New calendar of events

As the smoke from the New Year’s celebration slowly clears, we find before us a new set of months that we will be molding our work and personal schedules on. I don’t know with you guys but the first thing I do whenever I receive a new calendar is to highlight the public holidays with a yellow marker. By being familiar with the public holidays, it makes me have some sort of a mental countdown of the number of days that are left before the next long weekend.

Besides highlighting the public holidays, I also use a brighter highlighter to mark the dates whom billions of working people look forward to—PAYDAY! Though jubilation marks every payday, mortgage due dates also stands out on the calendar like a giant vacuum that sucks up everyone’s hard earned salary. That single date is the party pooper of the month. Well, that’s life…..

Promises to thy self is bound to be broken! This is the response to every person that swore that they are going to make good in sticking with this year’s brand new resolution. They might was well write their resolution on water because it will never stay written.

So, what is your fairy tale resolution this year? Is it to exercise more? Lose 25 pounds? Eat healthy food only? Smoke your last cigarette of your life? Pay off your credit card bills? Make an effort to at least pay your bills? Travel to foreign lands and explore the wonders of the world? Climb a high mountain and survive the wilderness one weekend? Pick up a new career path? Aim for a job promotion? Transfer to a more financially rewarding job? Fire your mean supervisor? Adopt a new trait by becoming a more patient person? Appreciate what you currently have and enjoy life? Be happy and contented that you are healthy and is surrounded by your loved ones? Be yourself? Be a simple you? Stop making resolutions?

The spirit of new beginnings began its annual drive yesterday and every health gym and exercise equipment store in the country are banking on these “New Beginnings” to bring in sales to their business. I see ads on TV and newspaper saying things like, “Time to shape up for Spring!” or “Let us help you burn those Christmas Calories!” Though the intentions of these businesses is to transform you to a healthy being, majority of the people who jump into these “shape up” band wagons end up faltering away. A good friend of mine, who was once a professional body builder, told me that unless you consider exercise as an enjoyable hobby, you will end up just flaking away from your commitment to become healthy.

Recently, a titanic threat to my diet arrived at the doorsteps of my humble abode. This “threat” is my loving mother who happens to be a good cook. This weekend, I must have gain a few pounds just eating dishes that she prepared like beef caldereta, sautéed kang-kong, trout fish stew, bacon-cream omelette, macaroni salad, fruit salad, romaine lettuce salad, etc. My diet will take a severe beating this year for sure. My kids seemed to be thrilled to have their grandma around because they don’t have to endure the food I used to cook for them that seemed to resemble and taste like a science experiment.

Yesterday, I experience a bit of a fright. I was at a bus stop showing my mother the bus schedules. My 2 children were with us and they were playing at the grass area about 5 yards away from us. At the corner of my eye, I saw a lady with three dogs. All of a sudden, I heard the lady shout and when I turned to look at her, I saw one of the dogs biting one of the other dogs. It turned out that the lady owned one of the dogs and the other two were stray dogs who were attacking her dog. When the Lady tried to hit the dog that was biting her dog, the stray dog bit her arm. The dog of the lady was able to escape by running across a street 5 yards away but was almost hit by a passing car. All of a sudden, the two dogs broke off the attack and started running towards us. I quickly told my kids to run away and I immediately placed myself between my kids and the two approaching dogs. As I was bracing myself to fight the dogs, they veered away from me and ran towards the school building nearby. I partly followed them but they disappeared around a corner. Several police squad cars arrived a few minutes later plus an animal control truck. The firemen arrived and they treated the victim and an ambulance took her to the hospital. They combed the whole neighborhood for a few hours but the dogs seemed to have vanished. I hope the animal control would eventually find those two dogs so that the owners can be held liable for the injury caused by their dogs.

Though the first day of the year is marked by a sad incident, I am still optimistic that the rest of the year will bring blessed surprises to all of us.

Marking the beginning of the year with optimism.