Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all! It's a beautiful day in the Deep Red. I have a couple more days here and then I shall return to Crowded American City. My New Year's thoughts are simple. I do not feel about 2007 as I did about 2006. All in all it was an okay year, which is what I think I wanted and needed--some stability. That said, I am looking forward to a sparkling fresh new year.

My New Year's resolutions tend to be tongue-in-cheek (e.g. the wildly doomed "budget for cocaine" of the coming-of-age decade), and I tend to make "real" resolutions only on my birthday (e.g. the wildly successful "quit smoking" of 2005). I have one this year, and I am quite serious about it: light stretching. By this I do NOT mean figurative stretching of any kind, i.e. intellectual, spiritual, creative--not that I am opposed to any of these, but these are things I tend to do easily and greedily and therefore do not need to resolve to do. No, by "light stretching," I actually mean literal light stretching of each part of the body each day. And do not even suggest that this sounds suspiciously like yoga or some other kind of Fascist Stretching Regimen. Note I did not say I resolve to be a fascist hippie in 2008.

There are other big and important things that I plan and want to do in the '08, but this is my one and only resolution. As I somehow decided in the comment thread about leftovers below, I am also bringing back my motto of the dissertation-finishing year, "It is what it is," for the '08. This is hilarious in many ways, to be explained when I return to regular blogging, but I am also quite serious about it. Other things I must remember to blog about: the most vile 24-hour illness I have ever had in my life, which I am convinced almost killed me and which I will refer to as simply The Evil and about which rest assured I will only discuss in the most metaphorical of details; the oh so very emotional, so very dramatic family visit; and the blindingly dazzling super-fabulousness of Lenny Kravitz (I feel I might save this one for Crazy Medusa's Lounge).

Until then, the Chalupa and I wish you the happiest of happy new years!

(Medusa image by David Revoy)