New Year

If you're looking for some kind of uplifting, deep thinking, high hoping schmutz here, I ain't got it.

Other things I ain't got include resolutions, so you won't find that here either.

I've always been a sort of plan for the worst and hope for the best kind of person and I figure 2014 will continue to prove to me that that's probably the least stressful way to go about life without giving up on caring entirely.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being a Debbie Downer here... I just don't know what 2014 is going to bring yet. There are goals I want to accomplish and things I want to start doing more, and others I want to start doing less, but those decisions and the steps to start implementing them started months ago, for the most part, so making them resolutions doesn't make much sense.

What I do know about 2014 is that I'll take whatever it throws at me and come out still breathing, still kicking, and still able to find something (some days anything) to smile about. I'll keep loving those that I care about, and being the best person I can be. I'll cherish the friendships I have and the memories of those that I've lost over the years, just like before.

I'll be a shoulder for some friends, a vent for others, and they'll variously do the same for me.

And at the end of this year, as with the last, if I've been honest with myself and stuck by my own lights for what is right, I won't have anything to be ashamed of, and hopefully I'll have a few things to be proud of.

And that's really it. I hope for all of my readers a happy, healthy year, full of laughter instead of tears, but being a pragmatist, I advise you all to stock up on Kleenex anyway. It's not like it goes bad after all, and there's always flu season....