New Year’s Hopefully-Try-To-Be’s

New Year’s Hopefully-Try-To-Be’s

What did you want to be when you were a little kid? Can you remember the very first thing you thought, when you were very young, that you wanted to be when you grew up?

New Year’s Resolutions are kind of like that. They’re a chance for us to become something we want to be one day. And THAT DAY IS HERE! THAT DAY IS TODAY!

So, whadyawannabe?

Once upon a time, I wanted to be Nancy Drew. I’ve already told you that here .

Then, I wanted to be a virginal governess for a broken-hearted count. Thank you, Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney, for that totally useless and unrealistic fantasy.

Next, I wanted to be an artist. Paint and draw things. I took lessons. I made $5 on two pastel clown portraits. I was in sixth grade and that was big money. 1966, I think. It was a looong time ago. At least, I was thinking a bit more realistic.

I graduated high school early. Not because I was that smart, but because when I registered for my senior year, I had all of the credits I needed except sex education and the three senior English classes. So, I took all three English classes and sex education in the fall quarter and finished at Thanksgiving. There were 125 kids in my graduating class and 25 of us got out early.

I enrolled at the local junior college in January. $110 for three classes. It was 1973. And I was ready. I’d had sex education. I knew what things were and where they went. Remember, this was another time entirely. On The Dick Van Dyke Show, he and Mary Tyler Moore, as married couple Rob and Laura Petrie, slept in separate twin beds. So did Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on I Love Lucy. And they were married in real life.

The next fall I received a letter from the school stating that I’d been there long enough, I had to declare a major. How do I know what major to pick? I don’t know what I want to be. I’m only 18. What does an 18-year-old know about what they want to be at 40? I don’t even know what I want to eat for supper. How am I supposed to know what I want to spend 70% of the rest of my awaking, adult days doing?

I sucked at math. I knew that for sure. Numbers change. They lie. Sometimes they’re positive, then they may be negative. And that was the easy part. Or they never end. Case in point? Pi. 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510  (Thank you, Wiki.) And that’s just the first 50. It never ends. Ever.

BTW, I’m a Pi baby. Born on 3.14. That’s the coolest I get. Just a coincidental birth date.

English? I once had a teacher tell me I could say less with more words than any student he’d ever had. I said to him, “But, you tell us how many words we have to use. I just use up words to get to your count.”

Music. I’d taken piano lessons since I was six. I’ll major in music. But, that didn’t really appeal to me. I didn’t have “it” in me. I was a dot chaser. I wasn’t inspired. I could read music, i.e. chase dots, but I knew I didn’t have great talent.

Art!! I’ll major in art! It can’t be wrong, it’s my interpretation. Look at the crap out there they call art. Genius!!!

So I did. I never became a real artist. I dabble. But, I have fun with it.

And today’s a new year. Do you make new year resolutions?

I’ve been thinking all of my excuses are gone. My guy and I are childless (everyone’s grown and living with their families), petless (They’ve moved one, read it HERE), and pretty much both of us are housebroken and mature (sometimes).

In order to avoid certain failure, I’m going to make New Year’s Hopefully-Try-To-Be’s. Here they are, in no particular order:

• Read more. I can watch way too much television. Netflix, you’re going on a diet.
• Speaking of which … Lose a few pounds. Maybe 10. By February. No, my birthday. Okay, maybe summer.
• Organize our office and get bills, receipts, papers, taxes, etc., etc., etc. in order. And KEEP IT THAT WAY.
• Be nice. Use a filter more often. I would say “nicer,” but that would imply I’m already nice, that I already think before I speak. Not.
• Learn something. Just try to be a little smarter by the end of the year.

Okay, that’s it for me. Put your mind to work. What do you want to be when you grow up?

PS…

And in the spirit of learning things, I will try to add a little something to each post and help you learn something right now.

Did you know . . .

Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn.

Now, don’t get smug. Here in the States, Talkeetna, Alaska has a cat for mayor. Stubbs. He spent a month in the hospital after being mauled by a dog while roaming the streets, but he’s back in office now.