Time to Turn the Page, sorry Bob but I'm stealing your title...

January 1.

New Refrigerator Calendar day.

I have been transcribing birthdays, anniversaries and early year appointments onto my new calendar and made an earth shattering conclusion.

My previous year calendar is the BEST JOURNAL I have ever kept.

While searching each month for important dates I need to keep, I discovered that I had:

8 non-work events with work people

14 scheduled events with friends

4 planned winery dates

6 haircuts

3 vacations

3 separate boat events, not counting boat related vacations

7! television events (Madmen, Walking Dead and Sharknado related)

12 scheduled family events

and WAY too many dentist appointments

and these are just the ones that made it on the page.

I have attempted to keep a journal from the age of 10 when I received my first awesome, pink diary with that tiny metal key which really didn't keep anything private. I would write meaningful entries and lock them away for reading on a rainy day at which point I felt embarrassed at how dramatic I was and never wrote another word until I received a new awesome pink diary with tiny metal key.

In junior high I had a teacher who made us 'journal' once a week. These always wound up being uber-angsty treatises on life, politics, love. As per usual, I was severely embarrassed by these entries, even though a couple received critical acclaim from Mr. Pillman.

Loved the teacher. Hated the journaling.

Pretty ironic for someone who wanted to be a journalist.

I no longer attempt to keep a journal and now I understand that I do not need to. My refrigerator calendar takes care of it for me. Looking back through the months I am reminded of fun times, sad times, cancelled plans and impromptu dates. I was probably most surprised by the number of non-work-work events. But then, when I think about it, I spend an equal number of waking hours in the week with my work family and my real family.

My calendar for 2015 was a gift from my husband, who created it from our favorite pictures from our first Caribbean vacation. The pictures reminded me daily of how wonderful life can be. It's own little journal! It is really difficult to put a close to this calendar.

My 2016 calendar is a generic Island edition. Which, while not as personal, is just as inspiring,but for different reasons. Rather than looking back it will force me to look ahead to upcoming adventures.

Which from the looks of those blank pages will be limitless!

Happy Happy New Year to All from the Coast of Illinois

Catamarans just waiting to throw me into the ocean.

And of course, I am making no actual resolutions. I am making a COMMITMENT to get Tales of the Caribbean written and then posting each Wednesday until I run out of material at which point we will have to return to the Caribbean on more fact finding adventures. I promise!

The Word of the Year is...

What a wonderful way to begin. Waking to a sunshine bright morning, cool, crisp and clean as only a morning in January can be.

New Year's Day.

I didn't get up until nearly 9:30AM, thanks to my husband getting up ridiculously early to turn off the alarm cat by feeding him the first of a minimum of six tiny cans of overpriced cat food.

Not that I wasn't ready to wake up.

Last night I dreamed that I was dreaming and in THAT dream I was being chased by several ghosts or people past, ghosts of people still breathing of their own accord and one as yet unseen creature. I 'woke up' as my dream husband reassured me that he would 'love me no matter what I continued to say' as I lay in bed shaking as though the New Madrid Fault had discovered twerking. But this was STILL a dream, which I was acutely aware of but could not seem to wake myself up from. With the desire to WAKE UP in my head my dream self then moved on to some sort of food truck ferry which was moving us back and forth across a tiny river with no goal in mind but to clean up the food truck kitchen and make one of my co-workers gain about one hundred pounds.

My subconscious was thrilled when Bart came in our room and opened our ridiculously noise 1970's era closet doors. My eyes flew open and the first thing I asked him was 'What did I tell you?' followed quickly by 'Did we have an earthquake? Cause I am pretty sure we had an earthquake."

To which he replied, "you didn't say anything, not that I would have heard you, I was too busy clinging to the edge of the bed while you sprawled over the entire center."

I began to deny this but quickly realized that my arms were completely wide open, reaching from the right to the left side of the bed. I also felt that perhaps I owed a couple of friends and my co-worker an apology for dream throwing them overboard and dream weight-gaining them.

It was quite a relief to crawled out of bed and into this beautiful morning. I felt sense of expectation and a tiny bit of disappointment that we had, in fact, NOT had an earthquake.

But isn't expectation what New Year's Day is all about?

It always finds me feeling slightly off balance but with an insane determination that anything is possible.

Which is probably why many years past I have resolved to lose weight, write more, exercise, read, learn French, not overdraft the bank account, lose weight...

A couple years ago the word 'resolve' and 'resolution' fell out of favor and suddenly I was 'reinventing' my self by losing weight, writing more, exercising, reading, learning French, not over-drafting the bank account, losing weight...

As I sat at the kitchen table, resolving to not make any grand resolutions, I watched the hosts of the Today show discussing how to become your best self in this New Year. The ideas were mostly the same, make wiser choices with your food, your time, your spandex. But one guy offered a slightly different view. His advice? Pick one word.** Let that word describe you, your life, your aspirations for this year. And as he talked, a word popped into my head:

Inspired

What a great word.

I can be inspired. My work can be an inspiration. I can see inspiration in others. It is all-encompassing.

Will I tell you what sorts of things I hope to be inspired to do?

No.

Will I tell you what things I find inspiring?

Nope.

Am I inspired to finally clean out the store room in the basement?

Hardly.

At least not yet.

For now, I will respond in the famous words of Captain Fantastic's mouthpiece, Bernie Taupin:

"If you ask how I am I will just say....Inspired."*

*This is a lyric from the song Better Off Dead. Which by title alone doesn't sound all that upbeat or inspiring but with it's heavy rock beat and semi-angry, Les Mizzy voice, it is a song that makes me want to break out in dance at the MetroLink station. It is sung by Captain Fantastic who is, of course, Elton John. A musician whose work I find quite inspiring. Especially the old stuff. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Bennie and the Jets. Island Girl. Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Although that last one included Kiki Dee. Who inspired in me a desire to where denim-look overalls and a semi-bowl haircut.

And there I go, telling you what inspires me.

THIS is exactly why I do not make resolutions. 

**After doing a little research, it seems there are many 'one word' groups out there. I have nothing against 'church-y' type groups and I am not here to promote one organization over another. I just found the idea quite interesting. Here are a couple of links I found in my research. If they speak to you, wonderful.

http://getoneword.com/todayshow/ 

http://myoneword.org/