Fill in the Blank Friday...last one of 2011!

It's hard to believe that 2011 is almost over.  It's been quite a year for me, and the kids...not the best year we've ever had but believe me when I say not the worst year, either.  Last year at this time I had a lot of ducks in a row (and excuse my inner 14 year old boy who can't stop laughing because I accidentally typed "a lot of dicks in a row") and I'm proud to say I put quite a few of those ducks (tee hee) in their place.

I'm not so proud of the fact that a couple of those ducks still remain, and damn if they don't seem to be bigger and more smug than they were at the beginning of 2011.  Kind of like MY PANTS.  I was sure that I'd be closing out this year in a size 10, but I'm not.  In fact I think I may be back to my "freshly divorced" size which is horrifying.  But luckily, I turned 45 this year and one of the things that happens when you reach this age (besides the disappearing waistline and the inability to read fine print) is you start to realize that nothing is etched in stone...nothing is the be all or end all of life.  You learn that every day is a fresh start and that the power to change things is, and always has been, YOUR superpower.  Whether or not you choose to flex that power, that muscle, is up to you...but no one can take it away.  Not even your sabotaging self.

Tomorrow is officially the last day, so I won't blather on anymore about the Auld Lang Syne stuff.  I have a whole 'nother day for that.  So, on with the blanks:

1. New Years is: Literally, it's just another day on the calendar.  It will happen just as sure as the sun rises and sets every day.  Like a newborn baby, it's something that will happen no matter what.  Figuratively?  It's like a diabolical yet loving genie hovering in front of you, with unlimited wishes to be granted.  Speaking as someone who loves wiping slates clean, it's like the biggest, cleanest slate out there.  And that's daunting.

2. One of my New Year's resolutions will be: Yeah, I'm all "my resolution is to not make any", but I think, secretly, we all make some to ourselves.  I have some concrete ones:  get rid of my truck, put up these framed pictures that I've had sitting here for a month, vacuum with greater frequency (today I actually had to DUST my vacuums. That can't be good.).  I have some abstract ones, too:  Get my brain organized, stop dwelling on past "stuff", don't be so damn sensitive.  If someone declines a game of Words of With Friends, it doesn't mean they hate me.

3. A New Year's resolution I've made in the past is:  Dear God.  What haven't I resolved to do/change/make/accomplish?  It would be easier to list the resolutions I HAVEN'T made. 

4.  The most time consuming resolution I've ever made was:  The one where I resolved to stop double-spacing when I type.  Yep.  Still working on it.  I think I may be a double-spacer for life, yo.

5.  This year I will be spending New Year's Eve: Still up in the air about this one.  It's a no-kids New Years, which tends to mean a "sit on the couch with Walter and talk back to Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper on CNN" kind of night.  But...I've received a few tempting invitations.  Two things are keeping me from enthusiastically embracing them:  One, of course, is that I'm sporting an extra chin and back fat.  Not exactly making me want to get out and shake my groove thing.  Secondly, and here is where I start to question my sanity...I hate leaving Walter alone on holidays.  Isn't that the most pathetic  saddest thing you've ever heard?  I may be misreading him, but I swear he gets depressed when the kids aren't around.  And the last thing I want to come home to is Walter clutching a box of wine, watching Will and Grace reruns.  So we'll see.

6.  If I could wish one thing for my new year it would be: that it be either blissfully uneventful or uneventfully blissful.  Either or.

7.  2012 is going to be the year: that my oldest child graduates from high school.  The year my youngest child graduates from elementary school.  The year that follows 2011.  It could be the year that I become a college student again, or it could be the year I become a full-fledged businesswoman.  It may be the year I start parking in a garage again.  It might be the year that I change my relationship status on facebook.  It could be all of this, or none of this.  Catch me 12 months from now, and we'll find out. 

Happy second-to-last day of the year, my friends.  Don't forget to clean out your closets and drop stuff off at the charity places:  you'll be ending the year with clean closets and one last tax write off!

Hey, you know you want to do it:  why not fill in the blanks yourself and link up over at The Little Things We Do.