Happy New Year, redux

Check the date — I’ll wait.

And I’m not talking Rosh Hashana (happy year 5770, anyway)! Although the Jewish High Holy Days fall right into line with my thoughts.

My birthday comes at the end of the summer, and school always started shortly thereafter — consequently, I tend to designate this time of the year for beginnings. As I’ve grown older, reflecting on the past twelve months of hits and misses is as much of the part of early September as back to school shopping & PTA committees. How has the year stacked up and what are my resolutions for the coming months? Let’s see….

OK, I’m not too big on spilled milk — in fact, I the only big regret I’ve ever had is not going to Columbia for grad school after I’d signed the acceptance letter. Life intervened and I completely embrace where my path has led. Plus, Chris shudders at the thought of me living in NYC. 🙂

My “should’ves” are few this year — I should have finished the book and I passed up an opportunity to see the inauguration live and in person.

The book, not such a tragedy, as I’ve found new data and the feedback from the lectures can only improve the finished product. Although, I’m beginning to itch for conclusions!!!

The other, not going to DC, bugs me in the sense that part of my self-definition includes, “adventure girl.” While maybe not life, I’ve risked heart, limbs and reputation over the years. In pursuit of experience, I’ve interviewed “masseuses,” placing my recording equipment atop the cases displaying aids for love, lust or some variation. Musical venues and college campuses are practically designed for life adventures — OMG, there was this Bruce Hornsby concert. Of course, adventure was part of the thrill when following the Grateful Dead one summer. I’ll never forget camping beside a motorcross track, listening to the revving engines and the nearby drum circles giving rhythm to the inkiest night I’ve ever seen.

Wading into a crowd of millions of patriotic Americans should have been no problem. You’d think….. The tipping point for me came when they announced that my cell wouldn’t work once I got to the Mall. How would I contact Chris & the girls or worse yet, what if they needed me? Now, of course, in life BB (before babies) I wouldn’t have been so cautious. Would I have thrilled to be there — completely and utterly. Was I happy to have stayed put? As it turns out, we had the first real snow the girls have ever experienced. Schools were closed, we watched the inauguration together and they built their very first snowman — an exceptional memory.

Naturally, one of my goals for the upcoming year has to include more adventure…. how, you may ask?
* finish the book and face the new challenges of publishing, yikes!
* the girls and I have begun taking Spanish — is anything really riskier than making a fool of yourself in front of tweens?
* Chris & I need to make some sort of deliciously, decadent plans for the next 15 years. So many cool things we still need to do….hmmmm, ideas?
* go somewhere I’ve never been!
* begin the new projects — scary, but so exciting!!

Do you get excited about beginnings? Do you want new folders and freshly sharpened pencils and lists of things to accomplish? What’s new with you?

Happy New Playlist: Put a Little Love in your Heart (the Rev. Al Green); Thank You (Dido); She’s a Rebel (Green Day); I Got the Sun in the Morning (from Annie Get your Gun — the perfect attitude adjustment song); Deep Dark Truthful Mirror (Elvis Costello); Run So Far (Eric Clapton — this song doesn’t get as much love as most of his catalog, but it’s wonderful); Turn, Turn, Turn (so many versions — Bruce Cockburn’s is pretty cool); Love & Happiness (Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris — love them); The Times they are a-changin’ (Bob Dylan — always); Attics of my life (Grateful Dead); Race You (Elizabeth & the Catapult); Do Wrong Right (Devil Makes Three); Wonderful Remark (Van Morrison — this song just pours over you); Best Years of Our Lives (Baha Men); 1000 Years (Sting); More Love (Brand New Heavies); Take a Chance on Me (ABBA); 10,000 Angels (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians); Ordinary Day (Dolores O’Riordan); Still Crazy after all these Years (Paul Simon — do you ever imagine what he & Edie Brickell talk about at breakfast?); This is not a Test (She & Him — cannot wait for their new album!!); Window to the World (Shawn Colvin’s version is stellar!); Twenty-Five to Midnight (Sting — OK, I was in a Sting mood while writing this — I could have added Fields of Gold); and A Hundred Years from Now (Michael Martin Murray — silly, but pointed)

Indulge your imagination in every possible flight –> Jane Austen

Take care,
Aly