2017- Hopefully More Popular

Who else has hillbillies in their neighborhood who somehow hoard fireworks from July so they can go BATSHIT CRAZY with them December 31?? Raise your hand. Uh huh.

So it’s January! Yay! Mr. Betty and I rang in the new year with cheese fondue, as one should. I guess I should admit that an EXCESSIVE amount of seltzer was consumed, along with enormous and somehow relentlessly salty chocolate chip pan cookies (and let that be a lesson to any of your who might RECKLESSLY pull a recipe from the internet…)

I’ve heard an ordinate amount of whining regarding THE HORROR THAT WAS 2016 and I don’t get it- it was a good year for moi.

• I sold my home after 8 years of having an upside down mortgage.
• I bought a beach house.
• Everyone in my family is healthy and employed (unless they are children, in which case GET A JOB, or retired in which case YAY, STILL ALIVE).
• I was sober from Jan 1 to Dec 31– CONTINUOUSLY.

For some of you this is Day 1 and that’s a good thing. For others this is Day 21 or 47 or possibly 103 and that’s ALSO A VERY GOOD THING. Today is 580 days for me, which is weird to write because I don’t really count days anymore. However my sober app says I have avoided drinking 3600 units of alcohol which I find absolutely MIND BLOWING. And also kind of gross. *gag*

We usually have plans for NYE. Detailed and extensive plans. In the end however, it’s pretty much liquid cheese and The Twilight Zone. And people group texting me all night long, with well wishes from people who are NOT IN MY CONTACT LIST. Who the fuck are these people?? *Please group text responsibly*

So that brings me to the word of the year, which is a popular trend in which I participate because EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT, so I join in lest I appear churlish.

Last year my word was PRESENCE, which was an appropriate goal for someone who had basically checked out of life for three or four years. I worked on that. I focused. I listened. I tried ever so desperately to stay in the moment. Sometimes it was easy and sometimes my gaze drifted off to a shiny object. All in all, presence was an excellent lesson for me.

I had already decided before the much beleaguered and maligned 2016 came to a close that my 2017 WOTY would be COMMITMENT. I knew it because I had heard myself saying this word over and over in 2016.

We have commitments to ourselves and to others. To me, commitment is not only accountability but completion. I have projects and goals that I would like to complete and achieve this year. And I will be making a commitment for each.

Let’s be fucking honest here: I’M PROBABLY NOT GOING TO DO ALL OF THEM.

But those that I start I shall finish. Honestly this make me squirmy just writing it. Because there will be all this PRESSURE to complete projects and tasks and goals and I can feel myself going all whiny and squidgy about it…”What if I…..CAN’T DO IT?”

Seriously?? Of course I can. I quit drinking. I quit smoking. I’m practically a super hero just for those things alone.  So yah. I’m going to GET SOME SHIT DONE.

And hope you will all commit to at least one thing this year if nothing else: sobriety.

• It’s the most bang for your buck resolution-wise
• It’s always light, never filling
• It’s the gift that keeps on giving AND
• Even you don’t do anything else this year you’ll still be ahead

Happy New Year!