2006: The Big Do-Over

Checking in with the RevGalBlogPals' Friday Five:

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?
Usually at least a couple. Ironically, I tend to find New Year's Day a more envigorating day than Christmas because it's a kind of annual life reboot -- a big do-over. By January 1 I'm usually ready to do that.

If so, are they generally successful?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes in part.

Do you write them down, or make a mental list?
When I've been a more faithful journaler I've written them down; otherwise I keep mental track. Now that I have a blog, I've added a new level of accountability, no?

Even if you don't make resolutions, is there something you want to focus on in the New Year?
Well, keeping in mind that it's generally counterproductive to work on changing more than three life behaviors at once -- that's pretty much an act of self-sabotage -- here are three that I want to work on first:

1. I want to be more faithful and methodical in following the Daily Office. Some weeks I really fall off the wagon. And when I do that, it affects the quality of my life, spiritual and otherwise, in a negative way. So I am going to make a concerted effort to try harder.

2. I want to work on my anger issues; specifically, I want to regain my ability to use humor as a response to things and people making me angry. I admire people who are able to exhibit wit in such situations.

3. I want to rediscover the joy of reading, as opposed to skimming, which I find myself doing more and more of these days. Marva Dawn has noted in her books on worship that technology is essentially rewiring our brains and changing how we process information; I can see and feel this in my own life. It's very seldom that I can completely immerse myself in a book the way I could as a child or even a college student. I want to recapture the ability to focus on what I'm reading to the exclusion of other things, instead of feeling compelled to multitask as I read. (This is, by the way, a repeat performance for this resolution, which tells you how successful it was the first time.)

Now, those are systemic/methodical/long-term resolutions. My less profound, less high-commitment to-do list for the year includes:

Replacing the air ducts around here. They're as old as the house, and they look gross.

Purchasing a copy of The Daily Prayers of the Church -- pricey but worth it, I've been told.

Getting out more. I'm not even sure what that might mean, exactly, but it's something I want to do in aught-six; get out more.

Upgrading my unmentionables. I know this is probably sliding down the slippery slope into Too Much Information, but the contents of my lingerie drawer were beginning to look like a cross between a liquidation sale at the North Korean Revolutionary People's Undergarment Factory Number 9 and a scary bag of discards left on a Salvation Army doorstep. One evening I was watching an old CSI re-run, and at one point in the episode a detective, looking down at a cadaver in the morgue, noted, "There is nothing sadder than a woman with dingy underwear." Ouch.

Finding my stomach muscles again. I know they're in there somewhere.

And do you have plans for New Year's Eve?
New Year's Eve is actually one of the more downer days on my calendar. New Year's Day is much better. New Year's Eve I usually overindulge in snack food and then sack out well before the ball drops. Whoo-freaking-hoo. But I'm open to attitude reformation.