I posted on Twitter earlier today that everybody is doing serious New Year’s posts, while all I really want for 2011 is to not be pregnant and to eat a donut. So if you keep reading this post, don’t say you didn’t know what you were in for.
I don’t know what to resolve for 2011. I could resolve to shave my legs more often, but let’s be real. By the end of May I won’t be able to find them and anybody who comments on the state of my legs is asking for a messy, painful death.
Which brings me to one lesson learned in 2010: I now know what’s wrong with Red Queen and how to fix it. My heroine was acting all wrong. Come on. She was killing people before pregnancy hormones made her insane. So character is going to determine plot changes, and while I would point out to the gods of story that it was not actually necessary for me to have a refresher course on pregnancy to fix this book, I am glad to have the solution.
I am resolved to begin using the local pool unless it triggers asthma attacks (chlorine can do that), both so I can get some exercise without joint stress and so I can coach my kids on basic swimming skills. I don’t know how this will mesh with my leg-shaving challenge. Maybe I’ll start wearing flowery skirts, patchouli and Birkenstocks to the pool to complete the look.
I’d resolve to finish all my unfinished mss., but that could take more than a year. Especially a year in which I have to cope with unshaved legs, pregnancy hormones, a newborn, and five gazillion medical appointments and procedures. All while I can’t eat chocolate or donuts or drink coffee. If I make it through 2011 with my sanity intact and the ability to string a coherent sentence together, I’m calling it a win.
I would like to resolve to stay caffeine free post-baby, but I have never managed to stay off it yet and this is more of a hopeful wish than a real resolution. When I’m getting six hours of sleep a night and they’re interrupted by baby care in the wee hours, I am likely to fall on that coffee crutch. So I resolve to be kind to myself if it turns out I need to mainline Starbucks to cope, which seems like a much more reasonable approach than a rigid “Thou shalt not touch the demon bean” kind of thing.
I resolve to appreciate my body more instead of judging it. I recently had an aha kind of moment where I realized that I was incredibly athletic for most of my life and incredibly fit and still I was always judging my body and finding it didn’t measure up. And now I would love to have my younger body back, and I know that in twenty years I will possibly scream at my 40 something self “You didn’t know how good you had it before the hip replacement!” or something similar, and wonder why I didn’t appreciate myself at this age any better than I did in my teens or 20s or 30s.
Bodies are miraculous. They perform wonders for us daily, hourly, every minute, every breath. In 2011, I want to appreciate that miracle more even if that miracle comes with hippie legs.
2010 has been very transitional, and I sort of had this idea earlier in the year that I’d zip right through that transition and establish myself on the other side, and now I realize transitions aren’t that neat. Another lesson. I think maybe I’ll start to see and do the things in 2011 I thought I’d do in the latter half of 2010.
I do resolve to keep writing and keep reading. I also resolve to play, to go places, to live life creatively and with zest. And to not be pregnant. And to eat a donut.
Here’s to the New Year.
Somehow, I have a feeling your two wishes for this year will come true. 🙂
Happy 2011, Charli! Sounds like you have the right attitude to make it so.
Thanks, Raine! May this year be good to us all.
I think women over forty start to worry less about their bodies and move on to worrying about other things instead. I appreciate my bod far more at my age than I ever did, or at least see the beauty of it more than the wrinkles or gravity issues.
Also, remember you are one of the fastest writers out there-you’ve already got that down.
Happy new year and new baby!
When I was pregnant with my youngest, I knew it would be my last, so I made up my mind to enjoy it. And enjoy it I did, through seven straight months of the kind of heartburn that would choke a dragon, six months of balancing me and baby on a wobbly artificial knee and elephantine ankles, and several months with a chloasma which resembled a map of Texas that showed up one day on most of my right cheek (somewhat faded now, but still there.)
Even back then I had to be careful about exercise and the wear and tear on my joints, so I signed up for my first Tai-Chi class. It helped me stay flexible and keep my weight gain under control. It also got my head in the right place and calmed me even when I was in hormonal hell.
On shaving the legs — I always had my guy do it for me from the end of the second trimester on. Among other things. 😉
Thanks, Mary, and happy New Year to you! Ha on the fast, I feel slow compared to so many other writers (looks at PBW) but then again, when a story comes together sometimes it spits itself right out.
I do think 40 brings a better perspective. If nothing else you realize that function matters more than form!
This is my last, too, and I’m with you. I plan to enjoy it, and also to take the first year with the baby slower work-wise. This isn’t coming around again, and I can always go back to juggling chainsaws when the baby’s older.
Tai chi is calming. And there’s always yoga. There are lots of gentle options, which is good, because you have to be extra careful of joints when they go and loosen on you. (thanks, hormones!)
Very smart to enlist your guy. Hadn’t thought of that!