Twenty-Fourteen - Here We are!

2014!  Can you believe that?  Even in the year 1999, I couldn't imagine how we would pronounce these 2000 years.  Would we say......Twenty-Fourteen, Two Thousand and Fourteen???????  Nonetheless, here we are in the year 2014!  Twenty-Fourteen.  And not one person is wearing the Jetson costume I envisioned back in the 60s.  Remember that cartoon, the Jetson's?  Grandpa Dawkins always watched it. 

The new year began sometime around midnight last night, right before the fireworks around my neighborhood.  Now it is time for the resolutions.  I never have kept a resolution.  Have you?  But in the spirit of the new year, I am going to spell out a few things I am going to try.  Notice I said going to try.  In no particular order of importance (OKAY, nothing I write is ever important), I am going to try to:

1.  be a nice person.  This is something I have tried to do all my life, but the year I retired I wanted to make a point of being nicer.  I never want to be one of those cranky seniors I often see.  You know what?  Life is much easier this way.  Clerks CAN be sweet if you are sweet to them first.

2.  eat more healthily.  Notice I did not say loose weight, but just eat more vegetables and fruits.  I have decided that I look pretty good for my age so now I am in that maintenance stage.  I wear rose colored glasses.   

3.  be a more fun Nana.  I am going to put on a clown suit and blow up balloons.  Just kidding!  My kids think I am nuts anyway so I won't have to go crazy here.

4.  not be on the computer, iPad, or iPhone as much as I was in 2013.  I am realizing that looking fourteen times a day at my email account may not be healthy. 

5.  be a comfort to a special friend who needs me.  Sometimes I feel very overwhelmed as to how to help someone when they need comfort.  I don't know what to say or what to do.  A few day ago, I had an epiphany.  If I can distract someone from their constant pain or sickness, then I need to do that....be with them for a period of time.  The pain will not be lessened nor the sickness gone, but maybe they can be distracted from them for a little while.  

6.  give myself manicures more often.  I love beautiful nail polish and if not now, when AM I going to try purple or maybe turquoise?

7.  try a new recipe every couple of weeks.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not going to try every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook, but when I see something interesting I am going to turn on the heat.

8.  stress less.  So many things are out of my control or none of my business or the horse is already out of the barn.  I hope to let these things go.  God just has to be in control. 

9.  go to more movies.  I love to go to the movie theater.  Love it!  So why don't we go more often?

10.  walk a little bit.  I bet you thought I was not going to include exercise at all.  Here it is, exercise or walk or perhaps just get up once in a while.

So there are ten things I am going to try.  Nothing life altering, nothing that will be much of an exertion on my part.......well maybe the walking. 

Twenty-Fourteen - here we are.

Remember when there were only four or five bowl games and they were all played on either New Years Eve or New Years Day?  Rose, Sugar, Cotton, and Orange bowls were all I remember back in the day.  Now we have four or five a day for ten days. 

Memory:  I remember going to one of my aunt's house for New Years Day every year as a child.  We'd watch the bowl games together.  One particular time, we were at Aunt Wilma's in Shawnee.  She had French Onion Dip and I ate so much that I got sick and didn't eat French Onion dip for at least 20 years after that.  Now I love it again.

I love you.