Auld Lang Syne

Okay, so, I started this before New Years, just KNOWING I’d have it posted before 2010 became a reality. No so much.

So here we are -- New’s Year’s Resolutions, new diets, cleaning up the Christmas decorations. Before I look to the new year, I think I’d like to list, in no particular order, my top random thoughts at this point in time. Some are discoveries about myself, some are questions that remain unanswered, some things are news items that just stayed with me.

1. The year started off with a bang, as President Barack Obama was sworn in while, literally, the entire world watched (and gave him a Nobel Prize for his efforts). This year has worn on him, but I hope he woke up on 1/1/10 as optimistic as he was 1/21/2009. There's still a lot of work to be done. And I'm glad he's still hot. (ha-cha-cha!)
2. Other staggering news - I think the 80's officially ended its run as the greediest decade, courtesy of Bernie Madoff. Ponzi schemes, bank bailouts, staggering bonuses...I think we all gripped our wallets a little tighter, and I *tried* to stop griping about my job ~ after all, I have one. However, I didn't completely stop griping...people *are* nuts, and spending 8 hours daily with nutty people (and not always the good crazy, either) entitles one to a pout every now and again.
3. I kinda love gadgets. People have made references to my gadgetry before; I mostly ignored it because I am a book lover, and lovers of books are not lovers are technology. Or so I thought. In 2009, I replaced my PC with a Mac, I extolled the virtues of an external 1 terabyte hard drive, I bought my third iPod, and asked Walter for a charging station for Christmas. Our electric bill is probably going to be 10 million dollars. But I don’t own a kindle. Book lovers don’t buy those.
4. My friend Becky says that the warranty on your body expires at 40, but that the five preceding years give you a preview. OH EM GEE what a true statement. And if you let your metabolism peter out, it is hell restarting that monkey-freaky. It tops my list for 2010, as I said I was through dieting on May 30, 2010. I’ll let you know how it goes. I kind of feel like everything I need to know about fitness I learned in 8th or 9th grade: an object at rest stays at rest; an object in motion stays in motion. I’m going for the latter this year.
5. But my body wasn't always at rest: tap class is AWESOME! I can't explain it, but somehow in that class I feel...free.
6. I fear that my inability to let go of being great someday is a sign of immaturity.
7. Of all the celebrity deaths that happened in 2009, Michael Jackson and Bea Arthur still stay with me. Yeah yeah, B-Art was 100, but seriously? True entertainers are quickly becoming a thing of the past, and that makes me sad. Part of the reasons that I love watching the Golden Girls so much is that each of those women could sing, act, and dance. Nowadays it seems like borderline talent in one area makes agents assume greatness in all. It’s a painful reminder to me that I am not the target age for pop culture. And speaking of that...
8. I’m DONE with celebutants and reality television (except for, of course, American Idol and the Amazing Race). I mean seriously, why are we all watching people exactly like us do stupid sh!t? We’ve taken the 15 minutes of fame bit just too damned far. So, Kim, Khloe, and that other one, Spencer, Heidi, Megan, Lauren, and all the rest of you: you ARE the weakest link! Good bye! Quit peppering my US Magazine with your being.
9. Along those same lines, I’m done with media whores too. Yeah, I called them that. Octo-Mom, Jon, Kate, the party crashing Salawi’s...it’s ENOUGH. People want to be in the news for being outlandish, for keeping the public’s attention, and it’s all so boring. It’s as if these people have become toddlers again and think that negative attention is still attention. At some point, our society started responding to people being “real”, calling them refreshing, daring them to push the envelope. I personally think we need to reintroduce something very simple, and long forgotten into our lives: shame. People roll their eyes at the “s” word, and say tsk tsk for using it, but really! Jon and Kate should be ASHAMED of airing their dirty laundy in public, making their lives a You Tube spectacle for their children. Balloon Boys parents should be ASHAMED of letting an entire state take part in a wild goose chase. Octo-Mom...well, you get my point.
10. I read a lot of good books this year, and plan to read more in 2010. A couple of titles stay with me, but Date Lab in the Washington Post Magazine is among the most riveting reading. I think I like to read about people trying to make a connection; after all, I've deduced that's what most of life is about, finding, keeping, maintaining connections. With friends, family, loved ones. This is the reason I think Facebook is crazy popular ~ the cyber-knowledge that you're not alone.
