New Year's Tradition

One of my favorite activities on New Year's Day is to change out all my calendars--and because I'm quite a fanatic about calendars, I have quite a few. This year, however, I tried to be a bit more discerning, as last year I made some bad choices, such as the Zen calendar and some "butter my biscuit" hilbilly expressions. What was I thinking?

For 2010, in my home office, I have two: 1) My Samantha calendar, which I put together through the Kodak Gallery from pictures I take of my granddaughter throughout the previous year--each picture matching an event during that same month in 2008; January 2009 is a picture of her sledding down our neighbor's hill--just before she crashed into the sticker bush in our front yard-- and 2) a literary calendar, with each day summarizing a book--some I've heard of but most I have not; occasionally, I find one to order for myself or a family member; January 1 entry is Microtrends: The Small Forces behind Tomorrow's Big Changes--definitely not a book fitting my interests.

I have two dog calendars--one in my bathroom and one in my family room--nothing to read, just pictures of mostly darling canines. In fact, I save the pictures I really like and put them in a special dog box (it has a picture of a Siberian husky on it). Already planning on my eyesight going down hill as I ease into old age and senility, I figure people can just hand me the dog box while I'm strapped into my wheel chair in the nursing home, and I can spend the day smiling at those canine cuties! I also have a third dog calendar of Dachsunds--the family recording calendar--that I hang on the side of the refrigerator. Adding to the New Year tradition is the New Year's Eve tradition of recording all the important family birthdates and anniversaries on that calendar, along with upcoming dates of meetings.

After a year off, I've placed a Mary Englebreit calendar in our spare bathroom. I love her illustrations and humorous and inspirational expressions; plus, since Samantha uses that bathroom, I figure she can enjoy that calendar, as well.

My new find is a Seize the Day calendar I placed on my dresser. My hope is that its colorful, often floral, designs and uplifting expressions will inspire me to smile early in the morning when I'm struggling to put my eyeliner on straight.

Finally, for me, for the second year in a row for my office, I have a mini-wall sunflower calendar--I suppose being influenced by my Kansas heritage. Though I've tried every summer, I can't grow them, so I can at least enjoy looking at them on the wall!

Then, of course, are all the calendars I gave as Christmas gifts: for son Jeff, The History calendar; for his wife Wendy, The Science Quiz calendar; for son Eric, the NASA Space Shuttle and Family Guy calendars; for husband Jim, The New Yorker calendar, a railroad calendar, and a train trivia calendar; for my sister Jan, a sisters calendar and a dog calendar; and for Samantha, her first wall calendar of princesses. (She and I had a great time recording family birthdays.) I also gave Samantha calendars to four of Samantha's relatives and numerous other calendars to bosses and colleagues at work.

Yes, I'm a fanatic about calendars, and after writing this, I don't want to think of how much I spent on them. I just know that each day/month I look forward to turning the page.

Getting Started

As I look out my window to the east too early on a Saturday morning to be awake, I contemplate how my life is about to change in 2010. Although retiring just before my 59th birthday is a bit frightening, I couldn't be more exited about starting my to-do list of all those things I've put off the past several years.

At the top of the list is to write! Not sure who my audience will be, other than myself, nor am I sure I have it in me to write anything worth anyone else's time, but, who knows, this could lead to something more important than it being all about me. I hope so! I just hope I can recapture all those previous thoughts beginning with, Oh! I could write about this--or that! Unfortunately, successfully teaching creative writing for over 15 years, I didn't practice what I preach by keeping a list of all the topics inside me waiting to spill onto the page.

For today, I'm looking forward to celebrating my 12th anniversary--on the 12th day of the 12th month--with my soul mate. Jim continues to treat me better than I deserve to be treated.

If anyone does read this, please forgive me for the obvious simplicity of this first post. Again, I'm just getting started.