aud lang syne**

I suppose "Happy New Years!" is in order. I've kind of been anti-New Years this year because I realized it's kind of an overrated holiday. However, I just woke up on this, the first day of 2008, and have a new positive attitude about it all.

Last night I spent the majority of the evening with my mom. Ben had to work--people crave spaghetti on New Year's, apparently--and I didn't want to spend the evening at my house with devil dog (who, by the by, is growing on me because he's become quite lazy and less puppy-ish).

My mom and grandma and I went to see "Juno," my new favorite. It could be considered offensive to some, however, I don't get offended easily and tend to believe I have an open mind about certain issues, ie: teen pregnancy. It was clever and witty and I shed a tear or two. I need to rush out and buy the soundtrack to this movie as the music is just fantastic; kind of quirky and fun. It was also funny in that my grandma cracked up a few times and also fell in love with the music.

I had a hankering for some serious seafood so my mom bought 2 HUGE crab legs for me at Harmon's. She steamed it to perfection and I indulged myself in the yummy crabby goodness, along with melted butter, of course. We watched "Girl with Pearl Earing" while dinning on our feast. It was sweet and tender, and ironically, the girl in this movie gets pregnant while unwed, too.

Ben texted me at 10:30 to say that he was just getting out of work. I drove home in my newly cleaned and less salty looking car, only to have to wait longer for him to get back from the store. He walked in the door around 11:45 and promptly began to work on wrapping Christmas lights. I was "watching" "Dick Clarke's Rocking New Year's Eve" when the ball dropped. I felt a little disappointed in the big moment, quite frankly. And Mr. Clarke sounded slurry and horrible.

About 10 minutes after the new year, Ben had finished lighting some firecrackers outside, we gave each other the traditional midnight kiss and I got ready for bed. How exciting, eh?? I fell asleep on the couch while cuddling with Ben watching "Vegas Vacation."

We are headed to a family party today at my 'cousin's' billion dollar house, which supposedly has 3 kitchens and a 14 car garage. It should be fun times. Perhaps I'll take a picture or two.

I was reading my New-Year's-Birthday-Celebrating-Best-Friend Katie's blog last night. She posted some of her resolutions. I originally never intended to resolve anything this year because, like most, I sellout about January 4th or 5th and then get in a deep depression concerning my failure. However, some of her resolutions inspired me, so here is my copy-cat list of 2008 Resolutions:

1. Stop DVR-recording reality tv shows (American Idol, America's Next Top Model, Big Brother, etc.). Scratch that: Stop watching reality tv shows all together. They consume me when I do and usually I should be doing something besides viewing such trash.
2. Hang up my clothes instead of acquiring a nice pile in the corner of my room. This drives Ben nutso, and I suppose it's a carry-over from childhood. I'm a big girl now with a tiny teeny closet full of empty hangers just waiting for companions. It should also cut down my ironing, which I hate and thus resolve to do less of this year.
3. Swear less while playing Guitar Hero. Pretty much that's it.
4. Play less Guitar Hero because it's turning out to be reality TV's replacement.
5. Eat less bread. Or no bread. Whichever becomes easier.
6. Acquire all of my old roommates current addresses for next year's Christmas card, which I actually will take time to put together next year. (if you're an old roommate, or you know an old roommate's address, e-mail me!)
7. Sew. My sweet mom Hubert got me a sewing machine last year for Christmas and I've neglected it. I resolve to make....something cute.
8. Stop being a pack-rat. Seriously, I don't need to save the greasy napkin from the restaurant I ate at on my birthday last year. Who cares?
9. Call Zeus "devil dog" fewer times.
10. Live in the moment and be happy about what my current life is.

I'm looking forward to seeing my darlings tomorrow, all 145 of them. I'm sure by 6th period, however, I'll wish it were still Christmas break. But an optimistic attitude never hurt anyone. Before break I planned 2 weeks worth of lessons for the weeks after break. Tomorrow we're writing resolutions. They'll love me.

Happy New Year to my favorite 5 or 6 people who read this! Love all around.

**Aud Lang Syne lyrics