Out with 2009...and not too Soon!

As you can tell by the title, I was not too thrilled with 2009. It began [crappy] day ONE and didn't quite let up. I hate to sound maudlin at the end of the year, but I would have to chalk this one up as one of the worst. And, I still have much to be grateful for. My family is healthy and happy, my marriage is in tact, my job is rewarding and yet the world seems to have crashed down around me during this year. I won't go into details but I have some uplifting ways to end this post.



1. I have been keeping a gratitude journal since Thanksgiving and it's been a wonderful uplifting piece of the Holidays. In fact, I give it credit for my literally sailing through the last month or so virtually stress-free! :) I will definitely continue this tradition into 2010.

2. My resolutions are as follows (besides #1): to use my gifts of baking and teaching to help others, to meet my weight goal, and other religious goals that I don't really need to display to the world.

3. I would like to let people know about this great website called 29 Gifts (there is a book too). I am definitely going to sign up on Jan. 1 (tomorrow) to start my decade off on a positive note http://www.29gifts.org/
I love the calendar where you can keep track of what you give and what you receive.

4. I will remember what my priest told me recently: "Even if you end up with nothing, you still have each other."

Happy New Year! Something, Maybe......

Happy 2009 to all....actually, anyone who is bothering to read this. :)

Now, don't get me wrong with this one; I LOVE Elizabeth Scott! She has written some novels that have brought me right back to high school, feelings and all. And, I've often wondered how she is able to produce so many novels so quickly. On the ride to Indy, I finished SOMETHING, MAYBE (March, Simon Pulse) and I was not as enthralled as I was with her other novels. They are, to be sure, all feel good novels about boys and girls finding each other, going through trials and ending up reasonably happy. This one, however, I didn't have characters flushed out enough to seem real to me. The writing was lackluster compared to the other novels of hers that I've read and I just think this one could have used a bit more time on the back burner.

Hannah has a mom who is a dying star trying to keep her image alive on the internet, literally. Her father is a super famous, 72 year-old playboy who lives, Hugh Hefner-like, with his "bunnies" in NYC. Hannah is the product of her mother (when she was a bunny) and Jackson James, her father. Most of the novel is spent with Hannah trying to be invisible (her goal in high school)and trying to decide between two equally adorable boys at work. The plot just didn't seem to have the life that other Scott novels have. Characters were somewhat 2 dimensional and the plot just didn't seem to go anywhere. Perhaps teens would find this more scintillating than I, but this one just didn't do it for me. More later- I read a LOT over break.