Another new year has dawned and begun to pass me by. As always, I find myself rather busy and thus my readers have been left without my typical evaluation of my progress with my goals for the past year.

2008's GOALS AND MOTIVATIONS: RESOLUTIONS

1. Recognize my own worth.
2. Focus more on what is right with my world by making it better.
3. Dance more, falter less.
4. At the encouragement of many: learn to enunciate...
5. Bring out the Bella who is still hiding from the world.
6. Costume, quilt, and clothe my world some more.
7. Make the world a better place, one page at a time.
8. Learn to relax.
9. Acquire one of the admirable traits of Lilith Sternin Crane.
10. Accept my muse and allow others to admit how fabulous she is.

I think I did an okay job of keeping those resolutions this year. That may be because they are highly subjective and hard to measure. That is the joy of most new years resolutions, isn't it? And onward to the resolutions for this year...

STUPENDOUS RESOLUTIONS FOR THE YEAR 2009

1. Have less possessions by the end of the year (if I ever move again, I don't want to move forty boxes of fabric).
2. If people are lying to themselves, I resolve to walk away until the truth hits them.
3. Not let people have so much of my time.
4. Finish one of those novels that is waiting for an ending or a middle or a beginning.
5. Devote a little more time to the important things in life.
6. Not worry so much about hurting the feelings of people who want their feelings to be hurt.
7. Stop allowing my so-called friends to take advantage of my kindness.
8. Devote a little more time to being the overzealous religious zealot I am already accused of being.
9. Not neglect my adoring fans so much.
10. Make my house more me-friendly..

We'll see how all of this goes...

The good thing about living alone is that you get lots of chances to sit back and look inside. This can be both a blessing and a curse as you evaluate where you started, you have been, where you are, and where you are going. A friend of mine mentioned in an e-mail that some of the people in my life have been holding me back. I can't deny that. This doesn't mean that I resent them or their selfishness. It just means that I need to step back once more and be a little selfish myself.

I fail at this. Most of the time, my instinct to be nice gets the best of my need to be a little apart from the world around me for a bit. For instance, one of my neighbors is giving me the vibe that he fully expects my house to be open to him at all hours. Last night, I decided to call my mother. I needed my latest Morgan Freeman update, and she never disappoints in that department. After sharing with me that he has performed a cover of a Barenaked Ladies song, I shared with her the funny idea that someone might come to visit me while I had the appearance of being thrown up on by a bottle of Pepto Bismol. (Who doesn't remember my bright pink bell-bottoms?)

Shortly after this, someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find my neighbor standing there, looking hopeful. I inquired as to what he wanted, still holding my phone in hand.

"I just wanted to visit. Is that okay?"

"I'm talking to my mom on the phone."

Mom chimes in at this point, "Should I let you go?"

"Is it okay?" He repeated.

"It's my neighbor, mom. I'm talking to my mom."

At this point, I was pretty sure he wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. My mom was also intent on letting me go. Obviously, even she was oblivious to my annoyance of the insistent visitor. He came in, talked about his sweetie for a while, and within mere minutes had made a pitch to watch a movie. When the movie was over, he left. I failed to be surprised by this. I fail to be surprised by most things. I just hope he is wise enough to realize that this behavior will result in a verbal tongue-lashing if it continues. I feel within my rights. He even brushed off an e-mail I had sent, but that is another story.

In other events, my plans for the evening were snuffed out by worry about the snowfall. I already poomfed my car into a curb this morning on my way to feed man's best friend. I didn't want to risk it again on a longer drive on more populated roads. So I have been spending the evening in the pursuit of one of the things I was best known for in school--reading a book at record speed. I won't finish it tonight, but I have made a nice dent in it. Yummy! Now I just have to make a dent in my own novels....

