Thursday, December 31, 2020

2021 Kerouac-olutions and a report on 2020's

 

Before I address Kerouac-olutions for the new year, here is an update on how I did with 2020's.

2020 New Year's Kerouac-olutions UPDATE

1. Drink a bottle of 14-year-old Glenlivet single malt scotch (with help from Crystal)
SUCCESS
2. Read Be Here Now by Ram Dass (who just died)
SUCCESS
3. Use the treadmill at least twice a week, preferable three times (30 minutes per)
FAIL
4. Lose some more weight
FAIL
5. Stay off anti-depressants (which I recently weaned myself from)
SUCCESS
6. Buy Crystal flowers at least 6 times
SUCCESS (if you count grocery store flowers she may or may not have paid for)
7. Read Kerouac (no particular titles or amounts)
SUCCESS
8. Continue blogging in remembrance of the birth and death dates of real-life characters in Kerouac's world and works
SUCCESS
9. Fulfill my 200-hour commitment to Crisis Text Line
SUCCESS
10. See the California Dales in person
FAIL (thanks to COVID)

2021 New Year's Kerouac-olutions

In 2021, I hereby resolve to:

1. Stay alive one more year (this item partly inspired by COVID)
2. Drink a bottle of 21-year-old Bushmills and 18-year-old Tullamore Dew (with help from Crystal)
3. Use the treadmill at least 2 times per week
4. Lose 10 pounds
5. Be able to do 25 pushups in a row
6. Continue blogging in general and specifically about Kerouac-related births and deaths
7. Read a bunch of books, including some John LeCarre -- who just died (hard to quantify, I know)
8. See the California Dales in person (COVID may prevent this)
9. Read Kerouac (no particular amounts or titles)
10. Buy Crystal flowers at least 6 times

Nothing too heady or difficult here. Just keeping up a tradition of posting resolutions. What are yours?



2 comments:

Roxanne said...

Okay, here's how my 2020 Kerouac-olutions panned out:


This year's Kerouac-olutions:

1. Get a new psychiatrist because this one is incompetent.
RESULT; FAIL. COVID prevented any psychiatrist in my area from seeing new patients, especially those who were already on meds. I'm still stuck with the incompetent one.

2. Attend LCK again (hopefully with boyfriend in tow)
RESULT: FAIL, but this one wasn't my fault because they didn't have it.

3. Go to San Francisco for some Kerouac-related sight-seeing
RESULT: FAIL because of COVID.

4. Actually get out of the apartment and see people and do things despite my stupid depression.
RESULT (hysterical laughter) Um...FAIL.

Okay, that was depressing, so here are my Kerouac-olutions for 2010:

1-4 All of the previous ones.
5. Visit Karl (HS friend) at least twice
6. Finish writing project
7. Attend more professional development activities/workshops, on Zoom or otherwise
8. Continue to be COVID-free.
9. Get back into yoga, possibly lose weight.
10. Find at least 90 minutes a day to just WRITE and nothing else.

We'll see how Rick and I do next year! Happy New Year, fellow Kerouacians!

Rick Dale, author of The Beat Handbook said...

Good luck, Roxanne!