December, 2009:

Hello! And welcome to the This Time I Really Mean It! campaign of 2010.

Do we humans make New Year’s resolutions because we aren’t perfect and should strive to be better people? Or do we make them because we’re pathetic individuals with low self-esteem who think we’re never good enough and therefore need a list of Required Improvements to be considered acceptable? I mean, what’s the point of making resolutions if 95% of them are never kept?

I know, I know, it’s not the point that we don’t keep them, it’s that we TRY.

So, in the spirit of wasting time to pursue unattainable greatness, I give you my New Year’s Resolutions of 2010. And this time….I really mean it!

1.  I started a novel and finished the first draft a couple of years ago. It would be nice if a revised version would see the light of day in 2010.

2.  I will let things go more often when people are in a foul mood, spreading hate and trying to take me down with them. I will not take their lashing out personally.

3.  Like just a couple of days ago, I’m in the grocery store parking lot, letting a pedestrian cross in front of me and this other driver who is off to the side and wants to pull out of his parking spot by driving forward instead of backing out, starts yelling and flailing his arms at me to get out of his way so he can do his somewhat illegal maneuver. What the hell is that about?

4.  And then there are the emotional terrorists (aka assholes). You can’t let them get to you, either. You can’t teach a jerk a lesson. That’s just fantasy thinking. You shouldn’t get into a fight that you can’t win.

5.  And by fight, I don’t mean physical fight, I mean a verbal one. Try telling the rude moron behind you in the movie theatre to get off the phone or take it outside. He will only kick your seat for the next ninety minutes and walk away smiling while you fume about it for three days. The emotional terrorist has won and you’ve sprouted five more gray hairs from the stress.

6. I would like to be able to accept the fact that life is not fair. The problem is, I was raised to believe that life is fair. I was raised to believe that people are rewarded based on merit. And that bad behavior is punished. This was before I knew about politics. And reality television. And financial bailouts.   

7. I mean, why should I be responsible while others are being enabled for their lack of responsibility? Man, it’s a good thing this is a humor blog because I could go on all day about this.

8. And then I would get all riled up and upset and hate people and their selfishness and their narrow-mindedness and their sense of entitlement and their inadequate upbringing and how we should just do away with them.

9. You see how I can’t let go of these things? I resolve to let go of these things in the next year. Just as soon as my eye stops twitching.

10. That, and finish my novel.

What about you? Got resolutions? If you have a blog post about it, or if you’re inspired to write one, add the URL of that specific post to the Linky widget below. And then go and read some other posts in the list.

We’ll be here all week taking submissions. Feel free to grab a campaign button and tell your friends about it.

And here’s a bonus! You can not only link up here, but you can also link up over at Mama’s Losin’ It when she hosts her link up day on Thursday, New Year’s Eve. 

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