New Years Resolutions

So it is a brand new year – a clean new slate, a newborn baby, a canvas to paint. Perhaps I should put that to verse form. Or not.

The missus and I rang in the New Year in somewhat the same fashion as we usually do.  Our community organizes a series of concerts, starting at 6:30 and running through to midnight.  These concerts are usually presented in half hour packages, and utilize the larger churches in the the downtown core, as concert halls.  Usually there is a choice of a couple concerts at any given time, so you simply pick and choose your roster and stroll from venue to venue.  For the past seven years, our family has been one of performing groups.  This was a opportunity we thoroughly enjoyed, but the girls have outgrown its lure (translate as it's not cool sing with Mom and Dad anymore).

We took in two Irish concerts.  The first a trio, played gentle traditional Irish ballads and Christmas carols.  The second, more of a small orchestra (pipes, fiddles, tin whistles, guitars, double bass etc) played lively dance tunes and provided the evening's humour.  A third concert was the local diva and friends, a rollicking ensemble, showcasing modern showtune solos.  The fourth and final,  featured the city's mainstay tenor and bass, soloing, dueting along with a several other invited and talented guests.  It was first class entertainment, and a most pleasant way to usher in the new year.

I'm usually not one to do much as far as New Years resolutions, but I think since I have some public accountability on this site, I may try a couple of things. Nothing earth shattering, but hopefully doable (is that a word and if so how do you spell it??).

 First of all I am going to floss with more regularity. My youngest came home from her annual dental check up with a glum look on her face. Older sister gleefully bounced in behind and announced the reason for the gloom, a cavity. First cavity in her adult teeth, quite a milestone!

And then yesterday, I was sitting putting the finishing touches on my blog, and the finishing touches on my box of Christmas Lindor chocolates, when a piece of my tooth broke off – right before my very eyes, well actually kind of south of my eyes and east of my tongue. Oh great, a trip to the dentist next week, and a rough snag to attract my tongue until such times. Why is it that broken tooth is to tongue, as trainwreck is to eyes?

So a pact was formed. Youngest daughter and I will floss till the cows come home, or the gums bleed whichever happens first. The missus even bought me a bag of those new-fangled plastic, single-use flossers a month or two back, so I have no excuse.

Resolution #2. I am going to blog. Yes I know I have only done this for five days, hardly a habit yet. I know I have far more time right now with the holiday season, so the entries will probably get a little shorter. So far I've written each day. I know when I return to teaching, the frequency will fall. But, I am going to at least try to write three or four times a week. We'll see.

I am going to stop starting (is that sort of an oxymoron, or just something written by an ox-like-moron) so many of my sentences with 'so', 'well', 'but' & 'and'. I am going to endeavour to reduce my use of brackets (how else can I put an aside within a sentence{I like to venture down Rabbit Paths[ herein and forever more referred to as RP]}). Dashes and ….....'s shall become things of the past.

Resolution #3. I am going to relax more. Okay I have made it through one year without secure full-time employment – cut yourself some slack! We vow to shed one of our big stresses in 2011, a rental property (I'm sure more will follow on this topic as the year unfolds). I'm going to sleep more. For the past few years I've tended to view sleep as an unnecessary frill in life. Now don't get me wrong – I'd like to sleep more, but I wake up nightly. either in an utter panic (solving world issues) or excited to tackle some new project (like the topic for the day's blog), or the fire alarm goes off (yep that has happened a couple times ...no explanation), or a wrong telephone number from the far reaches of the earth.

Corollary to Resolution #2. I will reduce the length of my sentences, because I am entirely and utterly guilty of the crime of run-on sentences, a fact which I was made aware of during my interminable university essays, and a problem I know still exists in my writing to date, one which undoubtedly annoys and confuses my readers, who cannot follow the train of my uninterrupted thoughts as I travel from RP to RP (see above paragraph for plausible explanation of said acronym).

Resolution # 4. I am going to be more happy. Life is pretty good. Sure there are a few dips and valleys but on the whole I can't complain. I'd like to lose a few pounds, probably won't happen. I'd like more hair, ain't gonna happen ('cept on my back, and ears – why is that?). I'd like to do more musically, could happen if I push for opportunities and stop inventing excuses why I can't. I'm going to laugh more, not just sit and smile like a grinning garden gnome (does that count as alliteration?). Which means, I am going to have to force myself to be more of a participant and less of an observant wallflower. Good-bye comfort zone!

I'm also going to stop and smell the flowers, well maybe not literally. I plant, grow, split, manipulate, move, replant, replenish, refurbish and renovate so many plants in the course of a year, that I often forget to just simply sit and enjoy the process and the product. Okay, I've already contradicted my own resolutions. I am going to be less of a participant in the gardening process, and more of an observant wallflower to the flowers, but the opposite to everything else in life.

That probably about does it for self improvement for one year. After all, I should leave something for 2012.

Happy New Year. Have a safe and prosperous 2011.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.