I'm starting a new life and I want running to be a big part of it.

It's one of our favorite movie lines and you get a big gold star if you know who said it. It's Albert Brooks talking to a sales clerk in a sporting goods store. The sales clerk regards him not only as an easy mark, but as a "resolutionary" worthy of complete disdain. Turns out he is correct on both accounts.

Sometimes movie lines make it into your personal lexicon and this is one that has stuck at our house. It can apply in so many useful ways to a variety of situations. I think it lends itself particularly well to a New Year blog post. For instance:

I'm starting a new life and I want Greek Mythology to be a big part of it.



One of the things I love about my husband is that he sometimes says things like, "Lately I've been thinking I really ought to polish up my Greek Mythology skills." And who shouldn't? It's the foundation of so much of western culture, and I definitely am no longer smarter than a fifth grader in this area. So we are going to both read up in the new year, which will make for some really smart-sounding dinner conversations, won't it? Soon I'll be casually dropping lines like "Doesn't that remind you of the story of Iphigenia among the Taurians?" all over my blog. Resolved.

I'm starting a new life and I want Goodwill to be a big part of it.

By which I mean Goodwill Industries, not the peace-on-earth kind, although if we could resolve to find a little more of that it would be much appreciated, as well. If I started hauling garbage bags of accumulated life-detritus out of my closets today, I might just finish in time to get to my New Year's Eve party next year. We could even narrow it down to just shedding a few of the craft supplies lurking around from my 20 years of adventures in creativity. More closet space. Resolved.

I'm starting a new life and I want New Mexico to be a big part of it.


Seriously. I'm tired of checking the Albuquerque weather forecast every day from my kitchen in Minnesota. I want to just poke my nose outside and know that it's sunny. again. More visits to
The Land of Enchantment in 2009. Resolved.

I'm starting a new life and I want better news to be a big part of it.



Now I mean it, newspaper people, let's start getting some headlines we can use! I think 2009 holds a twinge of magical promise somehow, an optimistic glimmer I've not sensed in some time. Let's see it through and make some better news. If we let them keep telling us the same old stories, the news-terrorists win. No more need to yell when I read the newspaper or watch TV, okay? Resolved.

I'm starting a new life and I want budgeting to be a big part of it.

But I don't want to give up eating out. Or going to movies. Or buying really beautiful plant-dyed wools. And I'd like a great new pair of eyeglasses, something really funky and really me for a change. And remember that awesome Mazda cx7 we test drove last summer . . .? A leaner budget. Not-quite-resolved-but-trying-to-become-so.

And of course no New Year blog would be complete without this:

I'm starting a new life and I want running to be a big part of it.

Wait -- I already do run, almost every day. But I guess I'm not running enough to offset some of my other behaviors. Oh well, nothing I can do about that. . . . what? There is? Rats. Okay -- eat less yummy stuff in 2009. Or just don't always eat everything I want when I want it. Resolved.

I'm starting a new life and I want ideas to be a big part of it.



That's right, I'm entertaining a few new ones that I hope are going to result in a kind of art that can be more accessible to people who don't have a lot of money to spend on wool pictures. Of course I'll continue stitching, I just can't stitch fast enough to make all the pictures and say all the things I'd like. So there's a bit of a new direction brewing. Maybe "thinkworks." I'm still percolating so stay tuned.



Make something -- new -- in 2009. Resolved.

Stop looking at me like the sales clerk looked at Albert Brooks. I'm serious. I'm not just jumping on the blog-resolutions-bandwagon. I can do it. See? I've already bought the mythology book. And an enormous box of garbage bags from Sam's Club. . . and I've almost finished all the Christmas cookies in the freezer. They'll be gone by the end of the week.