Locals keep, break New Year’s resolutions

LYNN – Susan Halter pronounced 2008 miserable, but she is not talking about her career or love life but about her failed pursuit to make perfect fried chicken.”I got so sick of fried chicken that I gave it up,” she said Monday as she paused to assess her new outlook on the time-honored but not always followed practice of making New Year’s resolutions.Halter decided to stay away in 2009 from attaining a single objective and decided instead to focus on an ongoing goal of increasing the amount of time she spends exercising and meditating.”This year I’m just trying to be optimistic and stay open to anything,” she said.Neil Anderson vowed to stop eating chocolate with the start of the New Year and promptly broke his resolution. He has vowed to give his bid at abstinence another shot. Terri Surette is a member of perhaps the largest group of resolution makers: Smokers who vow to quit in the New Year.”I quit for three weeks last year then went off the medicine,” she admitted.Surette enrolled in law school in her mid-40s and counts that achievement as one of her finest. Still, she thinks putting down cigarettes will be harder.William Tomassi set his sights for most of 2008 on landing a job and made that objective his 2009 resolution. After seven months of looking he just got hired to do interior painting in a condominium complex.”I’ve got 25 years experience so it should work out,” he said.Don Grabow, who writes a column for Scripps Howard, offers the following advice:Do: Consider joining a gym. Do not: Consider mixed martial arts. At least not until you’ve joined the gym.Do: Cut fast food out of your diet. Do not: Cut anything out of your own body. A few thousand dollars and the surgical equivalent of a Dust Buster might eliminate those pounds, but another year in the drive-through line will pack them all back.Do: Visit your family more often. Do not: Move in. These are tough economic times, but it’s worth the rent to keep your own place. Mom and Dad only love you so much.Do: Be more punctual. Do not: Overdo it. Dinner is at seven. Cooking, burning, cursing and drinking are at four. Don’t show up at four, unless you bring something to drink.Do: Dress to impress. Do not: Spray to convey. Fancy clothes might make you look more important. Fancy cologne will certainly make you smell like a creep. Fancy clothes and cologne will, at best, make you an important creep. We have enough of those, thank you.Do: Spend more time reading. Do not: Be that guy who walks down the street with his nose in a paperback. Seriously, watch where you’re going. Try a book on tape, or have someone read it to you over the phone. You’ll look a lot more important walking with your phone.Do: Give blood. Do not: Take blood.Do: Go back to school. Do not: Go back to your old fraternity. They don’t care about the rush back in ’83, and if you visit a sorority you will be escorted from campus. Or so I’ve heard.Do: Travel. Do not: Carry liquids in excess of three ounces, argue about the three-ounce rule, personally insult the TSA associate requesting your toothpaste, or expect to keep your clothes or dignity after having done so.Do: Quit smoking. Do not: Start drinking instead.Do: Quit drinking. Do not: Think that making this decision with a ferocious New Year’s Day hangover will help it to stick.Do: Save money. Do not: Save it in the stock market. This is probably not the year to be investing your income in the Standard & Ponzi’s 500. A nice mattress or empty coffee can in the rafters is a safer bet.Do: Give money. Do not: Ask for contributions to your own personal charity. This is especially important if you are an executive for a major car manufacturer.The New Year is, after all, a new start, and your resolutions set the tone for the year to come. So keep these suggestions in mind and keep the promises you make. And remember: a bad resolution actually isn’t better than no resolution at all.To view video related to this story visit www.itemlive.com