Happy Spainiversary!

Tomorrow, my sister and I are headed down to Oakhurst, CA to visit one of my very best friends, Tori, for a celebration we call "Compostella Day." January 28th, 2007 I completed a 500 mile pilgrimage with these two women in Spain: the Camino de Santiago. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I'm going to spend the next two days reminiscing about it. If I haven't ever told you about it (which is unlikely) please ask! I love sharing the stories. For now, Buen Camino a todos!

Resolve (or lack of)

So. New Years. Everybody makes resolutions, right? Come the end of December, I was actually feeling pretty negative about making New Year's resolutions. Alison? Being negative?! Yes, it can happen. So, there I was looking forward to a new year and thinking about how pointless it generally is for me to make resolutions. I just break them after 3 days anyway! And then I'll adopt a new resolution or two, and that'll last about 5 days and then I'll get lazy or busy or something and that'll be the end of that. Plus, why for New Year's? What about the rest of the year? I make resolutions every other week, so why should I make them especially for January 1st?

That's how I was feeling. But usually I'm able to see the bright side and as I thought about it more I was able to appreciate the beauty of New Year's resolutions-- the symbolism of a fresh start. So, I decided I might make a couple of my own! I resolved, first, to get to work on time. Ok, so the process is on-going. Resolution 1, part B is to not abuse the snooze button as much as I used to. Yeah, about that... My second resolution is to make myself a budget. Hopefully I'll be more successful than the government of California. We'll see. It's a New Year!

A Factoid, to start the year off right!

Many months of the year have Roman origins for their names, like August (after Augustus Caesar) and October (after Octavius). Did you know that January has Roman origins as well? January was named for the Roman god, Janus, who had two heads-- one that faced forward and the other which faced backward. It seems very fitting for the first month of the year, to reflect on the year that has past and to look forward to what the new year might bring.

But actually (?!), March was originally the first month of the year, because this was the time when planting began and it was time to go to war (March being named after Mars, the god of war). So why did it change? The Romans decided that instead of inaugerating their new consuls in the busy month of March, why not the boring, uneventful month of January? So there you have it, another way the Romans shook things up that still prevails in Western society today.

(Source: http://ngm.typepad.com/pop_omnivore/2009/01/how-january-wen.html)