Welcome, 2011!

I've been very fortunate not to have suffered that dreaded Curse of a Blogger's Existence (too wordy, let's call it by its street nickname: Writer's Block) for some time now. It seems that lately, whenever I sit down with my laptop for designated Creative Time (yeah, scheduling the magic REALLY makes it happen, can you tell?), I come prepared with a ready-made story...like one of the Musical Monkeyboys will have written a noteworthy song (one that is incidentally just the perfect combination of adorable and potentially embarrassing to their future-teenage-dating selves)...or there will have been a Soccer Sports Achievement that must be chronicled, to relive and relish in years to come...or a Minor Medical Mishap will have occurred, that turns into an almost instant "we'll laugh about this later" if I can just capture it on paper--I mean "screen" moment.

But I have to confess, I'm feeling some real (self-applied, naturally) pressure here. It's a brand new year. Heck, it's a fresh decade. So I ought to make this first post of 2011 a thought-provoking, existential commentary, relating some small event in my own personal existence to the universal Meaning of Life, or at least the Global Community of Mankind ...and I got nothin'. Let me dig deep, and see if I can uncover any worthwhile Life Lessons from my first few days of January 2011...

--after a week of total togetherness with the Beloved Sons (in which, to their credit, they behaved beautifully--but they seemed to always be THERE whenever I turned around!), I opted to stay home alone and send the three WestMen off to a New Year's Eve party as our Team Representatives. They had their social time, I had my quiet time, and everyone was happy. Lesson: Sometimes, Mom needs everyone to go the heck away and leave her in blessed peace for a while!

--on New Year's Day, we visited my Great Aunt in her nursing home, and had dinner with my Mom, Dad, sister, brother, niece and nephews. We watched a little of the Rose Bowl Parade with Great Aunt Renie. I got to play Spiderman with my 3-year old nephew (he earnestly assigned me the role of Mary Jane...so I obediently sat there and cheered him on as he fought the Bad Guy...AKA Uncle Royce!) Derek and Riley wrestled with their rowdy cousins (who watch entirely too much UFC, by the way, but what can you do?) We all got to gather around the table and eat black-eyed peas for good luck in the coming year. Lesson: Even when they earn a timeout for landing a piledriver on your head (I'm not actually speaking metaphorically here, this did happen...to 2 different kids!), family is precious and should be treasured.

--also on 1/1/11, we traveled to a friend's house to cheer on Penn State in the Outback Bowl. There was much yelling at the players on the television. There was armchair refereeing. There was inventive-but-completely-clean trash talking among the fans. There were awesome snacks ('cuz for me, that's what "watching a football game" is all about anyway). In the end, the Florida Gators chomped the Nittany Lions (sorry), but still a good time was had by all. Lesson: You win some, you lose some, but it doesn't really seem to matter, as long as you're with friends.

Well, there you have it. I think what has become abundantly clear from this little dip into my stream of consciousness (thanks for paddling along) is that all I truly need to make 2011 happy and successful is: time with family, time with friends, and time by myself! That's it, time....to go!