No more sparkling decorations. No more parties. No more fun.

January is the dreariest of the months.

The glow of the Christmas lights have darkened as the decorations have been stashed away. By the side of the road sits a brown, crispy hull of a Christmas tree, a shell of its former glory. It used to make people gleeful with its white or colored lights and dangling ornaments. Now, its cruelly tossed out, waiting to be ground up into tiny bits so it can decompose. Fake trees are stashed in stifling closets, attics, or basements, forgotten until next year. In the meantime the plastic tree hibernates, collecting dust, and feeling neglected.

People, after a month of over-consuming, over-socializing, and being overwhelmingly busy, scale back and opt to stay home. They embrace their New Year’s Resolutions of denying themselves fun rich foods, cookies, and alcoholic drink. The days of an overflowing supply of cheese accompanied by a forever refilling wine glass are gone. Pizza has been replaced with salads, which are great, but not so appealing when rain seeps from swirling gray skies, and the chill drives the cat inside to eat out of boredom and get chubby.

Yes, January is the dreariest of the months.

Getting a friend to meet you somewhere in January is almost impossible as they only want to huddle at home, hungry and agitated as they buckled down on their diet plan for the first three weeks. They also suffer from sore muscles, having joined a gym and with much enthusiasm, did too much the first two sessions. Moving presents a burden, so much in fact, they probably won’t pick up their cell phones to answer your texts about getting together.

The cold weather lingers and the plants have died, some becoming nothing more than piles of sludge on the ground. Others simply wither and turn brown. Spring hovers around the corner, waiting to do its dance to lure the flowers out of the ground. The warm weather feels distant and impossible to reach.

So let’s pop open the champagne and raise out glass for a toast and say good-bye to January, the dreariest of all months.

Frenemy is disgusted by the January weather.

Cats and yoga mats

She sleeps in the corner, her tail wrapped around her body, her head nestled into her front paws. Her whiskers quiver and her back legs twitch at dreams of far-off fields, teaming with light brown wheat and an abundance of rats. 

It is the time of day that I stretch my muscles, taunt from too much sitting and I will push through a series of sun salutations with a personal vow to add one more than the day before. 

I remove the yoga mat from the closest, its squishiness sinking beneath my fingers.  Often it smells like last night’s dinner. Perhaps I should move it out of the pantry and into an actual closet. 

I place it on the floor, quiet, and with deliberation I roll the mat out. 

Instantly, the cat springs to life, dreams of rats forgotten, and she sprints to the yoga mat and plops in the middle of it. 

Just like the day before and the day before that. 

Cats and yoga mats.

I adore making New Year’s Resolutions. The new year starts, full of hope and promises that changes can be made, and triggers inspiration. My list starts with a few and then grows to many, some of them merely to do items but I prefer to call them resolutions, all 31 of them.

The year started off a bit gloomy as an illness had left me dozing on the sofa and unable to think for 21 days. The virus has cleared my system, and my functioning brain has switched back on, and I’m ready to get started.

Except I’m kind of weak so the exercise one will have to wait until later.

And now I’m super hungry, so maybe I should hold off on the Mcdougal style diet.

I don’t feel like going anywhere so the visit to new restaurants will be put on hold.

Hmmmm, maybe it’s not time to tackle NYR.

February anyone? Sounds like an excuse…

Mostly this post isn’t meant to be exciting, but to try some new things I’ve learned about WordPress. And following the youtube video I watched didn’t solve the issues I was having. Comments on blog post tips appreciated!