January 1, 2023

Let It Go

Happy new year! Welcome to 2023. In several ways, 2022 was challenging, but it was a pretty good year: the family is healthy and happy; I reconnected with my brother; COVID is becoming endemic; and I took some steps to improve my professional life. Let’s see if any of those pan out in 2023.

Equipoise in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, Midjourney 2022.

Instead of a list of resolutions this year, I’m going to try a more general, zen philosophy: let it go. This will be a tough one for me, as I seem to be anything but cool. (As my friend Walter would say: I’m wound up “tighter than a banjo string.” This is unfortunately true.) So, I’ll try to let everything that irritates me just pass by, just run off my skin like an afternoon shower. I should start meditating again; maybe I will. I know I have to take off a few pounds, so I’m going to be pretty strict with both what I eat and when I eat, trying to keep within a 16:8 timeframe everyday. I’m trying Simple to see if that helps.

So, looking forward to 2023, the potential for a good year is high. Here’s what I’m looking forward to this year:

• Lucas boy #2 arrives on April 17. Wow, this is a biggie and definitely the most exciting. He’s been several years in the making, and there’s only 3½ months left to go before we meet the little dude. I know a lot can happen, but we’re all pretty psyched.
• My student loans might be finished. As soon as the Department of Education opened up the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, I applied. To qualify for loan forgiveness, a participant has to make 120 qualifying payments. According to my last communication, I have made 177 qualifying payments. While the letter is written in the cryptic style of government correspondence, the numbers suggest that I will be finished. That will be a welcome change.
• I may spend a month in Austin, TX. I have applied for the Harry Ransom Center fellowship to work on my research for a monograph on Norman Mailer’s short fiction. I should know if I have been accepted in March. I’m a pretty string candidate.
• Lipton’s will be published in September. After a shaky start with a UP that took up the entire fall semester, we have placed Lipton’s with another, more commercial publisher. Details and contract should be forthcoming this month.
• Autumn should be getting a little money. Autumn’s aunt Susan passed last summer, and her estate is finally getting worked out. It may not amount to too much, but enough to shore up her financial situation.
• I should have the GS paid off in June at the latest. That should give me a nice chunk of change to reallocate. I’m thinking I might just put it in an account for a potential downpayment for an EV in 2024. I really want the EV now, but I must be patient. I have about 1½ years left on my Accord’s lease.

In the long shot department, I will add: I might be switching careers and moving out of Georgia. Again, these are both unlikely, but a boy can dream.

Happy 2023, all. Permalink: https://grlu.us/20230101