It's Over.

2009 is finally over.

Not quite the worst year of my life. I think that dubious honor goes to 1991, which started with Iowa losing in the Rose Bowl followed by my father's death. 1992 is close because my great-aunt and grandmother passed away in that year.

I look back over the debris of another year passed and I wasn't the best friend I could have been; the best mother I could have been; the smartest with my money or the best at planning the few things life lets me plan. But I try to live by one overriding principle, "You make the best decisions you can at the time you need to make them." Unfortunately, for me, it seems my "best" decisions are often wrong, or, at least last year, that's what they seemed.

Jessie posted to her blog about New Year's Resolutions. I thought about what I wanted to accomplish this coming year. The usual stuff popped into my head; lose weight, travel, read, get my finances in order, be a better person in whatever manner that takes. But, at some point, I'll fail in my standards of what each of those means and that will set me up for getting down on myself. I know me a wee bit too well.

I thought I could put up things I won't do. That way, I will have kept something. I resolve:

• not to rob a bank this year.
• not to drive my car on the sidewalk.
• not to pick my nose in public.
• not to swim to Michigan from Navy Pier.
• not to skydive off the Hancock Building.

But that sort of defeats the purpose of resolutions. So, I'm going to try to do the following:

• Read a book a month.
• Read a magazine a week.
• Write a friend a real letter once a week.
• Add one more fruit or vegetable to my daily diet.
• Pay off one major credit card this year and not use that card for the remainder of the year.
• Try, in one month, to pay for everything I might need or want, excepting gas, with cash.
• And, most importantly, not get down on myself when I fail to do one of the above.

The last one is going to be the hardest to keep.

Beverage: Assam

Deb