This Year, I Resolve To...

Happy New Year! Like many of you, I'm not sure where 2024 even went, nor can I remember most of the things that I did or accomplished, but I have a vague memory

of some bigger events including breaking up and getting back together with my boyfriend after a post-divorce crisis of commitment phobia that harkened back to my teenage years, driving 21 hours back and forth to visit my daughter in college that I considered enrolling there, listening to our beloved small-town "dad band" Deerswerver that I became both a groupie and a roadie, celebrating my mom's 80th and my 60th birthdays and wondering where all of those years have gone that I apparently am trying to recapture (see above!). I also traveled across the country and the world in a frantic effort to cross things off my "I need to do this before my hip finally goes out" bucket list and most recently, proudly watching my middle son graduate from college after surviving those awful years of post-pandemic angst (two down and one to go!).

Oh, and let's not forget the tumultuous Presidential campaign and election! But I will not comment on this event (no, no, never, never!) for fear of starting an all-out blog feedback war the likes of which Ocean Shores Chat has never seen! And whatever side of the political sandbox you want to play in, the fun is about to begin, right?! So let's just focus on what we can control in our own lives and not worry so much about what Melania's outfits represent to world order!

But enough about last year, because it's 2025, people! And this is my first post on my new platform which is, like me, a continual work in progress. And every year around this time, after the old-fashioned Christmas tree is disassembled and stuffed back on to the garage shelves in three pieces, I like to sit down with my coffee and write out my goals for the year. Some are lofty and hard to accomplish like, stop spending so much time scrolling through Facebook and TikTok, and some are more practical and easy like, stop spending so much time scrolling through Facebook and TikTok...

So please join me in review of my less private goals and feel free to use any or all as your own if you feel so inclined or just don't feel like getting off the couch for a pen and paper because you're in the middle of that cute dog snuggling with a chicken video!

OK, so here goes, my Top 2025 New Year's Resolutions:

1. I resolve to stop complaining about the price of gas, eggs and well, just about everything, when I am sitting in the hot tub or sauna with my fellow Americans at the community center, coffee shop, bar, in front of my house, WalMart or in The Dollar Tree, because they only raised their price of steak by $.25. Just stay out of that $5.00 section they just snuck in!

2. I resolve to stop my now out-of-control gambling habit of spinning the Temu roulette wheel so I can spend $200 to "save" $1,000 in order to decorate myself or my house in cheap "Chinese chic" and win a daily free item which somehow is always much smaller, flatter, pleatherier or more scratchy than the tiny picture that I can't see despite the reading glasses that take up half my face that I ordered from... you guessed it! And don't even get me started on those mysterious Farmland points!

3. I resolve to never, ever get sick again so that I don't have to try and make a doctor's appointment that's three months out, with yet another new doctor that I have to drive to another county for in order to explain, again, my entire medical history despite the novel-length entries in MyChart, or that results in me getting meds prescribed that I have to make ten phone calls to get renewed every month!

4. I resolve to never drink the 64 ounces of water required to live a healthy life before I make the drive from Ocean Shores to the Aberdeen since there are zero public restrooms you are allowed to use there unless you have to go so badly that you either brave the Walking Dead at Walmart or buy a $7 coffee at Starbucks to get their door code and well, the cycle just starts all over again! (OK, if you shop at WalMart, you know I'm kidding, right?!)

5. I resolve to not get annoyed when residents of my wonderful small-town community residents misspell simple words or use incorrect grammar when they rant, oops I mean post, on our well-intentioned, local Facebook chat groups to express their very important political opinions and/or angry social commentaries. Life here is not that expencive!

6. I resolve to not call our local dog-catcher/code-enforcer/guitar-player, singer-songwriter the next time I see and/or hear five dogs in a neighbor's backyard or running on the beach instead of the limit of three dogs and two cats and I definitely will not tell him if he is singing "Hotel California" off-key!

7. And finally, I resolve to take much better care of myself mentally and physically by eating more potato chips made out of chick peas and drinking more coffee made out of mushrooms until the price of real food goes down, walking everywhere until the price of gas goes down, spending less money on Temu and Amazon until I can learn to read dimensions correctly, and of course, I resolve to stop spending so much time scrolling through Facebook and TikTok so I have more time to do more healthy and important things like go to more Deerswerver shows and drink more wine (red, of course!) to get through the year, which, funnily enough, has NOT gone up in price; go figure!

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all your own healthy and inspired 2025!