and never brought to mind

today i feel: rested
today i'm hearing: semisonic -- this will be my year
today i'm thinking: sleep is an excellent idea, even if it does make you lame

It's the new year! Happy New Year! I spent my New Year's Eve falling asleep to A Night in Casablanca. I was in bed and asleep by 21.30. I am a real cool cat. But that means I got about eleven hours of sleep and I feel pretty fantastic. Yay for sleep!

I was reading Parade yesterday (YES I DO READ PARADE! SHUT IT!) and came across an article by Ellen DeGeneres (or however you spell her name). I like Ellen. I find her amusing. She was writing about resolutions and the best way to write them so that you manage to keep them. But instead of writing mine in lemon juice so that I feel like a pirate, I'm going to continue my pseudo-tradition of posting them here. That way, I'll actually be able to find them. Which is more than I can say for the lemon juice one.

1. stay away from cigarettes forever (not that hard).
2. say the sh'ma yisrael twice a day.
3. become friends with the treadmill.
4. fess up to 'certain people' about 'certain things'.
5. be more patient with my mum.
6. make amends with a couple of people.
7. fix my german so it’s actually decent.
8. read more!
9. own play anal.
10. have some actual faith in myself.

So it's more than five. But I like lists of ten. They assure me that I'm not actually turning into Rob Fleming yet. ...Yet.

I was a silly panda and left my ManU jersey in Carbondale. I feel ashamed. This means that I have not been able to celebrate either Boxing Day or New Year's Day properly. BLAST!!! We are first in the league, though. Allow me to feel a wee bit of pride before Arsenal dashes it (shirtlifters).

...And now that I finish a paragraph that one person might understand maybe, let's move on!

Most of the children are headed back to their chosen universities tomorrow. I'm planning on ringing up Sneemus today to make sure she's okay and can actually get back to Chicago since most of Colorado is closed again. Thankfully, I got to see Liesl and ReAnne before they leave tomorrow. We went to the Olive Garden with AKraft the other night. It was full of adventures, I assure you. There's no way in hell I'll see Laurel before tomorrow, what with her being in Champaign and all. I suppose she'll just have to come find me when I'm up north next week. Mwahaha. I'm hoping to hang around with Christie today and Sarah and Bozarth sometime this week. I'll be giving Jessie Swiech a call tomorrow, probably, maybe including Hilary in that mix as well. Movie day? I think so.

I conned Mum into playing with my hair yesterday. I like it, I think. It's slowly but surely developing this red-headed complex, which makes me happy inside. I think I'm going to stick with brown for a while. It's growing on me more with every passing day. I think people treat me like I'm intelligent when I have darker hair. I like to think I'm intelligent, I really do. But it's hard to seem intelligent when you're flamboyantly blonde. ...Which I am. ...Just not as blonde as Stacy.

I suppose that I ought to go find some way to entertain myself and 'ring in the new year' or what have you. I'm hoping that this one will be a good year, at least better than a great deal of last year was. 2006 was all-right, I suppose. There was laughter, there were tears, there were a great deal of new experiences, as well as old experiences that I didn't want to really experience again. I feel like I'm a bit of a new person now than I was this time last year. I've grown up. Well, kind of. I will never stop being a total spazz, and that's the truth. But I think I've got a better grasp on who I am. That's a good place to start.

I hope all of you have a wonderful day and a joyous, peaceful new year. Be well, do good works, and keep in touch.