resolute (Or conversely: How to channel Sue while gripping a large bottle of vino at Safeway)

I took an informal poll (I watched talk shows & pundits while disrobing the Christmas tree and consulted my dogs) and the results are in: Resolutions are out. Apparently because they are bogus and don't work.

Now I don't take to a pen and get all serious with New Year's resolutions on January 1st, but I still contend that making realistic changes to meet goals is time well spent, whether at the beginning of the calendar year, or school year or randomly on February 29th, every four years. I personally like to re-evaluate my lifestyle every season, and see what I'd like to take up or leave out, and it works for me and my silly brain. Three months feels just right to me.

Pauses and ponders momentarily

However, I tend to recall picturing 2010 far differently last January, and being flexible made the curve balls and other cliched surprises far easier to handle. For instance:

1. I started subbing as a staff assistant in a special education classroom and found that I really loved working with the young children in the program, as did my daughter.
2. Which led to me getting to teach Zumba, on a occasion, at the school.
3. And then I left that behind, and made a rather abrupt move, leaving behind any job connections
4. I had an opportunity to go to Italy, France & Monaco in August, and
   
5. I have more time now to pursue writing & crafty goals, the thing I was seeking last year, but never managed because of all the other plans 2011 had for me.

So clearly I am no better at this stuff than the pundits, filling air time and chewing up what remains of my braincells.

***

It was mid-December and I was Bound & Determined to finish my errands that morning, donning a dirty post-workout ponytail and track suit. I was finishing up at Safeway, grabbing a gift card and some wine for the company that was due to be arriving in a few days. My December (tired, hungry, crabby) reptilian brain lit up upon seeing the massive bottle of Mondavi on sale. Problem solved and away I went through the express lane. Except you know that's not how it happened. I ended up at customer service because the gift card may or may not have been properly activated at the self-servicy thing.

Customer service. Heh. It was deserted, save for the four employees that would cash their paychecks before I was acknowledged, and after ten very long Christmas minutes passed. Of course, the clerk wasn't much help as she tried read my Magical Starbucks Card like a tarot card.

And here's when I started to lose my (lizard) mind: She told me three times, chanting really, that they were going to put a sign up, warning customers of this little debacle days before, but they had been too busy. Telling me that instead of solving the problem with a sharpie, they had opted for the now 20 minute hassle/tarot session, again and again, during the height of holiday shopping.

I tried to be sympathetic, I did, and I thought about offering to make the signs up myself but then a bunch of employees started taking turns wishing another employee 'Happy Birthday' over the loud speaker, so I figured I'd let them handle their own sign dilemmas. That and any insistence that they remedy the problem seemed to fall on deaf ears, coming from a Sue Sylvester disciple clutching one enormous bottle of wine.

Oh well.

But it got me thinking: Sometimes all the talk and intention in the world isn't enough, and we have to be resolute to make things happen, to take action, even as we hold on loosely to a world quick to change under our feet.