Happy 2021, dear readers!

I hope everyone aggressively said goodbye to the shitty old year in a safe manner and told it not to let the door hit it in its ass on the way out!

As you can see, I may not have been able to celebrate in style, but I still had something of a celebration. Animal Crossing has been my saving grace through all this shit. I may not be able to have gatherings, but this is a good substitute. And it was cute! Fireworks, party poppers, party hats and happy villagers… It was kind of fun!

As an extra dose of cuteness…

I bought some party hats and silly glasses and took a selfie with Baxter! Granted, I couldn’t take a selfie, hold him still enough while holding the glasses in place, but I still think he looks pretty cute, if not a bit frustrated. You can almost hear the sigh as if asking me to stop making him look stupid!

Hey, it’s my right as a pet mom to make my fur babies look stupid, hahahaa!

Otherwise, it was a pretty dull evening as it’s been the last few years. I’ve grown tired of making meatballs and putting them in the Crock Pot with gravy and have opted for meatloaf instead. Same recipe, different shape… I just don’t have the gumption to make meatballs up, fry them and mix up gravy in the Crock Pot. However, there’s still a lot of picking food like veggies and dip, ring bologna, cubed cheeses, shrimp cocktail, chips… It’s a habit I got into so there was always food to pick at while drinking. But now I can’t drink, so I’m not sure why I still do all that just to drink sparkling white grape juice…

Honestly, that’s the thing I miss most about New Year’s, getting a bottle of Asti, having myself a few glasses to help ring in the New Year in style… And I miss Dick Clark doing New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Ryan Seacrest is a poor substitute. It’s just not the same with the man who never aged until he had that bad stroke…

One of my “traditions” is to watch The Twilight Zone which SyFy shows a marathon of every New Year’s Eve and Day. Of course, I fell asleep and missed some of my favorites… But I can watch them on Hulu whenever I want.

Anyway… I don’t believe there was a New Year’s that was more appropriate to be showing this program. Hell, I felt like I crossed over into The Twilight Zone back in March, as I’m sure most of us did. And I feel I’ve been trapped there ever since. I wish I could say I’m exaggerating, but I’m sure most of you feel the same way as I do. It’s no exaggeration…

However, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying myself! I always do, even if they show episodes I don’t care for. One year they decided to show every single episode ever made in order. It took 4 days to get through them all! And I laid here on the sofa all 4 days watching them! I’m surprised I didn’t develop bed sores (or would they be sofa sores?) from laying there like a lump for 4 days. Now that’s devotion, folks. Odd devotion, but devotion nonetheless…

Now, everyone knows this is my routine every year and knows… you don’t call me. I will ignore you.

Apparently Morticia didn’t get the memo on that… She called me when my favorite episode was on (of course she did) and when I didn’t pick up, she called right back. What the actual fuck?! I texted her and told her I had a lot to do and asked what was up. She said she just wanted to talk. For real… She meant she called to bitch and complain… I thought my text would have gotten my message across, but nope. A few hours later, she called me twice again during my second favorite episode! What the fuck?! Does she have radar or something?! “Oh, Jackie is watching one of her favorite episodes of something, I should call her now!” Jesus Christ, woman! She also called just as I was sitting down to eat supper! The last thing I wanted was to end this shitty year listening to her bitch anymore. She already bitched to me enough this week about how much she hates her new job and needs to find another, her asshole landlady and her ailments. I can’t take this anymore…

So my New Year’s resolution… Well, I don’t know if you can call it a resolution. I always see resolutions as giving up things that are bad for you or just bad habits. You make resolutions to quit smoking (that’s not happening), exercising more (also not going to happen), eating better (I already do, or did before I broke a tooth), stop gambling, quit drinking… shit like that. Those are resolutions.

My New Year’s resolution is more like a promise to myself… I’ve been slacking on my hippie-dippy ways which isn’t good. So I’m going to start 2021 by focusing on myself. I’m going to try to find the inner peace I so desperately need right now. I’m going to spend more time meditating and just being. I’m going to live more in the moment.

But most importantly, I’m not going to let people like Morticia delegate what kind of emotions I’m feeling or allowing them to raise my stress levels. I just can’t… She’s so full of negativity that she literally drains all the energy out of me. She’s like a leech… She latches onto me and uses her bitching to suck out all my positive vibes and leaves me empty. Nope… Sorry, but that’s not happening anymore…

I’m also going to do my damndest to get back in the groove again…

I have no idea what’s caused this horrible art block. It’s literally been years since I’ve drawn anything of importance (except a new profile picture for Facepuke). I’m not sure what’s been holding me back, but I’m so tired of it. Now even my writing is beginning to suffer so I have no creative outlet at all. That depresses me and makes the situation worse. This is the worst art block I’ve ever had and I’m hoping that maybe this year I can get out of this funk.

Maybe working on me, on my mental health, meditating, doing my hippie-dippy thing, will help me get out of whatever this funk is. Maybe it will help me pinpoint the moment that started it so I can work through it. I need something… Not having this creative outlet is really beginning to take its toll on me.

But, you know, these are all moot points…

Every new year, I have hopes that this year will be better. I hope that I’ll get better mentally, that I won’t need to worry so much about things anymore, that maybe I’ll finally get my break in the art world, that maybe I’ll find that inner peace…

Every year it turns out to be the hope of the fucking hopeless…

There’s a superstition among people of my ethnic background that eating pork and sauerkraut the first day of the new year will bring you good luck the entire year… Normally I’m not superstitious, but I do follow ethnic traditions. I have hex signs in my house and, until I developed reflux and lost my gall bladder, I ate pork and sauerkraut every single January 1st. Do you know how many years that actually helped?! I can count them on no fingers… Nothing has changed since I’ve been unable to eat pork and sauerkraut. If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. It’s been that way my entire life. So do I have hopes or expectations for the new year? Not really…

If nothing else, I at least have one thing to look forward to and that’s my guitar lessons that start on the 4th.

I honestly can’t wait for that… I love making music. Maybe it’s because I love music so much. Maybe it’s because I have perfect pitch and can play anything. Who knows… My family is very musical, hence the reason why I’m able to do these things. I’m already getting a good jump start on things, so hopefully my lessons will go well and I’ll be able to kick ass. Anything is possible I guess…