New Yearage

Howdy do, blogosphere!

Well, would you look at that. 2011.

You'll never guess where I am...well, actually you might. But that's not the point of this entry, so we'll leave that for another day. (I'm still somewhere in the northern hemisphere, as the above language notes.) The point of this entry is to think about New Year's resolutions. Usually I am really into them, and this year I was so busy and consumed with getting ready for my big New Year's adventure that I never even thought about resolutions - seriously, me, didn't get around to thinking about them - until the night of December 31st. Someone brought it up and I was all oh, yeah - well, if I get on a plane and fly around the world on January 1st does that obviate the need to make a resolution or two?

Of course it doesn't! It just delayed the resolving. Now that I have time to think again, I find my brain turning to resolutions (partly because now that I have time to think again I am catching up on a dozen or so blogs that are all talking about end-of-year and new-year stuff). I think one of my resolutions is about not being angry. Being outraged, in an "if-you're-not-outraged-you're-not-paying-attention" sense is still OK, but anger is different. The thing is, I'm actually not really angry, ever. Hardly at all. But people think I am, sometimes, when I'm not. I find my brain thinking about some kind of resolution for that.

Related to not making people think I am angry, incorrectly, I have also been thinking about etiquette and charm. Part of me actually would like to go to a full-on Southern belle charm school. Another part of me prefers my more Western, renegade outlook on life. But lately I have been thinking about that distinctly Southern talent of telling people basically to go !@$%* themselves while all the while being so sweet and proper and polite that you never stray from proper decorum. I really want that talent. A little while back, during a social gathering a person I know broke into a conversation between me and two other people, because that first person had heard the rest of us talking passionately about a world news issue, and told us to stop talking about politics. Naturally my response was that we all clearly saw no reason to stop talking about politics. The person continued to press the point that there was "nothing we could do about it anyway" (which is not actually true, of course) and also, that I am in the wrong for "trying to convince people" I am right. (Amusing on several levels, that.) In a few minutes, the person left, one of the people from the conversation said, "I don't care if you talk about politics," and the evening went merrily on. But I was left thinking about what I would have said IF I had that distinctly Southern belle sugar-slopping talent that I don't have. It's interesting to ponder.

Anyway, none of this is quantifiable whatsoever, and there have to be some quantifiable resolutions, so I'm toying with simple increase: to read more books, and to travel to more countries, than I did in 2010. I think those just might be my resolutions.