Resolute. This time I mean it.

I never actually make New Year’s Resolutions.

Or, rather, I never actually keep New Year’s Resolutions.

So I’m sure as hell not going back to the first blog post of 2011 to see if I had been foolish enough to make a few and put them down in writing.

But this year I thought I’d make a modest number of resolutions, print them out, and actually post them somewhere where they can haunt me night and day. That would be directly over my desk.

Anyway, here goes:

• Get the door to the upstairs bathroom fixed.  I know, I know. If I did make resolutions in the past, this one was definitely on the list. Multiple times. On multiple occasions. But, hey, it’s not like you can’t close the door and have some privacy. Of even lock it once you get inside. It’s just that it’s missing the door knob. (Don’t ask.) Anyway, this year I mean it.
• Get the downstairs rooms painted. I know, I know. If I did make resolutions in the past, this one was definitely on it. Multiple times – although not quite as multiple as the bathroom door one.  But it’s been 12 years now, and they really need a do-over, and I never liked the colors to begin with, so… I actually like to paint, but, other than the hall area, this job would be too much for me to tackle. I have done the bathroom and my 5’ x 8’ office in the past, but they have awkward angles, and I almost broke my neck balancing on the tub because I couldn’t get the ladder in there. As for the den and the bedroom, the ceilings are too damn high for me to get the job done comfortably. I have the color book that my sister Kath leant me, oh, last year about this time. What’s holding me back? Let’s go! And this year I mean it. (And if you’re wondering what the bedroom is doing downstairs, well, welcome to life in the city, where odd living arrangements can happen.)
• Get our wills updated. I realize that this one sort of dropped in morbid urgency once my husband’s health scare passed. Still, we have ancient wills that still mention our mothers (mine’s been dead for 10 years), so it’s really time to get cutting on this. This year I really mean it, and I’m made a good first step, and in December called and made an appointment with our lawyer. And away we go!
• Use the library more often. I’m already off to a reasonably good start on this, having paid two visits to the BPL last month. With the Borders that I passed every day (and where I stopped in at least once a week) having regrettably closed, the nearest bookstore is in the Prudential Center. This is not far from where I live, but I have to pass the BPL on my way to the B&N, so I might as well check the books out that I would otherwise have purchased. Sometimes this means waiting. In the old days, I would have bought In The Garden of Beasts without batting an eyelash. Now I am on the waiting list for it and, even though I am 147th, they have a ton of copies, and the need to read is not yet urgent enough for me to race over to B&N or order it from Amazon. At present, I’m reading my way through everything the marvelous Stewart O’Nan has written, and am revisiting John Le Carré. Oh, what fun it is to read a real good book tonight, even if I do have to dash through the snow to check it out.
• Ration time spent on Huffington Post, etc. This being an election year, I will no doubt be tempted to start driving myself crazy come, say, February, and start haunting the HuffPo. By September, I’ll be tempted to check Nate Silver’s state-by-state polls on an hourly basis. But I’m not giving in! No sirree bob! No way in hell. I need to stay way away, or I’ll be gaga and in a straight jacket by November – and how am I going to cast my ballot if I can’t get my arms out of that straightjacket. So, this election year, no HuffPo meshugas. And this year I mean it.
• Lose five pounds. The old weight-losing chestnut? Well, this time I mean it.

You say you want a resolution. Well, you know, we all want to change the world. Or at least our little piece of it.

This year I mean it.

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My original title for this post was going to be “You Say You Want a Resolution”, which, as it turns out was the snappy title I used in last year’s first-up post. I wasn’t actually going to look to see which resolutions I didn’t keep, but I couldn’t help myself. Surprisingly, the fix the bathroom door and paint the bedroom one weren’t on it. But use the library and lose five pounds were. So, late in the year, I actually made good on the use it, if not on the lose it. I was going to stop reading online comments – that lasted about two days – and start writing fiction again, which has only happened in my head.

Sigh!