Go for the Gusto in 2018!

Have you made any?
You know...resolutions?
Did you follow through with last year's resolutions? Do you remember what they were? I don't remember mine.
But, that won't stop me from taking stock of the year and plunging into 2018 with gumption and vigor. I am an optimist. And a dreamer.

Sometimes I get caught up in an idea of the direction I want my life to turn, then remember I'm not 30 anymore. Or 40. Or 50.
 I can't take up a new career that will take years and years to learn and establish. I can't say "Writing for TV looks super interesting! I'm going to take that up!"

Or can I?

Seeing an offered course on January 11th on TV script writing, I thought about signing up, then asked myself why. Am I going to move to LA and write for TV?
Nope.
However, the adventurous side of me that likes to learn new skills wants to take on this challenge of learning to write TV scripts.
It's somewhere fun to go while I procrastinate about finishing my latest novel. And, while I wait for the film company who optioned my book series to be ready to start developing the first movie. I'm a producer on the movie and I really want to get started but sometimes I get ahead of myself and everyone else in enthusiasm and ideas, necessitating a spin around to find something to take on my excitement--channel that enthusiasm into something else until we start talking pre-production. Maybe I should take up screen writing, not TV writing, but the future seems to be in TV and short episodic entertainment, not feature films. Smaller screens, shorter scripts is what Hollywood says.

So, for my 2018 resolution, I vow to dive in to wherever life takes me, keep up the excitement, learn new skills, and not do any more of that self talk that I'm too old to do this or that because I need to start thinking about winding down soon.
I will not wind down.
Resistance is not futile.

Happy New Year Everyone! Go for the Gusto!

New Year's Resolution 2015

I am easily discombobulated. I can be thrown off track with the flick of a notion. If I have too many things going on in my life, I feel scattered, disorganized. I've always been this way and even as a child endeavored to keep life simple. The calendar of events that exists in my imagination must be kept relatively clear. I don't like too many events, appointments, commitments, or I feel spread too thin.
The clutter in my house is a daily reminder that we have too much stuff. I've let my simple life get out of hand. The garage is full of knick knacks that my realtor husband uses for his work. All the bedrooms are chock full of clothes, books, reminders of life events. When I try to thin out our belongings my sentimental husband who grew up with very little steps in. He likes all the stuff. It reminds him of happy times and he's hesitant to let anything go. We still have the crib and our youngest is almost 13.
In talking to my sister on the phone yesterday she mentioned that her house is immaculate because she needs to keep it that way to feel organised, in control. So many things are beyond our control but a clean house is not. I've dropped the ball on this one. My house is not only cluttered but could use a team of house cleaners with mops, disinfectant, spot remover, and scads of garbage bags for the stuff we've accumulated. I recently posted a meme on Facebook that said I cleaned my house but then remembered we still live here.

We have two dogs, each 65-70 pounds who play and romp outside in our backyard. Trouble is that our backyard has very poor drainage and is now a field of muddy water in the Seattle winter rains. Although I built a bridge-like path across the backyard to higher dry ground, the dogs prefer to truck through the mud and then come inside with dirty paws. If the kids let them in, there are muddy prints everywhere. Such is life. What's that saying about the sign of a busy home is a messy house? Or is that a happy home? I worry that I'm paving the way for my children to be slobs. At least their future spouses will not be stressed to keep a tidy house. My son once commented on a friend's gorgeously immaculate house by saying it looked like no one lived there. Ha!


We live in our house. A little too much. As I type this the dogs are cavorting upstairs, barking and waking up the rest of the family with their damp feet pounding on the dirty carpet. The dishes lay waiting from yesterday, presents need to be put away from Christmas, laundry sits in three tubs at the top of the stairs and happy children sleep, unaware that their friends' homes are more organized and tidy because their mothers can keep their minds' thoughts categorized. I cannot. But the good news is that my family gave me a smart phone for Christmas and I now have a personal assistant to help me. Her name is Cortana.
And so, my New Year's Resolution for 2015 is to get rid of at least one third of our junk around the house, pare down, get lighter, sell things we don't use, give away the rest. I know that was last year's resolution and I did a bit but this is the year to get myself organized and in order to do that I need to be managing less stuff. Note to Cortana: Remind me in February, June and September to purge the house of unnecessary things. And remind me in March, July and October that I'm doing a great job.
Here's to ridding one mother of discombobulation! Welcome 2015 - the year of less stuff.

