New Year's Resolutions. 2008.

OK, I'm not really into resolutions. Resolutions rarely work anyway. I'm more into incremental changes. Subtle shifts in thinking and behavior. I can do subtle. RESOLUTIONS seem too big and impossible. Resolutions usually require a belief in the power of a personal god and you already know I'm not going there.

So here are some of the subtle shifts I'm thinking about making this year:

1 - My weight. I started spinning and lifting about two years ago and, along with my cycling habit, managed to gain five pounds. Now, it's probably all muscle since my legs, especially my calf muscles, have never been bigger or more chiseled. However, when I started this routine I had at least five extra pounds of body fat which I am determined, at the age of forty-eight, to lose. This will take me from a rather squishy 172 lbs to what will hopefully be a svelte and lean 167. Maybe I'll go for an even seven and get back to my pre-married weight. 165. That would be very cool. How many men my age can still wear size thirty-three jeans? Hmmm????

2 - My drinking. I have consumed enough martinis and margaritas and bottles of wine and fifths of bourbon in the past five years to sink a yacht. Call it "life-after-divorce-transitional-stress". Call in quasi-pseudo-semi-alcoholism. Call it whatever you want. I call it enough. Not enough to quit completely, though. That would be a resolution. Remember, I'm into subtle. So I'm just cutting back a bit. A few less nights out at The Exchange and Nine 75 and The Purple Martini. A few more meals out with club sodas instead of margaritas. A reduction in the liters of vodka I regularly store in the freezing compartment.

3 - My Career. I have given my life mainly to two endeavors. Religion and Insurance. Both involve selling. Both involve selling concepts. Now, I have to admit to you, as I've admitted to myself, that I have enjoyed neither. I left religion for reasons I have yet to fully explain. And I don't really care about insurance. Insurance is just for the money. I have bills to pay and a life style to maintain. But as far as satisfaction, I'm like "a French whore on nickel night" as an insurance friend of mine is fond of saying. So this year, I am going to, 1 - find a non-monetary motivation to sell insurance (like, I'm helping people or something) and 2 - explore a part-time career as an adjunct professor at a local college, teaching comparative religion and politics or something like that. Whatever it is, I want to start, however tippy-toeingly, doing things for money that I actually enjoy doing. Life is short. Time to start living.

So, there they are. I may add more a little later.

C