What am I up to now?

Let me take you through the steps and maybe we can figure this out together.

I hate New Year's Eve and always have. When asked about it I usually go with the old argument of it being a rookie day for drunks and how I spend most of the night befuddled by people taking advantage of this magical day of celebration by drinking themselves to oblivion.

It's not that I'm better than that, it's that these are the same people that I drank myself to oblivion with the night before. And what are our plans for tomorrow with these people? Wake up early and start drinking mimosas all day. New Year's eve is how we spend most of our free time only now there are addition a-holes to navigate around.

That's not the real reason I hate it though. The true reason I hate New Year's is that I've always been single during this time of year so every New Year's kiss is another reminder that I'm alone. I'm also an aspiring writer with no real goals in my life other than to be able to make a living with my writing. Every tick of the clock is a reminder that another year is about to pass me by and now I have to come up with a new excuse as to why I have yet to be discovered. (Granted I put all my effort into the writing and almost zero effort into self-promotion but this is the mindset I end up in because of this day of nostalgia.)

This year I spent New Year's alone and happy. I was down in San Diego visiting my family. Everyone had plans and they understood why I didn't want to tag along. I had the place to myself to sit and write as if it were just another day.

I do like New Year's Day though. I like to strategize and do get caught up in making resolutions. I don't usually announce my resolutions, but I always make them.

Last year my resolution was to get more of my writing out to the public, which led to this website, which led to my 52 weeks of Southland Tales challenge. This is a project that I had a blast doing and am very proud to have made it all the way through without missing a single deadline (actually I have a month left and this parenthetical will disappear as soon as I do complete the challenge.)

According to Google Analytics, this year I had 2,676 views, from 6 continents, 45 countries, and 43 states. All this without putting much effort into promoting the page.