New Year. New blog. New idea.

Happy New Year friends and readers!

So, this year was a doozey, huh? A little like a kick in the shin, right? Yeah. I feel you.

I don't know about you, but by December I feel like I'm living in a sea of my dirty laundry. I look around and I see a mess all the half-fulfilled promises made to myself in hasty champange-induced excitement. I see all the crap I mucked up and shoved under the bed to cohabitate with the dust bunnies and other forgotten aspirations. I see the stinking, worn out parts of me that are ready for a fresh start.

So fresh start it is!

I'm kicking my bad habits, folks, and because I love those habits sooo sooo sooo much, I'm going to write about how I handle ditching them for thirty days in an effort to bleach the laundry of my life.

Yes, folks, I'm going to:

1. Quit smoking.
You should know this is hard for me. Mainly because I think cigarettes are awesome. No really. I love them. They are the fruit of the gods. However, this happened:

I was driving around, doing errands, one afternoon, and I notice a girl in a green sedan a lane over. She's cute! Probably my age or a little younger. Great sunglasses. Nice hair. Adorable! I think to myself. Except that she's smoking a cigarette. God. How trashy, I think.

Then I look at my left hand.

Just call me Beth McHipocrite.

Additionally, I find the califlower-cigarette-butt-bloom my husband and I regularly create in the dish on our deck alarming. I also find it alarming that I purchased a ceramic chicken sugarbowl to use as an ashtray in an attempt to somehow mask/ignore/feel better about/class up my smoking habit.

However, it is funny when we put out a butt in the chicken butt. Ha.

2. Quit drinking.
I love drinking beer. I love it love it. Just ask the muffin that sits atop my pants. We both love beer. I love drinking beer almost as much as I love smoking cigarettes. You want to know what I love more than beer or cigarettes?

Beer AND cigarettes!

Which is why I am quitting both.

3. Start running again.
I used to run a lot. I "ran" a half marathon once (to best understand why "run" is in quotation marks, please click here). But in the last year, I have run none.

Wait! Not true! I made beer runs! I made 7-11 runs!

Not the same? Damn.

Well, I'm getting back on the bandwagon, and running three days a week.

Want to run the Monument 10k with me?

For the next thrity days, I'll periodically (no, not everyday) blog about how this is going. Its a lot to give up, a lot to get used to, and a lot to talk about.

I don't know what this blog will look like, because I think this blog-theme is a bit more personal. "Personal" doesn't have to mean "less funny" but it might mean "slightly different." I hope you'll stick around for the ride.

Wish me luck and pray for Mike, who must live with me during the next 30 days.