Old Dog...New Tricks

So we’re finishing up an old year and getting ready for a new one. Really? Already? Man, 2013 flew by so fast. I think that every year, but this time I mean it. (I say that every year too.)

I don’t like to make “resolutions.” They never work out. Not through any fault of my own, mind you, but life gets in the way of those completely virtuous things that we intend to do…and once we order pizza on January 3 it’s all over. Of course there are things I intend to do – don’t get me wrong – but they won’t be published in a list to be laughed at later.

What I do like to do is take a look at the last year and remember the things that were new and different. They don’t have to be big things, or great things, but it’s important to try new things and as much as my inertia sometimes holds me back, I did do a few of those.

1)    Assisted with building Pinewood Derby cars. This would not have happened, except Art was in China during the key Pinewood activity weeks. Despite my complete lack of knowledge in this area, I was the assigned adult for helping my sons create their first-ever derby contenders. So we attended workshops, designed and sanded, painted and decorated. Admittedly, the cars weren’t all that fast. But they looked really nice! This next year I might even do one for myself...

 

2)    Rode a horse. Confession: I’m not crazy about riding anything. And I’ve ridden a horse before, just not recently. But this was a controlled ride, on a trail in an Arkansas state park, and everything went just fine once my horse was happy with his position in line. It was fun and the kids had a great time too.

Me on a horse with no name. He had one, I just can't remember it!

3)    Got braces on my teeth. I’d been considering this for a few years (just to get them straighter), but always put it off. And since I had braces in high school, it seemed like something I’d already gotten and so I wondered if it was silly to re-do. But when I had some problems with broken teeth due to an uneven bite, well, that was enough to get me to the orthodontist. I was able to do the Invisalign, and overall it’s been pretty easy – I’ve only got a few more months to go!

4)    Went camping. This one wasn’t my idea, and in fact it was something I’d been actively avoiding for quite some time. But when there’s a “family campout” with the scout pack, and clearly nothing else on the calendar for that weekend, it happens. Never mind the cold. Or the rain the first night. Or sleeping on a concrete pad. Or latrines – which, I’m told, are very nice latrines in spite of being more like built-in port-a-potties. There were also boys having lots of fun, s’mores, and some of what my kids call “PTV” time (parent talking virus) with the other scout adults. I'm not saying it will happen again, mind you, but I do have my own sleeping bag. 

5)    Conquered the Bundt cake. Not a big thing, you say? Following one failure after another (cake not coming neatly out of the pan, or occasionally not coming out at all) I made it my mission to slay the Bundt Beast. So now I’ve got a method, some foolproof recipes, and pans I like. AND some successful results under my belt – which is more important than it sounds! I have confidence…

This one is lemon, with hand-picked East Texas blueberries filling the center.

6)    Pinned. While the rest of you have been pinning madly on Pinterest, I had tried a couple of times (unsuccessfully) to understand it. At last, I took a little time to figure it out and – just like you told me – it’s easy. And kind of fun. But, like facebook and email and other cool apps, I can see how it might eat up hours and hours of time. So I’ll have to think about how it fits into all my other electronic clutter. I don’t do LinkedIn and I don’t do Twitter, so at least I’ve drawn a line someplace. But it’s a wiggly line at best.

7)    Agreed to get a dog. This one was for the kids, of course, but a big step for me. We hadn’t had a pet since about 2006, so we’d gotten comfortable with going wherever, spending the night away, vacations without worrying about where the dog would go, and cold nights when we just worried about the plants. It’s been an adjustment – especially for allergy-prone me since we’ve had so many cold nights when she’s had to sleep in her crate in the house. But she is a sweet, funny young dog who loves hugs. Once we can get her to play ball with us, and not just by herself (which she does when she thinks we aren’t looking) I'll let you know.

This is Frida. If you were here, she would certainly want a hug.

8)    Started a blog. That one had been coming for a while…not because I’ve got any mission to save the world or share my extensive knowledge of everything with my vast public, but because sometimes it’s just good to write. And doing so has cleared a bunch of stuff out of my head that was just floating around, waiting to get out. So that’s nice. Now there’s more room for reality TV in there (not!!). It’s also been fun to see what the rest of the blog team comes up with!

Certainly, I did more than this in 2013. But looking over this list at least I feel like the old dog can learn new tricks, all the time. Why, just last week I programmed a robot. Or is it a vacuum cleaner? (It’s both. I call him Jeeves.)