will happen with my job. Will I stay where I am in some capacity or will I return to my "real" group. If I return, what will I be doing?

Will my upcoming classes be as difficult and time consuming as the classes this past fall were? If so, can I manage without completely losing my mind? And will I actually pull off a December graduation?

And last, but definitely not least, will we successfully close on this house and get all moved in and live happily ever after?

Lots of unknowns lurking just around the corner!

In the meantime, what can I vow to work on/do differently in the new year?

The three "Ps" are what come to my mind first: Patience, procrastination and physical fitness (phitness?:-).

I definitely, absolutely, without a doubt need to work on developing more patience. Particularly patience while driving, standing in lines, dealing with rude and lazy store personnel, and during any conversation I have with my grandmother (or anyone, for that matter, who doesn't understand immediately what I'm talking about, even when I'm not being particularly clear about things; i. e. anyone who can't read my mind). If I don't, I'm going to give myself a heart attack. I get way too worked up dealing with illogical, asinine people and that is folly because the world consists primarily of illogical, asinine people and, by not just accepting this as fact and stopping myself from getting all tied in knots because of it, I become the illogical, asinine one.

And I for sure need to work on my tendency (desire?) to procrastinate when faced with doing anything that doesn't really interest me much. When I'm truly interested in something--whether that something is a book I am reading or a project at work or home that I'm really into--I have no problem getting the job done. But when I have to accomplish something that I have no interest in at all, I will without fail put it off until the very last minute. I haven't yet gotten into too much trouble doing this--I can usually pull whatever it is off when faced with an absolute deadline--but this behavior has caused me quite a bit of undue stress and it's definitely an area that needs some work. Case in point: The remainder of the xmas decorations need to be put away today, I have some work-work that I need to get done, and I need to take a shower and straighten the house, all within the next four and one-half hours. But what am I doing? Sitting here typing away on this stupid blog. But this is much more fun than cleaning and working. . .and exercising.

I was so good there for such a long time. I was going to the gym three, four times a week. I had worked myself up to running three+ consecutive miles (although I had not yet worked myself up to LIKING to run three+ consecutive miles). I was a paradigm of good fitness habits. And then. . .*poof*. . .all that desire was gone and I've become a sloth again. Gotta change this.

When you come from a long line of thick and sturdy peasant stock that is prone to heart disease and diabetes, you really have to work hard to keep yourself from fulfilling your genetic destiny. And I was working hard there for awhile. But I've stopped and I've gotta get back into it. The irony, of course--and I think it's like this for most people--is that my biggest obstacle to staying active and exercising is I simply don't feel like it. The thought of running and jumping and sweating and spending mindless hours on exercise equipment does absolutely nothing for me. Nothing, that is, until I do it. And then I feel GREAT. So why is it that the "great" feeling I get after exercise isn't enough to keep my mind from recoiling in horror at the thought of doing those exercises again the next time? I mean, it works that way for sex and drinking and drugs, right? Or is that those things actually have the opposite effect? That is, you usually feel really good when you're doing them, it's afterwards that they (oftentimes--at least in the case of the drugs and the booze) make you feel lousy. I dunno. All I know is that it takes an enormous amount of willpower and self-motivation to get myself out the door and down the street walking or running, even though I always, without fail, feel much better when I'm done than when I left. Meanwhile, it takes hardly any effort at all to talk myself into putting it off until. . .later. And of course later often never comes, at least not for finding time to exercise.

Something to definitely work on.

And that being said, I vow at this moment to put this computer away, straighten up the living room, put away the xmas decorations, go running and then get some of my work-work done.

Wish me luck!