Thursday, December 31, 2009

It's the last day of 2009, which just may rank up there with my least favorite years ever. Not that I've seen oh-so-many years, but I can't ever recall wishing a year would just be over and done with as much as I have with 2009. I was pretty ready for it to be done back in July. Unfortunately, there were still five months of un-fun left at that point. Between terminal illness, hospitalizations, deaths, and job losses, 2009 went above and beyond the rule of three in making sure that all of the terrible bases were covered.

I realize, of course, that time doesn't pay any attention to the calendar on the wall. But a new year is a good time to draw a slightly-less-than-arbitrary line in the sand and say - bad things are now behind us! And that is what I will be doing at midnight tonight. I'm moving to the other side of the imaginary line, to a year where I look forward to spending time with healthy family and friends, sharing and creating happy memories. After last year, I think we all deserve a small break from the un-fun life likes to throw at you.

Here's to 2010!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Today I'm going to play Guitar Hero. I have been waiting for this day for years. Just over two years ago, when I was pregnant and looking forward to maternity leave as if it was going to be a fabulous vacation, I planned to play Guitar Hero every day, becoming an expert, able to beat anyone who challenged me.

This did not pan out, and I did not play Guitar Hero once during my maternity leave. Maternity leave consisted of holding and feeding my newborn daughter, and watching judge show after judge show on daytime TV. I also drank large quantities of Diet Coke through a straw and wore a huge green matronly robe. On occasion, I successfully managed to put my daughter down in her swing long enough to wash some dishes or do some laundry. But there was no way, as far as I could tell, to successfully hold a newborn while also vigorously playing the fake guitar.

So here I am, jobless, on a cold winter day, with the wind howling around our condo, and the perfect opportunity to play some Guitar Hero. Will it be the start of a long and successful pseudo guitar career? An abysmal failure that lasts 15 minutes? Most likely, it will be something in between. And it beats watching daytime TV.