The Rest of My Life in 2013

My mother used to say, "Whatever you do on January first, you will do everyday of your life for the rest of the year. Choose your activities wisely."

This is the same woman who believed it was bad luck to leave your Christmas decorations up after the first of the year. She also believed that eating black-eyed peas and ham on New Year's Day would bring good luck. When I was in college, she would send me a can of black-eyed peas every year to make sure that this was accomplished.

I still eat black-eyed peas on January first. My husband does too by default. I'm not leaving anything to chance. In the car, when Dan and I see Christmas decorations still up after New Year's Day, we both point at the house and yell, "Bad luck!"

And if what we do on January first determines what we will do for the rest of the year, here is what 2013 has in store for us.

Everyday in 2013, Dan and I will:

Watch Portlandia and Lost, for eight hours straight
I know, I know. Most people resolve to watch less TV and read more. I would love to have that kind of willpower. But Lost is so addicting. And Portlandia is just funny!



Be sick
Yeah, bummer. We both caught a cold at the end of our break. I came down with it December thirty-first. Dan started feeling it January first. Either way, we were both sick on New Year's Day which, according to my mother, means we will be sick everyday for the rest of the year. Now that's something to look forward to. (Please ignore the dangling preposition. I'm being colloquial.)

Play Jeopardy in an extremely competitive manner
Dan and I bought a Jeopardy desk calendar for 2013.

I thought, "A little trivia to start off the morning never hurt anyone."

On January first, Dan left the Jeopardy question on the office desk for me, his earnings already recorded. So we were going to play it that way. I didn't get the first question right.

The next day, I thought I was a shoe in - "Truman Capote's female protagonist in Breakfast at Tiffany's" - until I saw that Dan had already answered it correctly.

I texted Dan at work: "You did not get Holly Golightly!"

He texted back: "I'm smart like that."

The next day though, I pulled ahead of Dan with the answer Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.

Sunday's Final Jeopardy category was "Business." I knew I didn't know anything about business. Of course, Dan, having a more diverse breadth of knowledge when it comes to useless information, purposely wagered an amount that would put him in the lead, gave the correct answer, and won.

"Don't worry, Becky," he said in mock consolation. "We both start over at zero next week."

Welcome to my life for fifty-one more weeks.

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