Tag Archives: resolutions

9 January, 2012  |   3 Comments

2011 Recap, 2012 Resolvations

I thought my one word story for 2011 was erosion.
I thought I eroded last year.
Except I didn’t.

All the interesting and sharp and witty and fun and sexy parts of me felt worn away.

I settled into
[bad] a boring old mom,
[worse] a blogger,
[awful] a liability,
[terrifying] only needed by my friends and family for what I could do for them.

Eroded.

I felt that way most of the year, a year through which I felt the continual lap lapping away at who I was before (fun! interesting! creative!) until I became (quite literally!) oval.

But that’s not really the story.

Look closer and my 2011 story was about sharpening points,
drawing lines,
and being a little more unlikeable
because I cannot be all things to everyone in all ways always.

Barbed

This is what happens in one’s mid-thirties.
This is what being a parent looks like.
This is how work gets done.

We sharpen.
We say, “This is what I am not.”

2012 will be pokier. Promise.

Recap below.

Husband
Handsome Jim.
Awesome date nights, sitter fell ill, lost date nights.
Part-time work, full time Dad. Full-time work, part-time Mom.
Navigating the treacherous 10 year mark in our marriage. Successfully, I believe.

Kids
Holiday Program 2011
Potty training, exorbitant day care bills, bike riding, toy marketing victims, Dottie’s seizure, time outs, birthday parties, Christmas, waking tangled with little girl limbs and almond milk breath. The girls define us now. We are us.

Sailor Dottie

Events
The Foodbuzz Ladies
Lots of events in 2011. SXSW, Mom 2.0, EVO, Mighty Summit, Jennifer Garner and Electrolux, the Food Buzz Festival. Let’s talk!

JLaw, LMay

Blog
Fancy Foxy Ladies
Launch HJEntertains.com, try it out, pause HJEntertains.com, figure out my voice and what this blog is about and what I want this to be and who I am and what the hell? Let’s bring back Poetry Friday.

Parties
First stop on tonight's progressive party. Bo Ssam, what?
Cheesewhizzes, weekly bocce, a progressive feast, dead celebrity party, huge community rummage sales, lobster feed, crab feed, a huge bocce chili cookoff, May day baskets, dinner parties, porch parties, Dottie’s birthday party, Nora Lea’s birthday party, a significant Thanksgiving, A holiday cocktail party for the ages, Christmas dinner, decide that hangovers are only worth it if there is child care the next day. Quit drinking for a while. It suits me.

Gnawr.

Family
Bay Beach Awesome
Lots of visits from grandparents, visiting family this summer, Uncle Joe visits, Auntie Clare sleepovers. Working on forgiveness. For me. From me.

2 year old me

Work
Ladeez
Wrote for Serious Eats, American Express OPEN Forum, Intel’s MyLifeScoop and Style United. Stressed more about work this year than ever — dwindling opportunities and skills were buoyed by this opportunity to support this blogging thing that’s come farther than I ever thought it would. Shutter Maplevine after 5 successful years to enjoy the fruits of full-time employment. I love my job so gosh darn hard, you have absolutely no idea. Yes, I have a 2 hour commute and yes, it’s worth every last drop of it.

Child, you are not sleeping with your shoes on.

That sure doesn’t look like erosion.
(Even though it felt like it.)

2012. All about the story.

Even though we’re all a part of the same thing, you are me, I am you, dog is me, we are dog, God is dog, The story keeps us separate.

The story is it.
The story is what I can leave.
And I want to leave a good one.

I want to tell better stories.
More stories.
Pricklier and pokier stories.
Stories I want my girls to know.
Stories that might help you get over that hump.

Thanks 2011 for the perceived eroding but actual sharpening.
I appreciate it.

Let’s get sharp.

2 January, 2009  |   4 Comments

Resolvations 2009

I love this time of year. Like Spring, a fresh school year and my birthday, there’s that feeling of new beginnings.

There’s the feeling that your life can change toward perfection
if only you change it.

Last year was a biggie.
Without drugs, I gave birth to a baby.

A totally chill baby.

I mean I worked too. I launched roughly 20 new web sites.
I completed a series of posters.
I paid off my credit cards.
I suffered a miserable sleep-deprived breakdown.

We threw many, many parties.
We brought our bocce team to the playoffs.
We also mastered breastfeeding, sleep scheduling and making falafel.

During our fifth (FIFTH) year of marriage, James and I grew even closer.
Upon my sister’s moving back from Australia, she and I became even closer.
My mom and I couldn’t be any closer without it being a little strange.
I met new friends in town and new cool clients.

I’m hoping to do a few things during 2009:
Make new friends.
Make more time for existing friends.

Yeah, that’s about it.

I have so many projects ahead of me, so much opportunity, I get a little overwhelmed.

Two thousand nine is going to be great, I can feel it.