January 6, 2007
On New Year’s Day, I resolved, once again as I do most every January first, to clean out closets and kitchen cupboards, organize photographs, hang the new calendars before February, finish my still unsigned Christmas cards, and write shorter columns.
By 5 p.m. on New Year’s Day, I had cleaned out one cabinet and was just starting to tackle this newspaper column due in a mere 15 hours.
My first day of the New Year, filled with good intentions, unfolded something like this.
On January 1st, I got up bright and early after a quiet New Year’s Eve and was absolutely committed to tear into the kitchen cabinets re-organization project. I started with the cabinet above the broom closet. It was indeed a pleasure to throw away old pizza coupons, move the stash of thick brown ice cream bags to another cabinet (I still might need those), stack the plastic and Styrofoam coffee cups, and arrange the various types of trash bags in perfectly even rows.
I was just about to hang some of the calendars for the brand new year when the doorbell rang.
What a nice surprise, it was married daughter Camie at the door stopping by for a visit.
Well, we talked for an hour or so before it was time for her to leave.
The two birthday cakes I stirred up while we talked finished baking just in time to ice them and deliver to the nursing home before lunch. You see, my mother is a New Year’s baby and this January 1st happened to be her 89th birthday. The cakes were meant for the residents to enjoy with her.
That mission took awhile.
A few loads of laundry worked their way into the morning hours as well.
By 1 p.m., we were ready to eat leftover hors d’ouvres from New Year’s Eve.
I resolved to tackle more cabinets immediately after my nap.
The column was momentarily forgotten.
Boxes of Christmas cards remained untouched, and no thought whatsoever was given to organizing old photographs.
By 2 p.m., this well-intentioned day of completing important tasks was clearly off track.
From that point forward, the day found its own path, and I was completely out of the driver’s seat. One son needed this, another son needed that, and a husband decided to begin a brand new project of his own that, of course, needed my undivided attention.
By 5 p.m, it was time to consider dinner. Leftovers were not going to “fly” this time with the brood and spouse, so apparently cooking was now on my agenda. I do not know why I call it my agenda because it certainly does not belong to me.
Several football bowl games later and dinner and dishes behind me, I resolved to salvage at least part of my list of resolutions.
Since the column was due now in less than 10 hours, it moved to the top of the list, just ahead of a good night’s sleep.
So with pride, I can say that I have kept some of my New Year’s resolutions after all. I have cleaned out one cabinet, and I have written, by necessity, a shorter column.
On New Year’s Day life got in the way of resolutions, but that is not a bad thing.
