New Beginnings

It is still early next year, but to me it seems as if it has been going on for a long time. My promise not to make any resolutions other than to learn to say no, has already gone out the window, but my failures to say no, have paid off in a positive manner. I will return to that later. Unfortunately it appears that my turtleitis has decided to show up again. Not a full blown attack, but I have used the cold weather in January as an excuse for spending as much time at home as possible, I have just felt a lot like being left alone. Well.... Even when hiding at home, people seem to find you, and pull you out.

I have a very good friend, who writes for the local paper. She and I made Danish sausage and liver pate (medister poelse and leverpostej) before Christmas, and she decided to write an article about me and the food, as well as our day of making Danish food. I was very shy about being in the paper, but didn't know how to say no (strike 1), in addition to the article they wanted a picture of me, Tom took it and we emailed it and I had my picture in the paper (strike 2). Before evening of the day the article and the picture were in the paper I was contacted by a professor at FSU asking me to come speak to her class about Denmark, our customs, protocol etc (strike 3). All within one day....I had no idea people would notice little old me, the picture was after all very small, however, the picture of the medister poelse was plastered on the front page of the food section and people are apparently attracted to sausage in the morning.

I gave the speech at FSU the other day, and received good feedback. Who would have known I would be able to speak in front of a group of strangers like that?. I found out that by focusing on a few particularly friendly faces, I could pretend that I was just having a conversation with a couple of people.

So even though I have already broken my only resolution for the year, I really don't feel that bad, I went so far outside my shell that I am surprised the rubber band holding me in did not burst!

Tom and I have also decided to create budgets this year to figure out where all our money goes etc. We got the Dave Ramsey program as a Christmas present. In the spirit of avoiding impulsive spending I have unsubscribed to ALL of the email updates and coupons I used to get from stores like Express, New York and Company, AE etc. My inbox is a lot less cluttered, and as of now I have noticed that it is a lot easier to stay off their sites and thus avoiding the temptation of heading to the mall, or getting out the credit card and doing some shopping online. We have not really created the budget yet, but we are very aware of where all our money goes, and I think that very soon we will be able to create it, and also reach step one of Dave Ramsey's program. Wish us luck!