We know it's coming...

What to do with your old pocket planner when the year ends? Decorate it... you can't have too many sketch books, right?

I like starting over. I do it all the time. I start new journals, new exercise routines, new bookkeeping procedures... and as much as I try to "live in the present" I am definitely more of a "well, you screwed up today so you may as well start fresh tomorrow" person. I like plans, and if they go awry I sort of go to pieces instead of going with the flow. Sometimes I think I pull off the "hey, it's cool" vibe, but inside I am mostly trying to figure out how to re-organize my list.

I was going somewhere with this. But I just got distracted thinking about what I have coming up over the next few weekends and all the variables.

Anyway, New Year's Eve! I love it. Even though I don't truly believe in making Resolutions, I love making lists and plans for what the new year will contain. People I meant to see in 2016 that I never did. Books I didn't read, but will next year! Recipes I clipped and never cooked, may as well start going through them in January... I'll organize my photos (and write up a list of categories for reference)...  It feels fresh to me, like clean sheets on the bed. And it's a bench mark, the first day of the first month of the new year!

BUT like so many people, I am entering 2017 with a feeling of suspicion. Like, my sheets aren't really clean, they just got folded up in a way that makes them look like they were washed. My lists are more vague than usual. Basically along the lines of Be Nicer to People. Always Have Cash on Hand. Learn Political Geography. (Santa brought us an enormous wall map for this very reason. By enormous I mean 5.5 ft long and over 4 ft tall.) (Santa must have thought he measured our wall space and failed.) (And by "he" I mean "me." Oops.)

I feel like I'm looking at 2017 and shaking my finger at it saying "you better smarten up, mister." And yet, I'm pretty sure it won't.