Among my friends, I have those who are the best and those who are the worst. The worst are those who never notice if I seem a little sick, but expect my sympathy for every sniffle. Among the best are the ones who could probably use a nice dose of morphine for their pain, but still have time to listen to me complain that I lost my long envelopes when I moved. The worst are those who treat me like crap and/or get angry at me because I still try to be a good friend. The best give me a comfy couch to plop down on despite suspicions that I have knowledge about their own upturned furniture.

Today hasn't been too incredibly exciting. The software upgrades finally finished at work, so I was able to breeze through some authority updates. I then proceeded to delete records that never should have been dropped into the system in the first place. Some days, I find my job very illogical, but that is what we in the library call "job security". Of course, in my excitement to get home and claim my couch, I forgot to check out the nine books I decided looked interesting when the system was down this week. Ah, something to look forward to for next week.

The other events of the day included receiving a million texts. I am now in charge of creating a veiled tiara for a bachelorette party. It is my deepest hope that this party will not involve a stripper like the last one for which I was a bridesmaid. I also received a call from the bride in that wedding today. She updated me on how her son is doing and all the fun that is parenting with more advice than you needed or wanted. And the rest of my evening? I am devoting it to reading, snuggling, and maybe cleaning. I need a vacation...Soon...Soon.

I really should be writing letters. In the hassle of moving, I have neglected my many pen-pals. One of them even wrote me a letter asking if I wanted to breakup. I should write letters not only to keep them from feeling that way but also to inform them that they are now writing to me in a new location.

So what am I doing instead? Obviously, I am updating my few faithful readers on what has been keeping me too busy to breathe lately. First, I have developed this obnoxious pain in my shoulder. It was so bad, I even asked a friend to come help me make sure that it wasn't dislocated. Between we two non-doctors, we decided it wasn't dislocated. It does feel a little better today despite the fact that it keeps seeming to pop out a little. Popping it back into place results in me whining like a baby, but I feel I am entitled, and I have yet to behave this way in front of people, so all is well.

Second, I have become a Monday Mormon Mommy again. I really think my cats are telling people at church that I am the best mom ever. Though I doubt they felt that way yesterday when I gave them dinner twenty minutes late. I was having another of my "too busy for words" days and was trying to get in a little FB fairy gardening between Cierra's baptism and the berry wonderful wedding reception. Seriously, my friend Maggie is a fabulous cook, as attested to by my very full tummy last night. Anyway, back to how being such a mom can make breathing seem like too much work.

As the new semester is starting, we want to get as many people as possible to come to FHE before they get sucked in by classes and homework. This means that I had to update my e-mail list to make sure I was inviting everyone, make some cookies, reassure myself that other people had the lesson and games, and worry endlessly that I am forgetting something. As I type, cookies are in the oven, cookies are cooling on racks, cookies are waiting to go in the oven, and a cake is cooling on the stuff. I wish I had more counter space so this would not be the case, but patience will win out with that desire.

Anyway, my last batch of cookies just went in the oven, so I shall cut short my ramblings to write some letters and take a nap. I am going to need it since my duties as a good person are not yet over for the day...

It's been a long time since I bothered to update my readers. I blame this on an entirely overbooked schedule and about three and a half days away from the internet this past weekend. Surprisingly, it was a great if not confusing weekend. I recently made a new friend, as we wanted to get to know each other better without having to sit with a phone pressed to our ears, I agreed to go visit him for MLK weekend. He promised to introduce me to bison burgers and teach me about hockey. That's right, my obsession with penguins now has a different slant.

Between the three of us, I am sure the cats and I have earned the title of neighborhood busybody. The venetian blinds are always in motion. If Ziggy is not peeking out in the hopes of finding someone to curse at, Rodney is checking again for green space, or I am shifting the blinds back into place so my neighbors can't watch me randomly trying on pants in the living room. I am prone to doing this as I fix them to make them hobbit length. I have wonderful legs. They just aren't as long as those "normal" designers think they should be. I am currently wearing pants that fit me correctly, however. My adopted mommy and aunt would be so proud.