Cleolinda everywhere

I've noticed people--a lot of people--saying that 2005 was a terrible year. And I grant you, we had Katrina, and London, and Tom Cruise losing his fool mind. I give you that. But it was a pretty awesome year for movies, and the weather in November was really nice, and... yeah. I'm not making a very good case here. Hell, now that I think about it, I spent the first five months in writer freakout, Sister Girl had a really hard year herself, and my poor mother's job has been hell. And my dog developed severe diabetes and then went blind. Oh, and my CAR WINDOW was BEATEN TO DEATH on CHRISTMAS EVE. So... maybe I will concede the point. Still, it never felt any worse to me than any other year at the time (excepting Katrina, which was kind of apocalyptic), but maybe that's because I'm an optimist. Really, looking back on it now, I feel like I must have gotten off easy compared to what a lot of people went through. But I'll tell you something--I think it takes something really, really bad to give you a certain equilibrium. My parents had a really one-sidedly awful divorce when I was a freshman in college, to the point where it was more just one parent screwing over the entire family, in-laws included, and there were times when we thought we weren't going to be able to make the house payments. Shit basically went down continuously for about--a year, really. I mean, it was the next December by the time a state trooper appeared on the doorstep while I was home for Christmas vacation. There's a point, though, where you get your head above water again, and a lot of things don't faze you after that. If you go through enough, you come out of it believing you can handle just about anything you put your mind to, because you've seen things get pretty bad and you're not scared of what's coming next.

Whoa. That got a little deeper than I intended it to be. My point was supposed to be, the good thing about a bad year is that, when it's over, anything that hasn't killed you really has made you stronger. You've got that to look forward to, at least.

Anyway, I started thinking about New Year's resolutions. I've come to the conclusion over the year that I'm not very good at task-oriented resolutions, even though you would think that would be more productive. You can say "I will walk [x] miles a week," but I totally won't do it. I find that it's easier for me to think in vague terms, because that way I'm never behind. I want to read more books--I have piles from two and three Christmases ago that I never get around to. I want to watch more DVDs--I have a pile of those, too (although, I have to say, I did very well this past year as far as seeing movies in the theater went). I want to learn to knit--this was my resolution last year, and this year I got as far as getting needles and yarn for my birthday last month (which is actually further than I usually get). More than anything, though, I think I want to finish things.

Small linkspam:

Back at #1: I think the Narnia people need to send a cupcake fruit basket to the "Lazy Sunday" guys.

outinthestorm: "Just in case you missed this, Cleo, the newest Childrin R Skary flash has been released."

No, Neil Gaiman does not write fanfic. Not even under a pseudonym.

And, finally: lovememe, the panfandom antidote to those intermittent Post About People You Hate memes that come and go. And please--don't go over there and say you love me--I'm posting this so more people will participate, not to whore for comments. (Yes, I actually mean that. Go love on other people.)