TheBanyanTree: Resolutions

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I have two resolutions this year and they’re simple ones and easy to
measure, I think.

The first one is to watch less TV.  Every time I do sit down and watch TV,
it seems some version of CSI is on.  Does that show run 24 hours a day?  It’
s not that good of a show to be on so much and I’m tired of see lab people
interrogate criminals (without lawyers present), which they never do in real
life.  Just seeing CSI so much is enough to make me want to chuck the TV out
the window.

Studies do show people are watching less TV these days.  We’re still
involved with screens, but have more options at our command.  We can watch
movies or play games or just hang out on the internet or do something
creative with our computer time.  The networks and cable channels have
decided to lure people back with dumber and dumber shows, like American Idol
or Survivor or Fear Factor.  How stupid are we anyway?

I feel like I did when I was smoking.  Cigarettes were sucking the life out
of me and when I sit in front of TV, I feel the screen pulling out the very
essence of my soul and sucking it into the TV set.  I’m becoming lifeless
and less creative and I’m turning into a zombie with no purpose in life
except to vicariously analyze crime scenes.

I proposed to Ray that we watch less TV.  One way is to eliminate one night
a week of TV.  That means no news, no shows, no sports, and no CSI.  Could
we manage to survive without one night of CSI?

Or we can eliminate one hour a night of TV.  Just one hour a night we could
have silence or listen to music or the radio and within that period of time
with no screen to focus on, we could read or paint or write or just go a
walk.

I will use a calendar to keep track of our progress on this and will report
back at the end of 2005 and see how we did.

The other resolution scares me as much as the phrase “eat right, exercise,
and lose weight.”  It’s “earn money, budget money, and save money.”  I’m at
the age where I really have to watch my dollars.  I love spending money.  I
love buying things.  I love having choices.  But I’m not going to have any
choices until I get better control of my spending.

So, I’m going to see a financial planner.  I’m terrified I’ll have to give
up my housekeeping service, that’s definitely an extra, but it’s a quality
of life thing, because we hate spending weekends cleaning our house.  I love
vacations and I’ll have to give that up.  I love buying clothes and now I’ll
have to go to a second hand store and buy them.  I love buying books and my
financial planner will tell me to go to the library.  But I know these small
things can save a lot.

We have two big financial adventures coming up this year.  We’re going on an
expensive cruise  this spring and after we get back, I want to sell our
house and buy a smaller, less expensive house.  The cruise is for pure
enjoyment and the new house is part of the process of scaling down and
preparing for retirement.  The financial planner can help with planning for
the sale and scold me for the cruise.

This resolution will be easy to measure as well – either I saw a planner or
I didn’t.

Hopefully, 2005 will see us in a new home with money in the bank and
watching a whole heck of a lot less CSI.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
--Aristotle