Five Stupid Habits

I've been making some continuing resolutions and did OK on a few last year, but this year I've got to do more. What I have not done is discipline myself against things I already know are stupid. So in the overall spirit of becoming more of a tightass, here are five stupid habits I intend to reduce this year.

1. No More Tacky Bars
For too many nights, I found myself out with buds are by myself in a place I would never go if it were my decision alone. And I found myself in alien observation mode looking at pathetic singles trying desperately not to look so desperate. It's the good time of beer at night. Something in my gut tells me that beer is supposed to be drunk during the day with BBQ and Corn, not at night with peanuts and buffalo wings. I know this is the old man in me. So if it's going to be a bar, let it be a piano bar in an upscale hotel. I got rid of titty bars several years back, so no more tacky bars. If the bartender is not over 30, I ain't staying.

2. No More Avoiding Church
Last year I complained a lot about Pentecostals. This year I'm becoming more and more theological and I'm taking my own Anglican communion more seriously. I now know that the Archbishop of York has something to say which appeals to me, and last night I downloaded the Book of Common Prayer. I'm going to make some pilgrimages around Los Angeles to find the right kind of Anglicans instead of complaining about the weakness of the parishes I have tentatively accepted. I will also inform myself about the history of the Anglican Church and discover which forces are at work in potentially perverting the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

3. No More Avoiding Exercise
Last year I bought a bicycle and a bass guitar. I spent too much time on the guitar and not enough on the bike. I intend to reverse that and not feel so bad about not being so funky. I hereby declare diets to be a farce. They don't work. I'm going to make my body work.

4. No More Multitasking
Once upon a time, when I was an excruciatingly infuriating young man with a Japanese girlfriend who couldn't speak English and a daily discipline in meditation on the works of Sun Tzu, I would play chess with my computer and write what is now blogged in a journal on engineering paper. I had my budget account for every dollar I spent and balanced it to the dollar every month. I rode my bicycle 50 miles a week and I read The Threepenny Review. I have conceded that living my life for others, specifically for the benefit of my family required that maintenance of self take a back seat. But I think I have done quite enough of that, and I will accelerate my family to emulate my old discipline. It begins and ends with small perfections, the end of multitasking and the completion of every duty. It is time to budget the day.

5. No More Baby Talk
Boy will soon be 13. Scholar will soon be 12. It's time to get them up the next level. The bad habit to avoid is to stop pretending they don't know what's being said when they listen to the Black Eyed Peas. My job is to give them moral context and aids in discipline and respect. Which reminds me that it's about time to buy a nice sized wooden baseball bat.

Life is wonderful.