Ring In The New Year

Welcome to the pretend holiday edition of Mocha Momma.

I don’t do holiday editions. But if I did, it would look a lot like a list:

1. I got a Christmas card from the Obamas. I also got one from Jennifer Hudson and Weight Watchers. JenHu and WW can just go eat a cheeseburger and shut up talking to me. The Obama campaign got a donation from me, but I haven’t bought any JenHu music nor have I visited a WW so that was just a cruel joke. But the joke’s on you, JenHu! I lost 30 pounds this year already. So, ha! Now I’m going to have a cheeseburger.

2. A funny thing happened after I posted that last post about Mason. He came home and surprised me (!) which is why I have neglected my blog writing. I’d much rather spend time with him and miniblog than try to capture every single picture thus missing out on the acutal spending time together part. A random Thursday night he just knocked on the door at 9:30pm and gave me a lovely surprise and a bit of a fright. No one really knocks on our door that late at night nor am I surprised by a visit. That doesn’t normally happen unless that one bourbon salesman comes around. But this was just as nice.

3. Every year I vow to get more organized. I’m not the Queen of Organization, but I make a small effort throughout the years until I get better and better. Yesterday I took down the decorations from the tree. Our first Christmas together, last year, I began the task of collecting ornaments again after leaving most of it behind at my ex’s house. So, while the kids were downstairs with me and The Cuban was in the kitchen, I stopped watching television and started taking ornaments off the tree and put them neatly back into the container where I counted each one and knew when a bulb was missing because I AM JUST THAT ORGANIZED IN MY LIFE NOW.

Most of the holiday cards on the mantel came from bloggers. Who knew you people were so awesome at that stuff including keeping my address from last year so you didn’t have to ask? I love you people. You are freaky crazy.

It’s always nice to have company when I’m cleaning. When I was a kid and my mom told me to clean my room I called up a friend and invited them over to sit on my bed while I folded clothes and dusted and vacuumed my bedroom. It’s one thing that has bled over into my adult life. I got a little excited and when I finished I shouted:

Me: King Kong. Ain’t got nothin’. On me!

The Cuban: Is that true? Are you sure King Kong isn’t really fast?

Me: Yes, because Kong’s got these fat, stubby fingers and it makes it hard for him to pack away his ornaments.

The Cuban: That makes perfect sense.

4. I read Joe Bodolai’s suicide note yesterday and it bothered me immensely, not because of what he did after writing it and ending his life, but because it was really a great template for keeping track of your life and then he stopped keeping track of his life. I didn’t even know who he was until I read it, but the lists were pretty good even if there was some passive aggression there. Maybe it was sadness and regret, though he wrote about those, too. (*I have my own shorter list below, but don’t go calling the police or my therapist. It’s just a regular list with no ulterior motives.)

5. This past year I have been a bad blogger. Naughty, even. At least by the standards of What Makes A Good Blogger and most of that stems from the fact that I am just royally busy. That doesn’t make much sense unless you know that the Royals are always attending events and store openings and waving at the crowds. Yep, that’s a lot of what I do in my job that takes away from blogging. As always, I’m going to try to be better about that and write more consistently. Starting with this very post.

*Things I Think Will Happen Next Year – I will write more about race and racism and take a lot of heat for it. In fact, if you recall, I was to write a 3rd installment on race and decided against doing so for various reasons. Not the least of which is those crazy people waiting in the wings and silently reading my blog only to charge out of the gate to refute what racism is. When I wrote about that Racist Cake thing I was so surprised that the woman who commented (I’m not naming her again. It’s like Beetlejuice. She’ll just come back like a cockroach.) and called me on something that happened 3 or 4 years ago had still been reading. Wow, talk about not having given up the fact that people called you out on a racist comment. Anyway, I’m going to write about race because it’s not like I can stop being black or anything.

Stuff I Would Like To See In My Life – A see-through body of water preferably surrounding a beach off the coast of Belize. I’m going to use my passport and get some mileage on that bad boy. I’m going to get busy living.

Things I Regret – Not all that much, actually. It just comes down to making poor decisions, trusting the wrong people, and not learning lessons from it. Every mistake came with a lesson that I got so I’m okay with not having regrets.

Things I Am Proud Of – Not having regrets. Putting myself first and being perfectly okay with that. Creating and crossing off items on a Life List. My incredibly funny and big-hearted children. Not being a statistic. Pushing all the right buttons on people. Expanding the boundaries. Rising above circumstances to get where I am. Keeping my house.

Here’s to a really great 2012. Let’s hope those Mayans were just high off some herbal supplements and were messing with us.