All Hail 2010 and 2009, GTFO!

I would like to think that I exercised a little holiday restraint this year and did not regale you with 10,002 (ineffective) Ways to De-Stress Your Holidays or Phe’s Secret Recipes to Make Your Holiday Dinner Perfect. I refrained, mostly, from rubbing my relative lack of holiday stress in your faces (after my breakdown and subsequent attitude adjustment that would be titled, I Don’t Care Anymore, F- It) and only shared what I thought was a personal and hopefully amusing post or two about plans and, yes, the Momentous Day Itself.

But, Dear Reader, it’s not over yet. You absolutely cannot escape…

PHE’s AMAZING 2009 REDUX and FLASH FORWARD TO 2010! Muahahahahaaa…er…ha?

It’s no secret to many that 2009 has been a year that, simply put, can go to hell and die in a fire. The upside to this is in knowing that I’m not alone. Misery, company, it’s all good. I had several (read, most, including one who cried a little last night because she was so happy it was finally over) friends qeued up to shove Old Man 09 into his casket and ditch the bastard deep into the bowels of the earth where he rightfully belongs. Of course, I already called shotgun and was eager to have my first go at him. But on top of knowing that most friends wanted to execute the exegent year, there was also the undercurrent, everywhere, in all writing mediums, of 2009 Exhaustion. So it wasn't just us.

Nothing much changed in the grand scheme of things this past year. Cost inflation remained inflated. Wars continued waging. Markets yo-yo’d. Politicians proved, yet again, that words are no match for action. The jobless remain largely, if not more so, jobless - and homeless rates didn’t appreciably decrease. All of these things do affect us, even if we’re employed, sleeping in our homes and know from the get go that politicians lie. They affect us because they affect everything around us. It’s a bit like Dominoes really; when everyone around you, whether familiar or strange, is unhappy or nervous, eventually, it starts to niggle it’s way into your life too.

To add to the overarching feeling of American Unhappiness creeping into so many lives, including our own, this year was also fraught with challenges and upsets for my family, both immediate and extended.

Yet, there is a light. It’s called 2010 but it’s better known as, A Fresh Start. Now, some (OK, many) poo-poo the tradition of resolutions and joyously celebrating the New Year. Well, at least they poo-poo the tradition of making resolutions. Most still joyously (read: get fall down drunk while somehow believing that Cat in the Hat chapeaus and layers of Mardi Gras beads are really clever fashion statements) celebrate the New Year.

I, however, am really looking forward to going into this light. While some hardships and troubles won’t magically disappear because the calendar was discarded and replaced, I’ve been anticipating certain changes to come in the first few months and am excited about them. They will go a long way to easing and eventually erasing the Plagues of 2009. To that end, I present you with my resolutions:

I, Phe, Do Hereby Resolve the following:

- I will be a better NCO, always remembering that NCOs Help Troops, not just through action but by example as well.
- I will continue to place my family before anything else.
- I will get my household in order. It will mean tying up loose ends and not continuing to put off dreaded paperwork and phone calls. It may involve (more) tightening of the belt. But by 2011, I will have my affairs squared away.
- I will work, in earnest, to finish my degree at AMU.
- I will de-clutter my life (I’ve made good progress thus far, but so much more needs to be done!).
- I will complete projects that have been sitting dormant.
- I will learn to say “No” at work.

It’s a short list, but they’re monumental tasks for this Type A, many of which I’ve already been working on but need to bring to the fore in this coming year. Oh, and since most of these require a high speed organizer, if anyone knows any awesome, all-in-1 organizers for work and home (not electronic, please), comment and shoot me the links!

What about you? Do you resolve to be a better you or are you resolving not to make any more pointless New Year’s resolutions?