Column: Something About Nothing

I know what my first New Year’s resolution is for 2011. I will not shop in any malls the weekend before Christmas. I tried that this year. I have one word for the excursion, and it is: disaster!

I am a die-hard shopper. I love to shop. I don’t necessarily buy something when I shop, but I love to window shop. However, the weekend before Christmas I was serious. I had coupons for $10 here and $10 there. I didn’t even have to buy anything over $10. I had free money to spend.

Armed with my coupons, my husband dropped me off at the door of a large retailer. I muscled my way in the door armed with just my purse. I was also weighted down by my heavy winter coat.

The first thing I noticed was the heat factor. Didn’t these stores understand that shoppers are heated enough trying to get their bargains? Didn’t they understand that we had no place to throw our coats? If they wanted us to shop till we dropped, they should have turned off the heat. A friend of mine told me later that she thought she was going to drop before she shopped.

As customers and I were heating up in body, the stress was heating up, too. I was trying to see over taller customers to find my items. I hadn’t practiced my up and down hopping so my wobbly hops maybe looked funny to other customers. I searched aisle after aisle trying to spend my $10 but nothing was catching my eye. I suspect it was because of the crowds and the heat.

Finally I made my purchase. It was long and heavy. The checkout person put it in a carrying bag. I stumbled my way through the mall. I had to either drag the bag (that rhymes and I am talking about my shopping bag not me) or hoist it high with my arm in an uncomfortable position because I was not tall enough to carry it.

I walked into another store where I had the valued $10 coupon. I took one look at the line at the register. It went from the back of the store, weaved through the aisle to the front of the store and into the mall. The heat and the crowds did in the “shop till I drop” constitution. I thought I was going to drop but not from shopping and what fun would that be? I called my chauffeur who was now shopping in the mall. He never shops. I suspect he was just trying to show me up with his stamina.

I dragged myself to a little coffee shop, paid for my coffee and sat in blissful contentment drinking my coffee and watching in wonder as the hot and uncomfortable impatiently waited in lines.

My daughter-in-law texted me while I was waiting for my husband and encouraged me to join her shopping strategy. She told me I needed to join her side which is never shop. Stop. I actually think I may switch ranks and move over to her shopping strategy.

The year 2011 is almost here. Will I keep my first resolution of the New Year? I won’t know until the end of 2011 if I can stand strong and stick to my resolution since my resolution has to do with the weekend before Christmas. Will I even remember I made that resolution?

The New Year is a good time to look at the past year and decide what you want to do differently when you move forward in 2011. It doesn’t mean that you should look back at the past and lament over your failures. You can look back at the past year, determine what did not work and look at it as a learning experience instead of a failure.

I have learned that it doesn’t matter how many resolutions I make, the future seems to take care of itself and life happens. I can’t always keep my resolutions because of life’s journey. The problem comes when we can’t live up to our expectations of our resolutions and we have a hard time accepting that fact.

I would like to make the resolution that I would like to be a nicer person in the New Year. I can make that resolution but I expect I won’t ever feel I could live up to that.

So that takes us back to the question: Why make a resolution that we know we can’t possibly live up to and set ourselves up for failure?

The New Year is a time for new beginnings. It is a time to set goals for you. It is a time to look to the future. Planning is good if you accept that there will be some surprises thrown in and sometimes those surprises may actually be better than the resolutions you made yourself.

John Lennon said it best, “Life is what happens when you are making other plans.”

I would also like to add that if you are the manager of a shopping mall and you decide to turn down the heat and add stepping stools for short people I might be persuaded to change my mind about shopping till I drop the week before Christmas. I would like to apologize to my daughter-in-law a year before it happens if the malls turn down the heat. I would unjoin from her “no shopping” side. I’m sorry my dear, after 15 years in our family you should know I am wish washy anyway.

Happy New Year to all of my readers.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net. Her blog is paringdown.wordpress.com. Listen to KBEW AM radio 1:30 p.m. Sundays for “Something About Nothing.”