ch-ch-ch-changes...

so today . . . i bought rollie a tie.

rollie doesn't wear ties much anymore unless he is officiating at a wedding or a funeral. so it has been several years since he has had a new tie. but today i bought him a new tie, because he is going to need it. he has a new job.

today is the beginning of another brand new year. usually i make resolutions on january 1. usually they are the same resolutions i made the year before and the year before that! yes, i am not so good at keeping my new year's resolutions. so this year i am only making one. this year, my new year's resolution is not to go crazy in 2011.

2011 is not going to be an easy year for me. 2011 is going to be a year of changes. and i am not a person who loves change. i like the familiar. i eat the same thing for breakfast nearly every day. i take the same route to and from the places i go. i listen to the same songs over and over again on my ipod. i play the same few games on my phone. i like the familiar.

but i have the feeling that the familiar is going to be elusive this next year. rollie is starting a new job, which sets a whole string of changes in motion. we will have to move into another house. we will have to find another house to move into. (yes, i will be a house hunter!) we will have to sort and pack all of our stuff. and diandra's stuff. and then unpack it all again. and put it away. rollie's schedule will change, which means my schedule will change. life will change.

and then there is diandra. she is getting married in march. we will be adding a son-in-law to our family. diandra will be a wife, but her husband will be thousands of miles away in the middle east for six more months. so she will continue to live with us for a while, but then the day is going to come when she is going to move out of our house and into one of her own. of course. but we will miss having her around. life will change.

and then there is my job. while finding a house and packing and moving and helping diandra with wedding stuff and adjusting to rollie's new job, i will still be teaching. i will be teaching several hours a day and trying to do all the other stuff after i get home. when i am already tired. when i should be blogging. or walking the dogs (ok, i confess--i am also making a resolution to walk the dogs at least a few days a week...) or cooking (ha! i'll bet you didn't expect that one :) it is going to be a while before i can come home, plop myself down on the couch with my computer, and spend the evening watching my favorite shows on tivo. life will change.

i am a little overwhelmed today, thinking about what the next few months are going to be like. i am thinking maybe i should just go to jamaica and come back in june. because i think that when i get through the next few months, when i have adjusted and dealt with the changes that are coming my way, my life is going to be quite different than it is today. different isn't always bad--sometimes different can be very good. but it is still different. and for a person who likes to know what each day is going to bring, that can be a little unnerving...

so my resolution for 2011 is not to go crazy. i will try to take each day as it comes. i will try not to think too far out into the future. i will work harder at finding something funny every day to laugh at. and to blog :)

because at the end of the day, the important things in my life are not going to change. i will still have a place to live. i will still have food in my refrigerator. i will still have a job. and i will still have a family who loves me.

2011, here we go...