A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (and yes, I know I’m mixing my fandom metaphors)…

We were celebrating New Year’s Eve in the year I turned ten years old. And as the strains of Auld Lang Syne rained down on my parents’ best friends and other guests, my mother turned to the group with a look of wonderment and marveled, “In ten years when we do this, Bess will be twenty years old.”

And if that was not completely arcane knowledge (I mean, heck: everyone knew how old I was and presumably could do basic math) the concept made everyone shake their heads, at the thought of Little Bess possibly being twenty years old. Imagine that!

Well, today is the beginning of a brand new year, and Bess is getting closer to three times twenty years old, but she doesn’t feel much more grown up than the ten year old hoping to score more bridge mix during the grownups’ cocktail party. She doesn’t feel like she’s accomplished much, but if I look back down the path behind her, it’s clear she’s come a long way.

In all those years, I’ve come to realize that I have a short attention span, probably bordering on long-cycle ADHD. You’ve seen it in this blog: I get revved up, post in a blizzard, and then disappear for awhile. Sometimes the disappearance is a busy day job and the rest of my life; sometimes it’s just me being kind of bored with myself and my opinions.

I’ve long envied the bloggers who pulled off the ‘whole year’ projects. You know the ones: One cooked a Julia Child recipe every day; another one tried a new crockpot recipe every day. I envy them the core idea but most of all I envy their stamina. I also envy them their best-selling books documenting same. (My last attempt at a year-long effort died amidst a hail of internal strife and charges of bragging.)

So I sat down and tried to think of something I could do for an entire year, and then write about it, and not piss everyone off.

And promptly came up blank.

I can, however, come up with twelve different things I could do for a month at a time. Whether I can write about it…well, we’ll see.

So please join Mom, Interrupted for a year-long journey into discovering What Can Bess Do For An Entire Month, And Then Write About Those Things 366 Days In a Row, Since 2016 Is, After All, A Leap Year?

Stay tuned for tomorrow…it’s a brand new year.

© E. Stocking Evans 2015