by Anna Rose
We’re all making plans for the new year, with some intention of sticking to them to one degree or another. It seems the normal and natural thing to do and it has certainly been ingrained in us over a lifetime of seeing others do the same.
New Year. New Beginnings.
For myself, this is a list of my plans. (We’ll see how close I stick to them and which are discarded out of hand. I’ve already got a pretty good idea what’s going to happen with some of them.)
- Practice social distancing and self-isolation at all times. There’s no sense in exposing myself to COVID-19 if there is absolutely no need to do so. I’ve got my nearly 92-year-old Mom to worry about, and after all these years, I’ve grown rather fond of her.
- Wear my fucking mask. It’s not that difficult, and if it keeps others safe, why the hell not, right?
- Pay closer attention to what I’m eating and avoid those things that are empty calories that serve no actual nutritional purpose. I gained about 20 pounds between March 2020 and November 2020, and I want them to go the fuck away and maybe take some of their siblings with them. They’re not wanted here.
- Spend more time dedicated to my writing. I need to set specific hours for writing and stick to them.
- Get the first draft of LUCI: Rhoades to Recovery finished by January 31, 2021. Then get to work on the editing process. Knowing me, it’ll end up being somewhere around 85k words when I’m done with it.
- Release the aforementioned LUCI: Rhoades to Recovery on March 30, 2021. That will be the first anniversary of the first book in the series, LUCI: Rhoades to Hell, so that makes a certain kind of sense, right? Well, actually, the first book was published on March 31, 2020, but as I like to release on Tuesdays, this is how it has to be.
- Be a better person. As in trying to be kinder. I’ve become very cynical over the years, with the past five just making me that much harder. It’s reflected in my posts on social media. I’d really like to soften a bit for for the time being, it’s going to be in the “try” column. That’s all I can do, and I can’t make any promises.
- Be a better friend. I’m not very good at staying in touch, although I will say that my policy has always been that I will not chase friendships. When people drop away, beyond a certain point I won’t try to reestablish that connection. Yes, there are some folks with whom I have reconnected in recent months, but mostly I let people go when it seems they feel that time has come. If you feel a need to get in touch with me, you can always contact me on FB and we can chat. That’s what friends (are supposed to) do.
- Stick to my core beliefs, politically. Things have been fucking stupid over the past five years, and I’ve seen people who I at one time respected turning into right-wing fanatics. It makes me sick to see that they now fully embrace the ravings of a demonstrated criminal and lunatic who is woefully unsuited for the Office he somehow was awarded in 2016, against all reasonable expectations. If you’ve followed me for any period of time, you know I’m a bleeding heart liberal and I plan to stay that way.
Those are my established plans for 2021. We’ll see how successful I am with them. As with all of you, there are some that will be successful because we have no other alternative.
Preventing the further spread of COVID-19 and trying to keep our family and friends safe from it as well is a driving factor for most of us.
I say most because there has been more than just a little evidence that there are those out there who absolutely refuse to act in a reasonable and safe manner, no matter how many times they are told that they are being assholes. I have mixed feelings about my opinion of those people and what their ultimate fate should be, as they don’t appear to give a shit about the possibility of infecting their close family and friends.
They’re just too goddamned selfish.
And they are, as you might well guess, part of the reason why I say I should be kinder, but I also know that they will make that determination very difficult.
Anyhow, I hope you’re able to make and stick to your own plans for the year. I also hope you understand that we can’t always follow through with our best-intended plans. Just try not to beat yourself over the head about it if and when they fall through.
You’re only human. Just like me.
So I suppose that I should just make a plan to be more human.
I’m thinking I’ll have far more success sticking to that.
Right?
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