New Year's Resolutions

I used to make all the big New Year resolutions like...

1. Exercise more
2. Lose weight
3. Save the world
4. Save the whales
5. Learn brain surgery

And then when I realized I couldn't stick to them for more than a couple of days or it wasn't working, I knocked the pressure down a notch and went to...

1. Floss every day
2. Wash makeup off before going to bed
3. Regular car maintenance*
4. Curse at other drivers, just a little bit less.** 

This year, I have resolved to do the following and since I'm putting it out here, I will now have to do them***:

1. Take a Math class****
2. Learn Spanish - really more of a brushing up on my skills since I am fluent. In hello.
3. Brush Albert daily.  Even writing this, I am bored already. Will just leave brush lying around with manual and see if he does it himself.  Technically cats should do their own grooming. Feel he might be a little spoiled.
4. Stop scraping hub caps against curb when parallel parking.  Hardly ever happens...
5. Buy self more gifts.  You should always have a selfless resolution where you give to others.  
   

2013 Successes of Note

1. Albert has finally started using his cat bed. While I wanted him to do this for some time, I have now realized, I have to clean his fur from it. Thinking it's time he went back to cold, hard, wooden floor. Any other parents out there experiencing thoughts like this with their babies and cots?
2. That is all.  It was a lean year.

*This is actually not possible.
**Work in progress - it's ok to start this one over every day
***Actually not true.  I am fickle and I don't care what you think of me for failing.  Also, I will lie about it. 
****Not actually necessary because I am brilliant at math but lately I have started to wonder if there is some new stuff that was discovered that I don't yet know how to do.  Like  addition and percentages.

Cars - Specifically, My First One

I was thinking the other day about the cars I have owned, which wasn't hard since there have only been three. The first was a hand me down from my parents - a Datsun 240k in a shade of something that I can't even describe. Bluey-purple. Actually, turns out I can describe it. This is the car we grew up with and in its hey day was considered something of a sports car. It was only two door - which is why I will always have four doors - and you could wind the windows down in the front and back without any barrier between the two which meant playing "Dukes of Hazzard" and sliding in and out without opening the doors was a piece of cake. There were hardly any accidents doing this.

It had sheepskin seat covers, a tape deck and was like driving a tank - no power steering so turning a corner meant you had to put your back into it. This is the car I learned to change a tire on and learned that showing your friends how fast you can reverse down a street does not end well when other cars are parked in your path. And are collector item Triumphs that have just been remodeled. So, you make your best friend come in to help explain to your parents, with the help of diagrams and re-enactments, just how such a mistake could happen when you merely reversed out a driveway.

The rule was, you got this car for your last year of high school so once my brother finished, we shared it. Which worked well since we went to the same University. I recall driving off for my third year, packed to the gills, playing "Born to be wild" as we headed out. I'm just now realizing how not cool this sounds.

Eventually I got tired of sharing and bought my own car which is another episode in itself. My brother resumed full responsibility for the Datsun and there it met its demise. Every time I would get in the car, something would fall off. Pull the sun visor down, pick it up off your lap and hold it yourself to shield your eyes. Attempt to wind the window down,* get the handle out of the glove box. Please put it back when you're done, I was directed. Then there was the  incident while stopped at a traffic light - out of the corner of his eye, something rolled on by. Called his hub cap. A recon mission later that night recovered it and it was put back in its rightful place. The back seat. Eventually he decided to travel so the car had to be sold, also there were no longer any windscreens made for it so seemed the right time to get out. A collector bought it and even paid money.

Long live the Datsun!