Tag Archives: New Years Resolutions

I’m Grateful I Finished This Post

Posted on November 26, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

You know, in a little more than a month, people are going to start asking each other what are their New Year’s Resolutions. And some people will answer, with varying degrees of huffiness, that THEY do not make New Year’s Resolutions. Some will say they are perfect as they are; the less obnoxious will say they always strive to improve and do not NEED an arbitrary date to do so.

What has this to do with Thanksgiving, you may ask. Well, I will tell you, I hope with no huffiness but with honesty.

I try to spend my life in a state of relative gratitude. For one reason, when you are feeling grateful, you feel less depressed, angry, resentful, sad and other negative emotions. For another reason, it helps to counteract my usual complaints and whining, which I’m afraid can become rather tiresome. In confess, I pursue this attitude with a greater or lesser degree of success at different times. As Billy Wilder so aptly observed, nobody’s perfect.

For example, I complain about my husband’s job but hasten to add that I am grateful he has a job. I used to groan over the necessity to go to the laundromat but hastened to add that I was grateful there were lots of machines and the place was clean. Right now I am almost purely grateful for our new (to us) washer and drier. Soon I’ll find something there to bitch about but no doubt will hasten to add how grateful I am that I have them.

You see where I’m going with this.

I am looking forward to tomorrow (Thanksgiving) as a day I will spend time with family and eat a lot of good food. I am not going to wax eloquent about all that I am grateful for. Please believe that I am grateful for many things. And feel free to share your own list of gratitudes on Facebook, in person, in a comment here or in your own blog (my computer is telling me “gratitudes” is not a word, but I can’t think of a better one).

More astute readers will remember that this is Wuss-out Wednesday and be nodding wisely. I am, of course, grateful for all my readers (you know, for not posting a list, I have mentioned a few gratitudes, haven’t I?). I shall humbly sign off now and begin pondering tomorrow’s post.

Now, about that New Year’s Resolution…

A Public Service Announcement

Posted on January 29, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Has anybody else observed that this January seems to be taking longer than the allotted 31 days, or is that just me? Never mind, it’s almost February, and I have a marvelous idea.

At the end of January, I got a little annoyed at some people who said, with or without a superior sniff, “I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions,” or “My New Year’s Resolution is to not make any New Year’s Resolutions!” Well, now they are probably feeling quite vindicated as many people who made New Year’s Resolutions have fallen by the wayside or off their respective wagon or otherwise failed to make our lives perfect.

Full disclosure: My New Year’s Resolutions were really just continuations of things I had been working on all during the past year. I let a couple of them slide during the holidays. I am, in fact, making some progress in everything except running (and for that it’s been too damn cold).

So here is my brilliant idea: Let’s all make Ground Hog Day Resolutions!

Think about it: Ground Hog Day is a fairly useless holiday. We torment a poor animal who has even less weather predicting capability than your local meteorologist. It’s dumb! They don’t have sales, nobody gets a paid holiday for it, there aren’t even any parties. What, I ask you, is the point?

On the other hand, many of us have transitioned from our post-Christmas letdowns into our midwinter slumps. Cabin fever is setting in. We need something to perk us up.

Self-improvement? you ask, with a skeptical eyebrow raise. Hear me out. My idea is that we make fun resolutions. Cheery resolutions. Get Ourselves Out Of The Dumps Resolutions.

My resolutions are as follows (full disclosure: I’m deciding this as I type): Watch more cheesy movies to write blog posts about. Send more postcards. Go to more fun places to buy said postcards. Write blog posts about those places.

Don’t look at your shadow and run back into the hole! Try to think of a fun resolution, and let’s make Ground Hog Day something to celebrate!

This public service announcement is brought to you courtesy of Mohawk Valley Girl.

Drat those Self-Satisfied Sorts

Posted on January 4, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Well, once again it is Lame Post Friday, my day for random observations and half-baked philosophy, and, what a surprise, I got nuthin’. Today at work I told a friend I had not written anything yet, that I was going to sit at my computer and type, “I got nuthin’.”

“But then you think of other stuff to put,” she said.

“Yes.”

And usually I do. Today, it seems, not so much. Perhaps it is time to do the dreaded half-baked philosophy on New Year’s Resolutions. I haven’t started working on any of mine yet. All I’ve done is get a little defensive about those self-satisfied sorts who say THEY don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. I believe I have inveighed against those sorts recently.

But here is a half-baked philosophical question for me: why do I get so defensive against people who seem pretty happy with themselves? Could it be related to low self-esteem? Hmm… that sounds less like philosophy and more like therapy. I’m not qualified to do therapy, although I do indulge in table-top psychology on occasion.

Table-top psychology, in case I have not mentioned it before, is an expression I got from a friend, who was quoting her mother. She would use it when she was giving a lay person’s opinion (her own). She would qualify it with, “Table-top psychology,” and rap on the table. Of course, this lady was highly intelligent and insightful. Her opinions were probably based on experience and common sense. Me, I just talk.

So, I guess this was my random observation: I get defensive against self-satisfied sorts. And my half-baked philosophy was: why is that? Could be a job for a therapist.

I must, I positively must get back to having Mohawk Valley adventures and writing about them. We’ve been snowed and frozen in for the past two days, but there may be a break in the weather tomorrow. As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

Wrist to Resolutions

Posted on December 30, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

So there I was, ready to enjoy a Sunday of doing nothing when I remembered I had rashly promised my blog readers I would do SOMETHING blogworthy today. Of course nothing came to mind.

I took a walk with Tabby, making careful note of every step. It might have worked if I had sat down and written it immediately on returning, but, well, I did not do so.

I cooked a rather effortful dinner, suitable for a cooking post. But I just don’t feel up to describing my tribulations with pizza dough. It was fortunately not a wrist-to-forehead situation, since my hands were covered with flour at the time. By the way, the pizza turned out pretty good.

That leaves me with the threatened post about New Year’s Resolutions, which I believe I also mentioned yesterday. Have any of my delightful readers made New Year’s Resolutions? Some people don’t. Some people brag about how they don’t, implication being that they are perfect as they stand. Or at least above doing what everybody else does. I’m not judging.

I have not made any New Year’s Resolutions yet. I intend to do a few things: lose weight, start running again, exercise more, finish my novel… and I plan to do these things after January 1st. But I can’t say they are really New Year’s Resolutions, because I was working on them prior to this. I plan on working on them more betterly after January 1st, because the holidays will be over.

Hmmm, that doesn’t make a really scintillating post about New Year’s Resolutions. I guess I can’t give up Wrist to Forehead Sunday after all. Hope to see you all on Middle=aged Musings Monday.

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