Well, the new year is here. I hope 2022 treated you well and that you enjoyed the holiday season.
If 2022 was great, I hope that extends into 2023. If it wasn’t a great year, I hope life improves for you.
As for me, 2022 treated me well. It was a continuation of 2021, which was fine. Since I’m financially stable, able to travel, healthy, and happy, I really have nothing to complain about since some are struggling.
However, there’s still something missing in my life.
I feel I’m a optimistic, drama free kind of guy, but over the past few months I’ve become more Max Goldman (Walter Matthau) and John Gustafson, Jr. (Jack Lemmon), characters in the 1990s two-movie series, “Grumpy Old Men”.
And, I don’t like it. In the new year, I’m going to be more Ms. Patti LaBelle!!!
I’m ready for a “New Attitude”!
CAREER & FUTURE
While I love my career, I’ve actually started thinking about the “end game” — retirement. That won’t happen until I’m 67 and I’m hoping Social Security is still a thing then, but I realize I want more in life.
DATING & SOCIALIZING
When I separated in 2017 and divorced the following year, I was in no hurry to see how fast I could get married again. Some do! (Maybe I should leave La Liz out of this because she’d passed on!)
However, dating would be nice. In the past almost six years, I’ve gone on three dates (two of those were in Duluth, Minnesota, in 2018!)
Last April 2021, I addressed this and wrote, “A very dear friend, now in her late-70s, lost her husband when she was around my age now. While her kids were grown and she had small grandchildren, she never dated again and never even thought about it.
She summed it up jokingly (or half-jokingly), “I’m too old to train another one!”
So, this a rhetorical question. Again, don’t answer! Is it bad to only be 56-years-old and want to give up on meeting someone and forge ahead into another possible relationship?
Are my standards just too high? 🙂
That was then, this is now!
In my 2021 Christmas letter, I exclaimed, “I’m still single and the dating life is, wait, what dating life? Good thing I enjoy my own company!”
I still enjoy my own company, but I want more in life in 2023. While I don’t want to turn totally into Blanche Devereaux (“The Golden Girls”), I want to channel some of her energy!
It’s just a matter of which of Blanche’s philosophies I want to follow!
I think I already know the answer! 🙂 Sitting home alone is no longer what I want is life. At my age, I’m now playing “Beat The Clock”!
#PUG2023
My top priority for the new year is to make #Pug2020, #Pug2021, #Pug2022, and #Pug20-something more than just a hashtag — #Pug2023!
I can’t believe it’s been almost eleven years since I’ve had a dog!
While we had household pets growing up, I’ve only had two dogs in my adult life.
There was Keshia, the chow chow, that I got in the spring of 1987.
I had her until early 1998. And, I waited a little over two years before Miss ABBA, my beautiful, sweet golden retriever came into my life (2000).
We had an amazing run together from Ohio to Chicago to Maryland and back to Illinois.
NEW PUG CONCERNS
While I hope that #Pug2023 becomes a reality this year, I admit to being a little frightened. I was in my first relationship when I got Keshia and I was in my second relationship when I got ABBA.
It should come as no shock that Keshia and ABBA both outlasted those relationships! LOL
However, it scares me a little to become a single, older “Dog Dad” going through potty-training and etiquette training alone!
Who can I blame any training failures on? 🙂
NO PASSPORT
I met some amazing people on my fall trip to Turkey.
I must have made a pretty good impression on Eleanor and her daughter Allison. We hung out together a lot and they’ve invited me along to an incredible sounding trip this October.
However, I’ve made no effort in renewing my passport that expires in May.
I hope they forgive me and don’t rescind the offer to visit them in Rhode Island one day!
Also, my friends Katie, Mary Kaye, and Duke in one part of Florida and my friend Rich in another part of the Sunshine State want me to visit. Maybe, I’ll make it a whirlwind tour!
KYLIE, I’M STILL WAITING!
As I’ve been saying for years, there’s still one concert that’s on my bucket list: Kylie Minogue!
From December 2020: “Personally, in 2021, I hope to take a real vacation and finally see Kylie Minogue in concert. Who knows, maybe I can accomplish both at the same time in a festive foreign city! (Maybe it’ll be “Xanadu” – ♪ “a place where nobody dared to go” where “a million lights are dancing and there you are – a shooting star”!)”
From January 2022: “Seeing Kylie Minogue in concert is still on my bucket list.”
This the opening number from her last pre-pandemic tour. It’s incredible and so freaking hot!
2023, LET’S DO THIS!
As I wind down on my pontifications for the next phase of my life, I’ll leave you with a song that many of you may not have heard. I hope it makes you as happy as it does me!
“Naatu Naatu” is on the shortlist to be nominated for an Oscar this year for Best Original Song. (81 songs were eligible and 15 made the shortlist!) It’s already in the running for a Golden Globe award.
It’s from the three-hour Indian movie, “RRR”, which I loved and is one of my favorite movies of 2022. Okay, you may not know what it means, but who cares, just stare at and enjoy Ram Charan! (He’s on the right!)
Thank you for taking the time to spend with me and my thoughts as I look to new adventures in 2023.
I wish the absolute best to you and yours this year and in the future!
Anthony
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