Twenty Eighteen is Happening

I blinked and missed 2017. 

As Christmas approached I hid under a blanket of Grinch; this year I didn’t even attend the office Christmas Party. I hadn’t fancied it and wondered what excuse I might make. In the end I clicked no to the invite and when people asked if I was going simply said I wasn’t and that I hoped they’d have fun. I spent the evening eating fish fingers for my tea in comfy house clothes with the heating and an easy watching 90s film on Netflix. It was wonderful and against a backdrop of ongoing Christmas Pressure (that in 2017 begun on November 6th. IAn epic overkill of commercialism, in my opinion) it was welcome solace. In 2018 I will say ‘No, thank you’ to at least some things I don’t want to do. You should, too. It’s our life after all.

Looking back at 2017, I had a speckled commitment to my blog. It started out like a heavy blizzard in January and petered off with a couple of flash floods as the year wore on. It wasn’t because I didn’t have things to write about, that I certainly did, but between real life stuff I must have lacked the energy I forgot that keeping a blog needed. As people asked me about it I found myself saying “I haven’t really done it much, lately”. Lately, of course, meaning for the last 6 months of the year. So much so that when it came to renewing the domain I thought twice. Was it worth it? Would I do it? Will anyone actually miss it if Lipstick at Weekends just disappeared? I would, for a start.

2017 plodded along and the latter part of the year felt like a slog, through illness and feeling fed up. General malaise, I guess you could say. I stopped meditating as much which was bad for my mental health. I’ll be meditating more in 2018 too, I hope.

I want to travel but leave from work is a little sparse so while I’ll do what I can in 2018, 2019 might be the big year for that. I do have a couple of exciting gigs (okay, one is a festival) to look forward to later in the year and Christmas (yes, next Christmas is getting a mention on January 1st) in Florida to forget that I’m an adult which I’m already keen to itinerise (a holiday that facilitates- demands, even- an excuse to plan neurotically months in advance is a holiday made for me).

I also want to read more (and read more varied) and better get my tush to the library because our book shelves are currently bowing. I plan to clear out some of the books we have, though so maybe when I drop them at the charity shop I can pick up some new ones – any recommendations are much appreciated. I like women writers, dystopian fiction, a memoir (as long as it isn’t a celebrity), Deborah Levy, Margaret Atwood and Patricia Highsmith. Fill my boots.

I love New Year. It’s so fresh and full of opportunity. I’m drawing a line under 2017. I’ll hopefully have lots to write about in 2018 and I wish you and yours a healthy, happy year full of love.