resolve

I'm typing on AZERTY keyboard in my office, as opposed to the QWERTY used back in the States. If you see commas where letters should be, plug in an M. I'm working on it.

Our Internet is out. France (as I blame the whole country for anything that happens to me) has told us that it will possibly be 72 hours before someone looks at it. It may be five days before the problem is truly fixed. Patientez-vous, they tell me.

These words are everywhere--plastered onto or typed into anything that keeps you waiting. Be patient. Please wait. Calmez-vous. Just hang out, and we'll get to your problem.

We were warned. I can't say that this should really be a surprise. Countless friends have talked about their problems with Internet service here. "That's strange," we would reply. "We haven't had any problems with Bouygues."

On the way to campus today (to search for my key, still MIA, and use the Internet), I passed a Bouygues poster. I cursed them in my head, which I was shaking angrily. Joe and I stopped at the recycling post to throw our glass in the bin and hear it break. It takes the edge off.

This all brings me to a topic that I have been scared to touch for the past nine ten days. Every year, I resolve not to make a resolution. Every year, I make and fail at a resolution. This is how I see my days, weeks, years--in the black and white (rather French style) terms of the things I accomplished and the things I failed at getting accomplished.
This year, I am seeking to kick "fail" from my vocabulary. I'm trying to accept the fluctuations and unexpected occurances that make up our days. This requires more patience, something I've been in search of for a long time. Unfortunately, I can't just buy it at the store...

Which brings me to lifestyle goal number two for 2011: Start being more frugal. Joe and I are dedicated to the environment, and I fully intend to keep our conservation efforts as a main part of the blog. Lately, I've been thinking about how our life will be when we come back to the States. Making our own cleaning supplies and baking most of the food we would by processed will not only conserve resources, it will conserve money.

We've always been reasonable with savings, but we want to drastically increase the amount of traveling we do. Both of us have taken on extra private tutoring to fund it, and I have vowed to stop shopping for a while. It's impossible with the national sales going on, but we need to think about the lifestyle we want, the packing we'll have to do with our few suitcases and the train tickets we want to buy.

I'm willing to sacrifice on a lot, and I plan to live out of thrift stores when we return. I am not willing to sacrifice my goals for our eco-friendly marriage, so this starts now. I look forward to keeping you posted on our conservation efforts. I mean, look at me. I've already started: computing in my office instead of with my laptop at a café.

What are you resolving to do this year? Remember that if it doesn't work out the way you expected, it was still a start and a push in some new direction for your life. Maybe it just means the resolution was meant to lead you to another, tangential element that could completely rock your world.


P.S. Resolve also happens to be the name of a wonderful nonprofit, working for the change of social conditions in Uganda. Give them a bit of your time today. Check out their web site. In fact, why not resolve to think about Africa a bit more this year? They could use it, and you'd be surprised at the ways you can find to help.

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