Samhain Publishing

Christmas is over. Thank goodness.

That probably sounds pretty heartless of me, but to be honest, Christmas is just stress upon stress. My routine becomes frantic cleaning between moments of Armageddon. Presents mean giftwrap scattered so far and wide that I’ll still be finding bits of it in March.

Speaking off all the detritus, Christmas throws off the trash pick-up schedule, which means I have to hang on to all the garbage for an extra couple of days, then I forget when they pick up, so I have to keep it all for another week by which time, there’s no room left in the bin for the remainders of the leftovers from the holiday dinner. And holiday dinners? buurrp I ran out of Pepto at the end of November.

I am so over Christmas, but New Years is totally my time.

New Years is pure possibility. I actually prepare for New Years the way most people prepare for Christmas. I start my organizing early, going through closets and cupboards, clearing away the old, making way for the new.

I even go through my computer files, checking up on story ideas that I haven’t seen for a while, maybe pulling one out and tweaking it a bit before I tuck it back in.

I used to make Resolutions – capital R – but they’d only last a week and I’d feel guilty. Folks who are experts on resolutions (how do you get that job and what does it pay?) say you should be very specific. Unfortunately, that makes Resolutions sound like a bunch of Rules:
I will lose this many pounds.
I will exercise 45 minutes per day, 6 days a week.
I will write 2500 words a day every day for the rest of my life. Even on the day before my mother comes to visit and everyone in the house has had the stomach flu and we’re housetraining a new puppy.

Life motto: Rules are made to be broken.

I make “Directions to Aim” instead. It’s my way of sneaking up on my anti-authoritarian psyche.
For instance, instead of “Diet or Die,” try: Losing weight would be nice, but it might be cool to see if I can stop hating the body I’m in right now.
Rather than “Work Out or Die,” how about: Exercise isn’t fun, but then, not everything we do is fun. Still, there’s that half hour between kid wake-up times that I could probably use to catch up on watching Justice League while I’m on the stationary bike. (C’mon. Justice League is cool!)
And in lieu of “Write or Die,” think: Writing 1000 words a day 5 days a week is do-able. The more I write, the better I get, the more my editors adore me! And I do love to be adored.

Some of these “Directions to Aim,” however, take some prep work. For instance, if I’m considering losing weight, I should probably think about replacing the scale my son broke. I have no idea how he did it, but now my “0” is somewhere between 95 and 150 pounds, depending on if I’m wearing sneakers or not.

I should set up the DVR on the TV downstairs to record all the episodes of Justice League so I have something to watch. Well, that and “It’s Me or the Dog.” That should cover me.

If I’m going to write more, it would sure be swell if I could actually find the top of my desk once in a while. In fact, a few of those pretty file holders and desk organizing doo-dads might help keep it tidy.

See, you can’t make all the resolutions on Jan 1 and then expect to jump right in. You gotta have the scene set!

So this is the last week of 2008. Christmas is over and there’s a clean slate in front of you. You know that life is going to take you somewhere amazing in 2009, but it’ll help to have your supplies packed and ready ahead of time.