2009 Resolved

And so it's here, another year. It's very quiet here in the house this chilly, even freezing, first morning of 2009. I am, thus far, the only creature stirring here. I blame this propensity to getting up early, regardless of how late I might have been up the night before, on my parents. They were always up early and passed that on to me. Even now my dad gets up early but now I think it's because he's operating on "old man" time...I won't even tell you what time he wakes every morning. But you know that time I'm talking about...it's the reason for the "early bird" special at certain restaurants, so I needn't say more. I'd love to break the habit but doubt that I ever will.

One would think I would make this a resolution for the new year. I am not going to do that. I see no need to change it. Frankly, not a real big fan of the whole New Year's Resolution thing. It just seems to lead to frustration instead of tangible results. That being said, I am making one resolution for 2009 and it starts today, 1 January. Today I bid farewell to Diet Coke, Diet Coke with Lime, and my beloved Diet Pepsi Vanilla. That's right - I'm done. And this time, I mean it. I gotta give it up...for a host of reasons.

I'm not going to list all the reasons, or any of them. I just know that this is something I need to do and writing it down should help me to stick to it. And if nothing else since I've gone public with it here, hopefully the risk of shame will help me remain committed. I will admit that an article I read recently about energy drinks proved to be the proverbial tipping point.

So here's what I know...the next few days promise to be fairly, if not highly, unpleasant here. It will not be awesome, so buckle up. I also want to apologize in advance to the folks at McDonald's. I'll apologize now for that fact that I will not be giving you several dollars a day this coming summer when you bring back the "$1 Large Diet Coke" promotion, so you may want to revise those profit projections. I will likely cry like a little girl when that promotion with its siren song starts calling my name. I don't even want to think about it.

So, 2009 here we go. Let the games begin.