Party Hats & the New Year

Hat
Originally uploaded by Martina.

What better picture for New Year's Eve than a party hat? The delightful thing about this hat is that it was made by a very talented someone I know. She recently had a birthday party, and each of her guests got to take home a similar piece of headgear (mine was peacocky and blue, but I had to preserve this one for posterity, because it was my 2nd favorite).

Her birthday party was really lovely. There was great food, a hat for every guest (each of whom was great company, I might add!), and a fun little gift bag for each attendee (even though the birthday girl had insisted on no presents for herself).

Coupled with Christmas that event made me realize that I really do need to attempt to be at least marginally social and "do more stuff", which has become one of my resolutions for the new year. It is sort of a sister resolution to Jen's more snazzily named "Just Say Yes!" campaign. I suppose I could call mine "More stuff in '06", but that would be awfully derivative of the "More stuff in '05" campaign, which really did fall kind of flat once the summer was over. Anyway, the '06 version is more nuanced in that it also involves the caveat that said stuff must be done with people I actually enjoy as I've been having some serious thoughts about the sorts of friends I have, which involves how and why I choose my friends, what we have in common, etc. (For any of you who've been around since my early 20's or before, don't worry, you're not under scrutiny.)

Anyway, I know that some people are adverse to actual "resolutions", but the truth is that the only problem I have with New Year's resolutions is that I don't think one should wait until the New Year. What if I realize in June that my nose hairs really need to be plucked (or braided), and I wait until January? Then I've wasted 7 months without an appropriate nose coiff.

While nasal coiffure is not among them, I do have many resolutions (though I prefer to think of them as plans, since some of them actually do involve steps and goal setting, which makes them seem more palpabable than "Oh yeah, I'm totally going to lose weight this year"):

- There is the lose weight/get in shape plan, for which I really DO have a plan. I know the diet I want to follow and have a basic gym schedule in mind, and once the weather is nicer, I want to integrate going on some hikes on the weekends. The trick really is going to be driving myself to stick to it for long enough to reach my considerable goal.

- There is the redecorate my bedroom plan, which is actually already in phase one (The Thinnening), which involves getting rid of crap that I don't need in preparation for the more fun Phase II of painting, putting down new carpet, which makes the way for Phase III (also known as The Roomening - correct me, if I'm wrong), which involves the ultra fun period of decorating.

- There is the finish the write something every day/finish the first draft of my Nano project by my birthday, which is actually the time of Persian New Year AND, this year, the Vernal Equinox, either of which lend themselves nicely to birthday festivities. Go spring!

- Lastly (well, probably not lastly since I am a bit of a fixer-upper and it's the last thing of which I can think at the moment), I really do want to continue to do more creative projects. This year I started my blog, started taking more pictures, re-embraced playing piano, and worked more on writing. In 2006, I'd like to continue on this road, because I think it's good for a person (especially when she has a lame job that could be filled by a lame, blind monkey).

So, there we have my thoughts for the new year. If I have time, perhaps I will recap some of the more fruitful things I did with the old, but if I don't, that's okay too, because 2006 is going to be the year of "It's all good!"