Back in the Saddle.

And happy 2008, by the way. We've made it through those awkward days between Christmas and New Year's, when Christmas is over but the tree is still up, and it's not quite time for that "fresh start" that is January. I'm always a little sad those few days, especially the ones following a return from Idaho (the only snow around here is the picture on my computer's background). But then January hits.

When it is here, January is my favorite month of the year. Of course there is March (birthday, what else?) and October (leaves, crispness, pumpkins) and December itself (twinkle lights, carols in church, cozy fires), and through the excitement of the rest of the year I forget about January. But then it arrives, like a calm stillness, like a reprieve, like a calendar of empty spaces, like a pile of well-organized lists sitting next to a stack of rubbermaid containers and my labeler, it is the best thing that ever happened, all over again.

My last list of psuedo-resolutions went half-finished--for example, I am currently about 50 pages into To the Lighthouse, and I'm still pretty afraid of Virginia Woolf. And I think taking step class twice a week is sort of like learning to dance. And, okay, I didn't learn to make croissants. I blame that entirely on spending most of my summer moving. Instead, I made a wicked pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. However, we did go fly fishing--once--and Jason actually got a hand-made fly rod for Christmas, so who knows where that will lead us?

For this year, let's see...
* learn to like mushrooms (a tall order, esp. since neither Jason nor I like them and are therefore completely unmotivated, but we'll give it the ol' college try)
* finish my wedding album (happy third anniversary?)
* join a writing group (and yes, Dawn and I getting together once a month does count, even if we mostly just talk. but seriously, I want to write this year)
* organize the utility room (when I said those words in my head, I heard them in my mother's voice. I have become my mother. Happily, that is not a bad thing.)
* keep a book journal (and keep it for real. it can't be that hard, it's just a matter of, well, finding it)

I still want to make croissants, but since we are joining the fam in Hawaii in six weeks, Jason is threatening for us to go back on the South Beach Diet on February 1, so I am trying my darndest to eat well enough before then to avoid that type of misery for two weeks. Yikes!