New Year!

Hmmmm.  I'm not sure how well it bodes for my keeping up with things this coming year, since it's three days into the new year and I'm just now doing the post of my old year musings and retrospective.  Sadly I won't be any less busy this coming year - probably will be busier - but I'll try to get an occasional post in.

Like today's post.  Tomorrow I go back to work after being off about 10 days.  I spent six of those days in Colorado at my sister's place.  I intended to spend five, but the weather socked in and convinced me to hang out up there for another day.  I've driven the Texas panhandle in white-out conditions and if I can avoid it, I will.  I'm glad I did too.  A day later I had mostly smooth sailing, unlike the people trying to travel on Sunday and Monday.          

Other than keeping me in Colorado an extra day, the weather was pretty cooperative.  It snowed all day on Christmas.  Beautiful!  And we got out and played around in it a bit, "helping" John get his plow working.  Which basically means we tried to stay out of his way.  Then late in the evening it completely cleared off and we had a huge full moon on all that new snow.  Gorgeous!!  We went back out and took a short walk.  Short because it was damn cold.  At least just above zero feels damn cold to this Texas girl.  All the snow pictures in this post are taken around my sister's place on Christmas or the day after. 

2015 was a good year for me.  I stayed busy and stayed healthy and had no major financial crises come up.  That's what I call a good year.  Addy is still with me.  She'll turn 20 years old in February, so each day she's with me is a good day.   She's still doing well, as active as can be expected for her age.  She sleeps a lot but also eats and drinks well, so she's holding her own.  For her sake, I kind of hate that I'll be gone so much this year, but that's the way it's going to work out.  At least she likes my pet sitter, and Martha is really good with her. 

So.  In 2016, actually starting January 1st, 2 days ago, I'm President of my national professional association.  That's why I'll be gone so much this year, and be so busy.  I already know of 13 speaking engagements I have.  Luckily only two of those are outside the US at this point - one in Taiwan and one in England.  There's a good likelihood that that will change as the year progresses, both number and locations may increase.   

And all this is in addition to my regular job too.  So I will be busy.  In honor of that, I'm not making any New Year's resolutions this year.  I've managed to keep my weight in the 135 range for two years now and last year I managed to stay healthy and keep up exercising for a good bit of the year.  I'd like to do that again, but traveling, meetings, receptions and dinners - none of that is conducive to a good exercise routine, nor to a good balanced diet.  So my intent for 2016 is to do the best I can, with no resolutions that will no doubt get broken quickly.  I'll just be as moderate as I can be in my eating and drinking and try to do healthy things whenever I can.  My goal is to end the year not having gained any weight or having been sick.  

I put away all my Christmas stuff yesterday.  I felt kind of sad about that.  The tree was so pretty and festive, I almost left it up longer.  But I like to start the New Year with the place all clean and ready.  And I really can't bring myself to put it up before Thanksgiving, so it gets to be up for only a month.  I have some ornaments that I've had for a long time that I like to hang every year.  Like a woman in a white lab coat carrying a clipboard that someone in my family gave me the year I got my doctorate, back in 1986.  And a little Coke machine with mice running up it and drinking Coke.  I think that one also came from the family.  I wish I could remember who gave it to me.  I also now have 17, no 18, of the Hallmark Mischievous Kitten ornaments.  Yup, all of them from 1999 on, plus the 15th year celebration one from 2013.   I think my sister Caryn may have given me my first one of those, maybe in 2002, and then I went back and collected the first ones, and the rest for myself.  It's a little sad that they're only out of boxes for a month out of the whole year, but maybe that makes them special too.

I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow, but it's about time to leap into the New Year and hit the ground running.  Best of Luck for the New Year!