Resolutions - Wine and Big Mouth

Have you made any resolutions for 2014? By now (11a.m. on the 1st,) you probably still haven't broken any.
I have two resolutions. One might be broken at this point but my promise to not drink any alcohol in January is still holding firm. You're probably wondering if that was a hard one for me to keep and maybe even feeling badly if it isn't. More on that in a bit. The resolution that is the tricky one for me is to keep my big mouth shut. So now I'm blogging which is like not keeping one's big mouth shut, isn't it?
I resolve to try to think before I speak in 2014, attempt to think ahead, see the consequences, even question my motives for speaking out. Like my mother, I have what is called a big mouth.

Not in physical size, but in its ability to open quickly and blurt out stuff I later think is inappropriate. Example: I was recently at a girls' Christmas party at an elegant house, hosted by a wonderful neighbor and as we sat around in a circle during the white elephant gift exchange, my gorgeous friend, let's call her Jen, told how she met one of our cherished friends who was on the couch beside us. No sooner had Jen finished telling the story, than I had to silence the room to say how I met that same friend, telling everyone in my words basically that I'd known her longer and loved her too. Luckily the room did not go silent and no one looked horrifyingly at me but when I remembered the lovely party the next day, I wondered why I did that. I love both these women. LOVE!

I have a huge need to be noticed, I guess. And admired. (Thus the first career as a singer in a band.)This is all I can think of as I wrack my brain to analyze why that mouth opens and strange stuff comes out. I am the baby of my family which isn't saying much because there are only two children in the thing, but I am the baby of all the cousins too and maybe I have some deep seeded need to be noticed, recognized as worthy. I do remember being left out of things the older cousins enjoyed. And being thought of a the baby. Maybe that's where this big need to be noticed comes from.
 I've been awake for several hours in this year already, have posted on three separate Facebook sites, sent a few emails and may possibly have pissed off someone at this point. I don't know when I'm doing it. But I tried to go easy.
In 2014, I'm going to think of what I want to say before I say it, especially at parties, groupings, times when my need to be noticed is at its ugly peak. I'm going to try to be more of a listener, sideline gal, supporting actor, instead of clamoring to be the lead.
Part of what might help realize its fruition is the experiment to not drink in January 2014. Not that I have a wild social calendar this month but I suspect a few glasses of wine only feeds my need and most of my regrettable moments come after a drink or two.
The night of my faux pas at the White Elephant party, I'd had two or three glasses of wine, but in my defense, I remember bragging and promoting my books to a group of women BEFORE I'd even had a drink that night. Then it probably got worse. See how these two habits feed each other? Perhaps a third resolution is in order: To promote less, in the company of friends and neighbors. BUT in all fairness, people asked how my book sales are going! The fact that I went on so long was the problem. SHUT UP Kim! Someone should have whispered that nicely in my ear, I suppose.
So, it's my belief that if I don't drink, I might beat that problem at its own game. Also, I want to just lay off the booze for a bit. The Xmas season has seen me have a few drinks almost every night. I often start with a beer at 5 ish, then pour a glass of wine at 6 (I put ice cubes in it to make it last longer). I love holding a long stemmed wine goblet in my hand, carrying it around the house, sipping slowly. Just the act of this is heady. Tonight I'll be doing this with de-caf or lemonade.
After my glass of white wine I sometimes have another but not always. This might not seem like much to real drinkers but it seems like a lot to me. I just started drinking socially about fifteen years ago at the millennium. Before that I'd have maybe a few drinks in a year. Thing is, I don't want to be dependent on the evening drink. No thank you. And I want to try to get rid of this squishy middle that beer has been kind enough to make on my body. If it is the beer and not my blatant lack of exercise, love of cheese! and distaste of doing much more than walking my dogs.

And so, this is my statement to the world. January will be alcohol free for me and hopefully, I will not piss off my friends and neighbors with braggy, loud-mouth utterings. And will finish my second book in The Dream Jumper Series- THE DREAM JUMPER'S SECRET (Dammit, I just tried to promote!)

To be continued...