Tuesday, January 01, 2019

To the New Year!

This year we let Julian stay up until midnight on NYE.  We went to a party with friends, had a fake midnight celebration, came home and slumber partied and watched nature documentaries until we counted down and celebrated. Sean and I reminisced about our 2004 Times Square New Year's Eve and how crazy and fun that was. Then I fake-slept for a while until i tip-toed up to my bed and left the sleeping boys downstairs.

I asked Julian if he had any New Year's resolutions and he said,

"Yes, my goal is to be kinder....."

*Pause while Jen is pleasantly shocked*

"...to my reflection."


Jen:  Image result for cat face staring open mouth

(It was really hard to find the right cat face i was going for but I guess that one will do)

Julian continued, "...because we get into full-on fights all the time."

I guess it's something.

I usually never make resolutions. I'm too busy mentally preparing for the depressive winter looming before me.  This year I've hardly had a chance to worry about it. Also I have discovered yoga and I think it might be kind of life changing for me. I'm also sort of looking forward to the lull, the hibernation.  It's been a busier time for me and I don't do well with harried, very much.  It's snowed a few times and I haven't minded it at all which, again, is super weird.  But I have big plans for January including doing lots of reading, contemplation, and friend gathering.  Hopefully more game playing.

As for the goals, I have some that I've decided to work on, completely separate from it being the new year, which is also surprising. Or perhaps they just coincidentally coincide (this phrasing feels redundant. it was fun to type out though)  I'm going to continue with the yoga'ing. I took Julian and Sean with me over the break and it was awesome. Julian does his best and cracks me up and Sean does his best and really likes it, which is fun. The teacher commended Julian's efforts at the end of class and he said, "Well, i did collapse a few times..."   which made me laugh.

Anyway, what else? I'm going to work on writing (ok so that's nothing new. but still. Maybe if I keep making the goal, it'll actually happen).  I'm determined to travel more, somehow.   I've also made some character goals for myself, an enormous undertaking indeed.

I'm in the midst of about 50 different Julian projects, including: 1- expose him to more people and opportunities. Get him out and make him interact with people. Teach him there are other people in the universe. Get him into the habit of helping others because that's just what you do.   2- learn how to deal with life's disappointments. Perhaps construct some disappointments since he's lived such a charmed life thus far.  But really, developing and implementing coping mechanisms to stress and anxiety. Still.  3- Take him to New York at some point and remind him of his roots.  4- Attempt to culture the kid. Can "culture" be a verb? Sean and I just had a discussion about this and he suggested "acculturate" which I don't think I mean, but is a nice word I'm happy to have learned. I think I'm ok using it as a verb. Culture me, everyone. 

Sean just said to me, "The only time i've heard it used that way is in reference to cheese and yogurt. To culture something, it gets better overtime. (Like cheese and yogurt.)    So if you have a culture in decline, then it's not really a culture. We played with words like that a lot in art class.  The teacher would ask what words meant and would offer an alternate meeting. The class was always trying to define art using art terms but every art term was another term as well." For example:

Draw:  to get water from a well.
Render: to cook the fat out of meat.

All of this was very interesting to me and was interrupted 80 times by a chirruping Julian who I kept shooting down until he finally found a window:

JULIAN: The best way to get someone to fly is to give them some expresso--

JEN: ESpresso.

JULIAN: Expresso.

JEN: ESpresso.

JULIAN: Espresso.



JEN: yes. how would this make someone fly?

JULIAN: They'd fly eight feet into the air.  The expresso--



JEN: espresso.

JULIAN: aaah, i mean... it's spelled with an 'x...'

JEN: No it isn't.


Remind me that breakfast time might not be the best blogging time. SO. Here's to the 1st day of 2019!

1 comment:

Joel said...

I've felt a little different about resolutions than I have in years past. Many of the successful changes I have made in my life have just happened at random times throughout the year. But I felt like I made some good progress on goals last year, so a lot of what I want to do this time is to keep going with things, and get the family more involved in good habits. So we'll see what happens.