The Year of Kaye

Taking a page from the book of George Costanza, I am calling 2009 The Year of Kaye. Last year was the Year of Eric, doing all the million little things required to get him on a mission. 2006 was the Year of Brent. He was getting married that year, which also involved a million little things. I would be willing to share 2009 with Denise should things take a turn in that direction, but so far, at least, I'm dedicating it to me.

Lest I come across as a selfish whiner, let me say that a year devoted to me is not a year devoted to buying expensive gifts for myself (although others may wish to celebrate The Year of Kaye that way). Nor is it a year dedicated to simply doing what I want when I want and letting chips fall willy-nilly. It is not a year of even finding myself. I know exactly who I am and what I should be and want to be and need to be doing.

The Year of Kaye means that this year I will be more focussed. I will make goals and keep them. I will do things I have been wanting to do for years and just kept procrastinating out of fear or inertia or lack of planning. The first step for me will be forcing myself to write things down, a huge step in my life. I'm not a person who likes lists, daily planners, taking notes, highlighting textbooks, writing on calendars. I have relied in the past on my pretty decent memory and serendipity. I'm sure I've missed out on some things in the past by being somewhat cavalier about my time, but for the most part I've gotten things done and felt like the journey was as fun as the destination.

As I age -- oh, how I hate that word -- I am finding the memory is not what it once was. My level of concentration is also somewhat diminished. While I have more free time, ostensibly, because I am an empty-nester, I get less and less done with that time. I am somewhat perplexed as to why that is, but I believe the solution lies in planning and organization, hence the goal of writing things down.

Since I spend my working hours on a computer, I have decided the best way to begin my life as a list-maker is to do it on the computer, so I am using a new program that came with Microsoft Office 2007 called One Note. It's a good tool for organizing notes, schedules, snippets of information. I think it's designed primarily for students, but it will work for me. My first goal is to learn how to effectively use the program and to actually use it. I am going to set aside time to make my lists every day, probably in the mornings, as that seems to be my best thinking time. I am not a late-night person in anybody's book.

And speaking of late nights, I stayed up last night, New Year's Eve, until approximately 12:02, at which time I gratefully went to bed. I feel obligated to stay up to see in the New Year, but it's not fun or exciting or magical or pleasurable or important. I do it out of a sense of duty, out of a sense that if I go to bed before midnight, I am turning into a lame old woman, and I refuse to do that, so I stay up just long enough to say Happy New Year, and then happily say Good Night.

One of my goals that I am writing down and even setting an alarm for on my Outlook Calendar is to write in this blog at least once a week. I hope to be able to share some of my creativity, primarily in quilting but other ways as well. So, with that said, here is the first post of 2009, and now let the Year of Kaye begin!