11. I shall remember 2009 as the year where I didn't watch that much television. I store a LOT on DVR, but don't get around to watching most of it. I would love to tell you it's because I'm giving up television for more aesthetic pursuits, but really? I felt, moreso than ever before, that I ran out of time every single day. Here's hoping that doesn't happen in 2010. Of course, American Idol is premiering on January 12, 2010, and I'm already planning for this.
12. Michael Jordan was inducted in to NBA Hall of Fame this year, first ballot. That was not surprising. What was surprising is that he took his acceptance speech as his opportunity to show how embarrassingly small the biggest man to ever hold a basketball is. His speech was filled with vitriol, and he invited any person who ever doubted his greatness to the ceremony for the sole purpose of rubbing their nose in it. Michael Jordan is being eaten alive by his own obsolescence, even daring to hint at a comeback. It’s no surprise now to hear people comparing Mike to Kobe, as Jordan in his post-basketball years is seemingly very ordinary, and not very likable. Please Mike, go do some charity to wash this bitter taste out of everyone’s mouth. I realize some of you out there will say that Jordan’s always been a bit of an [edited, rhymes with glass bowl], but when you have Chicago Bulls fans saying it, it’s time for an intervention. Oh, that’s right, Jordan doesn’t have friends, merely fans.
13. Along those sports lines...the New York Yankees. Twenty-seven. More than any other sports franchise ever. And, for those who missed it, the Yankees played like they loved baseball, which made me love baseball all the more. Twenty-seven!
14. Is there ever a point where trying to be organized is futile? I mean really? Can one just have too much sh!t to get it all together?
15. I got to travel a lot more for work this year than usual. San Francisco is still my favorite place on the planet.
16. What end of year wrap-up would be complete without a mention of Tiger Woods? Tiger, Tiger, Tiger...what a mess. I honestly feel bad for the man ~ his entire life imploded in a matter of weeks. I cannot pass judgement, but I *can* wonder just what the hell he was thinking. The whole “too much time, too much money” explanation could probably carry you for 2 women, maybe even three to the very patient. But right around woman #6, it becomes very apparent that you were out there...uh...being liberal with your goodies just because you could. It’s obvious golf is not a team sport; if it were, he would have had plenty of teammates to give him pointers on what not to do. And is Elin the first wife ever to not paste on a dutiful smile and beg for privacy “as they deal with this crisis in their home”? I always want the happy ending, but a large part of me is giving her a hell yeah for saying “hell no”.
17. Alex ends the year obsessed with Hot Wheels, Pokemon, the vacuum, and the Snuggie! EVERY time he sees the commercial he announces that we're all getting one.
18. I'm sad that the genre known as soap operas really are dying. This year we lost Guiding Light, and P&G announced they are getting out of the business altogether with the early 2010 demise of As The World Turns. Unbelievable really when you consider that these shows are at least 50 years old. I don’t buy the obvious reason ~ that the targeted audience is now working. After all, in this enlightened television age of DVR, you can watch tv anytime, any place. Certainly the genre has been trying to survive since it was preempted in ’94 with the OJ trial, and the onslaught of chatter and reality shows that compete with soaps. I just think that soaps are handed down like China patterns and no one’s handing them down anymore. My mother never watched them - they were handed to me from my grandmother, who would watch Another World religiously as she sat shelling peas. To me, soaps are one of the last bastions of a simpler time, a time when computer screens weren’t on 24 hours a day, and when you didn’t have a disembodied voice on your cell phone shouting directions at you (got the Droid for Christmas, love that whole navigation thing). I appreciate the now, but I really miss the then sometimes.
19. In case you didn’t know, life spins on a dime; crying is cathartic; butter is better than margarine; families are crazy, but yours; three-year olds are crazier, but lovable; 2010 really isn’t the beginning of a new decade, but the end of the old one.

Happy New Year! Now I gotta get moving...an object at rest...