Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions aren’t really my jam. I prefer not to make them because, well, I don’t like disappointment.

I was telling this to my friend at lunch the other day. She informed me that the new thing is picking a word, just one word, that’s supposed to define you and your goals. And I realized, despite my best intentions to not have resolutions, I kind of have been behaving like I did make one and so if I had to pick one word for myself then — based on what I’d been doing the past week or so — that word would be…. action.

On the first day that everyone was back in school — while I was stumbling around the house, slightly despondent and lost because of the post-holiday letdown — I found myself confronting things around the house I had been letting slide. I snapped pictures of the white cloud scuzzing up the stone countertop in the master bathroom. It had been there for years, but lately it looked cloudier than usual. I drove down to the tile store, showed them photographic evidence of my lackadaisical cleaning and came home with two business cards for professional cleaners.

That night, I mentioned to my husband something I’d noticed but had been trying to pretend that I didn’t, that there seemed to be a second, uneven spot beneath the carpet in the playroom. We’d discovered the first uneven area maybe about a year ago. Or three. Gulp. OK, so probably my previous one word would be…. ostrich. But what can I say? I have a lot going on.

We snapped on the light in the playroom and dragged our feet all along the carpet.

“Oh, this is not good,” he said.

We tried to Sherlock Holmes the mystery and concluded the uneven spots must be caused by overgrown roots from the big mesquite tree just outside, dear Watson.

The next morning I began calling tree removal companies and texting our friend who would know what to do about the cracked and uneven concrete slab.

So now I think my one word has to be changed from action to…. expensive.

See why I don’t make resolutions?

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In completely unrelated, non-news….

I was innocently scrolling through Nordstrom’s website the other day and saw they had some Valentine’s Day suggestions. All well and good. The site highlighted the usual candies and lotions and heart-festooned goodies and then tucked in there with some overpriced purses and Smartcare, no-iron men’s dress shirts was this little — really little — number…..