My 5 cliches for 2015

I learned some big stuff about myself in 2014.

For example:

• I am very bad at remembering to move my car on street cleaning days, much to the delight of towing companies everywhere.
• Moving to a new city doesn’t automatically make one an online dating success.
• I LOVE public transit – who’d a thunk it?
• One can get tired of going to Fenway Park, especially when the Sox are having a rebuilding year.
• I apparently can enjoy cooking in the right circumstance, which is just, well, weird.
• And finally, I can run. If you’d asked me last New Year’s Eve if I would run nearly 3 miles on the NEXT New Year’s Eve, I would’ve laughed at you.

But that’s what I just did, and while I was doing it, a little boom went off in my brain.

Every year of my life, on New Year’s or thereabouts, I have vowed, like many, to make changes in my life. These vows are so common, they take on cliche status for me. That’s not to say they are bad, they are just not barnstorming-ly new. And sadly, most of these vows are never achieved.

But this year, I don’t want to change much. I want to continue what I’ve started, and improve. Those are very, very different words, and I’m finding them pretty damn powerful.

So, here are my 5 cliches for 2015.

1) Like most single people, I made it through the holidays (even adding a Christmas wedding to the mix) ***mostly*** intact. I had a couple of bad moments where I wanted to curl up in a ball and weep for my poor, spinster self, but more or less, I enjoyed the good cheer. However, in the most cliche-ish gesture of them all I came back home and promptly signed up for a new online dating site, which, I’m sure, will tantalize me with the thought of dates and then rudely remind me that I’m still the same me who hasn’t lit up the interwebs for the last 10 years of trying.

2) Cooking…I kind of dug it this year. I want to keep digging it. No fad diets, no new tricks, just me, trying to cook more and eat out less. Seems simple, right?

3) Travel – gotta do it. Despite a bunch of trips stateside this past year, the restless feeling is creeping up on me and I’ve a yen to get across that pond, or at least into a strange land in another time zone. Anyone wanna go to Ireland?

4) My dog, my Sadie – she continues to be my saving grace, a warm, welcoming presence who keeps me from spiraling into a sobby-single-vortex of self-doubt. I’m planning to get a new camera so I can take better photos of her, with a very, very loosely formed potential business idea behind it – we will see what comes of it. This is my “maybe I’ll start a new business” cliche, taken with a heavy grain of salt. I have two or three of these new ideas a year, just to be completely transparent, so no one get too excited.

5) And this one is just so kick-ass. I am not vowing to join a gym and take up running, because guess what?

I ALREADY DID.

So as we say goodbye to 2014, my few and faithful blog readers, I challenge you to give yourself a break in your 2015 vows. You don’t have to come up with some new big goal that will prove depressingly elusive. Look back over your year and see what worked. And then, figure out how to continue doing it. And maybe you’ll surprise yourself, as I have.

Much love to you all. I wish you many hugs, lots of long walks, and all sorts of good things and new discoveries to light you up and carry you through the year.