With my eye on launching my 2019 New Year’s resolution of “getting my shit together,” I’ve decided to go ahead and make some early efforts.

1). I’m trying to raise my standards for myself and do everything better than I have been. Wrapping gifts, for instance: for the first time in my adult life – I may have mentioned that I’m a late bloomer – I’m trying to do it right, which means the way Mom taught me. This begins with cutting the wrapping paper with a knife instead of with scissors.

Sidenote: The fact that Japanese-Americans keep some Japanese traditions (as do all cultures in the melting pot that’s America) makes for a convenient way to explain why I do things the way I do. When Callaghan asked me what I was doing with a knife, I said, “Mom taught me to cut wrapping paper with a knife. The Japanese cut everything with a knife.” Is this true? I don’t know. I never had to cut paper for origami because the origami paper we used was always pre-cut, but I imagine that if a Japanese person had to cut origami squares, they’d do it with a knife.

I do know that Mom is right. Paper cuts cleaner and more perfectly when you slice it with a knife.

2). I’m trying to stop complaining about local construction. My area is blowing up with continued construction insanity, but with my new mindset, all it means is that I’m in for an adventure every time I go to the gym. The lay of the land looks a little different every other day, and I’ll never know what I’ll run into until I’m there. Adventure is good!

It helps to know that I’m not the only one with this attitude challenge. I got some validation last week from an Uber driver who vented his frustration with the city when the act of getting me to my house turned into a navigational fiasco. We were just going from one part of downtown to another. An Uber driver who crawls the area grumbling about construction obstruction is enough for me to think, good… it’s not just me.

From here on out, I’m not complaining in a serious way, especially since I truly wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. For one thing, the creative energy here is off the hook. The sky is littered with construction cranes in some places, but they’re not disrupting the hum.

Wow – I’ve never been ready for both Christmas and New Year’s this early in December! How about that.