One Word for 2012

Yesterday, I was reading on my Zite app about choosing one word for the New Year. OneWord365 asks participants to skip the New Year's resolutions and select one word to sum up a goal, a way to live, etc. for the new year. Now, I'm not a big resolution girl. In fact, I'm sure that it's a recipe for failure for most of us. The intentions are good, but come on...it will take me at least 3 months to remember it's 2010 never mind 1-5 resolutions I hope to achieve and/or maintain during those 365 days. But, one word. That, I can get my head around.

After much thought and research, I chose: Open. Ironically, I've had this picture on my desktop that I took when the hubby and I (or me and the hubby...I'm never sure) spent the day in Provincetown a couple years back. It's not my best photography, but I love it none the less and it will as a daily reminder which can't hurt, either.

I really like One Word choice and it's daily, if not hourly, possibilities. I could get into a long exposition of all the ways I could apply the definition to various life-scenarios, but I'm going to skip that and just see what happens. In other words, I'm going to be open. 

Backlog

I'm totally backed up. I've got a serious backlog going of crap I need to get to and wonderful things I want to get to. The list of crap includes the following:

1. Clean out the pantry (The chopped macadamia nuts in there have, in fact, been there since last Christmas for the Paula Deen Chocolate Cherry Chunk Cookies I never got around to baking.)
2. Paint the bathroom. (I prepped the ceiling and bought the shower curtain for color selection, just need to buy paint and bang it out.)
3. Take dog to the groomers. (He seriously stinks.)
4. Move giant Love Sac from downstairs to attic. 

Last week (see above) began with an all day lacrosse showcase with the boy at Endicott College. Then cooking, errand day with the Pug, and the bi-weekly hair appointment in Brighton. The week ended with a serious bang. The light snow that utterly depressed me on Friday was nothing compared to what was coming the next day. I drove Connor to a Halloween party on Saturday night just as the snow started moving in. When we couldn't find the house and the branches started falling into the road, we bagged the whole adventure and headed home to ride out the storm. Sometime around 2am, we lost power completely and although he slept soundly, I barely caught a wink what with the sound of tree branches snapping and the house shaking when they hit the ground.

When we finally got up on Sunday morning, it was an unbelievable sight. We weren't in Wrentham in October but the house had obviously been picked up and planted in the middle of a winter wonderland snow globe. My parents hadn't lost power and when Connor heard they had cable, he couldn't get in the car fast enough, so, with The Man out of town, we packed up and headed to NH. Three days of fun was had by all including the pugs, but school was back in session on Wednesday. Back to the cold reality of Chestnut Street. But the gods were smiling on me that day and by noon, the National Grid truck pulled up and restored the power. (Insert angel choir here) On Thursday, I headed out for the volunteer knitting gig, but the end of the week brought the biggest surprise I've had in a while: a part-time job!

Since closing the Pilates studio, I've been able to duck and dodge getting another job, but that was just not going to be sustainable for the long term. I'd been trolling Craigslist and the local papers fairly regularly for something that wouldn't make me totally miserable, but as U2 said it the best: I still hadn't found what I was looking for. On Friday, through a series of fortunate events, I had a conversation with my friend Cheryl who owns my local (and favorite) yarn shop. Next thing I know, I've landed myself a part-time job  including my first paid knitting teacher gig. (Insert gulp here) I went in for training on Saturday and of course I had to make The Boy snap a pic.

Better get to the laundry...it's not going to fold itself (contrary to what the people I live with think).