The Obligatory New Year Post

Happy New Year, World

Have you been thinking, hey, it is a New Year and still no post from that blogging Chicken; no resolutions, no look back at 2009, not even one small nod to World Peace?

More likely, you have not been thinking about Chicken at all but have been taking stock of your own life and working on your own list of resolutions.

If you are like certain of Chicken's friends you don't need a list but have one anyway, which you wrote on Dec 1, having finished all the Christmas preparations over the Thanksgiving break. Chicken is in awe of your organizational skills and work ethic.

Or maybe you are scratching your head and wondering how your underwear got all the way up there. Chicken doesn't judge, head scratchers, but you may want to re-think that whole jello shot NYE tradition because what happens in Vegas might stay in Vegas, but what happens elsewhere mostly ends up on Facebook.

Looking back at 2009, I'd like to note that Captain Sully did an excellent job of landing that plane on the Hudson. It is nice to know there are still heroes out there. It is not so nice to know that random flocks of birds can get sucked into a plane's engines and make it crash. I could have gone all my life and not missed knowing that. I'd also like to note that Patrick Swayze seemed like a truly nice guy and his death untimely. RIP, PS. Finally, it seems that going Green became mainstream in 2009 and that was good to see.

As for the rest of 2009, let's not say that I am sticking my head in the sand because I am not that kind of bird, but I am ready to move on. The recession, the unemployment, the fear and uncertainty, poor Michael Jackson and his children, Twitter, Ashton Kutcher, the Cougar movement, toy dogs as fashion accessories, Tiger's drama, Brangelina's brood, Kate & Jon's divorce, Kate's new haircut, Michelle Obama's shoulders....Enough already. This is the Chicken taking a giant step forward. Mother May I PLEASE move on to 2010?

In 2010 I am clipping my wings. Like many of you, perhaps, I want to stay a little closer to home and focus on family and community. I want to make do with what's already mine and consume less. I want to play scrabble, cheer on the home team at a basketball game, throw a pot luck, celebrate a friend's good fortune, write more letters, bake cookies and take long walks. I want to learn to knit those thick, warm mittens my Grandmother used to give every Christmas but hasn't for years because she's been busy being dead. I want to go to a church supper, decorate my Christmas tree with strings of cranberry and popcorn, put out bird seed, drink more cocoa, iron shirts on Sunday nights, and make soup.

I should also learn how to use the I-pod that I begged Santa for this year even going so far as to suggest I needed it earlier than Christmas in order to provide good music on Christmas Eve. Nope, that didn't happen. I am in love with the things gadgets can do but setting them up to do said things is not my forte. But it's on my list.

I hope 2010 is good to you, World, and that you accomplish all those things on your list. A nod to the President. He has his work cut out for him so let's wish him well.

Take care,
Chicken