New Year's Evolutions

I admitted in a comment on Elizabeth's post that I have not yet set any New Year's Resolutions. It's true. I just today finally bought a new planner for '09! (Speaking of '09, are we ever going to decide as a human race what to call these last 9 years? The Zeroes? I like the Oughts. Makes me feel all old-timey.) I'm a little behind the times.

While I haven't set any specific resolutions, I have decided on a new motto for the year. Or maybe it's not so much a motto as a way of life. I've decided that this year I'm going to take risks. Not like Investing-In-A-Pyramid-Scheme-type risks, but Do-Things-I've-Always-Wanted-To-Do-type risks.

Here are some examples of some things I've always wanted to do...or at least have wanted to do for a few weeks or so:

• Travel to/through Europe


• Visit my friends who live in New York City and Boston


• Sell some (more) paintings


• Meet a good-looking guy on top of the Empire State Building (it doesn't necessarily have to be on Valentines Day...that'd just be cool)


• Take a road trip through the middle part of the country with someone fun


• Marry a millionaire


• Get a full-time job (if the previous bullet doesn't work out)


• Get health insurance (which can be achieved through either of the precious two bullets)


• Buy a really cool old house on a few acres of land


• Raise chickens (which I'd need the house and the land for)

...To name a few. Those aren't really resolutions so much as they're things I'd like to do. With most of them (with the exception of the health insurance one), I'd need to take somewhat of a risk to achieve each goal.

Ellen Degeneres, in her book My Point...And I Do Have One, talks about being bored and realizing that she needed a hobby. Her description of how she felt when she realized that reminds me of how I feel about my life sometimes:

"It's like I'm sitting in a car but the engine is idling. I'm not even on the road - just off to the side. I see the others swoosh by me. I can recognize the shapes of the cars but not the direction they're going. I'm alone, all alone in a car on the side of the road."

I don't need any more hobbies, I've certainly got enough of those, but I do need to put my car in drive and get off the side of the road! I'm going to take risks, by golly, and be the blurr the others see passing them by! There's a great song from "Hello, Dolly" (that sadly was not featured in "Wall-E") that I've always liked called "Before the Parade Passes By." Here is one of my favorite verses:

Before the parade passes by
I've gotta go and taste Saturday's high life
Before the parade passes by
I've gotta get some life back into my life
I'm ready to move out in front
I've had enough of just passing by life
With the rest of them
With the best of them
I can hold my head up high
For I've got a goal again
I've got a drive again
I wanna feel my heart coming alive again
Before the parade passes by

So my friends, if you see a blurr passing you by, and that blurr is in a new charcoal gray car (one goal achieved!!), that's me. Grab on if you can, because I'm havin' me some good times this year. 2009, here I come!! Or, as Ellen said when she found her new hobby, "I will Iditarod and I will win."