Holy crap, it's 2008!

The new year has once again arrived, and once again I am caught by surprise. Even though every year, January 1 tends to come on the same day. You know, the one right after December 31.

Same thing, every year. “What? How can it be 2000-whatever already?!”

New Years is not like Easter, which can be sneaky. The first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox? That’s sneaky. Even for those of us who read the almanac every single morning and make announcements nobody cares about (“Hey! Happy Epiphany Eve!!”), it’s sneaky.

But New Years is always January 1, which is always the day after December 31, which is easily calculated and hard to miss.

Having been caught flat-footed by the whole ‘now I need to put 2008 on my checks’ thing, you can imagine how far behind I am on such things as Resolutions.

Yeah.

I got nothin’.

Well. Actually, I’m lying. I have got a very short list of things. I’ve got the usual grousing about wanting to lose a little weight, although not for the usual reasons. I’m perfectly (or at least ‘mostly’) happy with how I look, but if I could get those last fifteen pounds off it might help my low back pain. Shoot, I’ve done everything but drink snake oil, I might as well try the one thing medically recommended for the condition. And by “last” I do mean “last” – I’ve already shaved 46 pounds since I realized I had a not-so-small problem back in 2002.

I’d like to do more charity knitting this year. I had a few good bursts last year, but found myself hopelessly sidetracked by other things. I’m thinking a “one for me, one for charity” method would be good. Also I’m going to be doing the knit-alongs and showers sponsored by the Knitting4Children group on Yahoo. This is a nice group of people, and I haven’t been nearly as active in the group as I’d like.

And, finally, I’d like to take on a Living Below Your Means challenge. That’s a whole post in and of itself; in a nutshell, I think I’d like to take the first nine months of the year and work my angles and exercise my self-restraint and see just how little money I can part with (and how much headway I can make on other goals) from now through the end of September. And then, I can relax on through the holidays – not go hog-wild and overspend and undo all the work I’ve done the first nine months, but not worry about eating on the cheap and how to create “charming” Christmas presents out of my dumpster-diving finds.

I’ll try to put together something a little more coherent on that whole thing later. For right now…well. Happy New Year, a little late and rather disjointedly. I’m looking forward to another year of getting to know y’all. I still maintain I’ve got the best reader-friends in the whole Internet, and I appreciate your support and your comments and the giggles and snorts and belly-laughs you give me throughout the year.

Slainte!!