My Dear 2008,

I can see that we're already in for quite an adventurous time together. You woke me up just now by allowing my cat to prance about on my face before she fell asleep with her head buried in my neck. Five minutes later, I had a nose bleed. Coincidence? Mayhaps.

That being said, I suppose I should lay down the ground rules before you get too out of control. You may be one whole day longer than last year, but that does not give you special permission to be extra mischievous or anything.

Here we go.

Rule #1: No. More. Hell. Week. I'm done with that game. If, however, you insist on continuing this ritual, you are limited to one (1) Hell Week.

Rule #2: As always, please feel free to rock my socks off. I wear them a lot more often now because of my kick-ass boots, so you'll have many more opportunities to rock them clear off my feet. I'll be sure to say pretty things about you in my blog if and when you do so, particularly since I'll be scrounging for content after two days of this Blog365 thing.

Rule #3: Take care of my friends and family. I have a lot more friends now than I did a year ago, and I even have more family members. The bar has been raised, since 2007 did a pretty bang-up job on this rule. Don't let me down, 2008. I have faith in you.

Rule #4: Laugh with me as I try to blog and exercise every single one of your 366 days. Well, at least 365 of them.

There you have it, 2008. I don't ask for much, and I'm sure you can handle it just as well as (if not better than) 2007. Again, you don't have any boy troubles to worry your pretty little head about, so just make sure nobody bans chocolate, pizza, pirates, or Lord of the Rings. I'm sure you'll do just fine.

God bless, my sweet 2008, and best wishes to all those who will be enduring it with me.

Happy New Year!

Farewell, dear 2007.

You and I had some good times together. We got flowers on Valentine's Day for the first time ever. We learned not to put yogurt in a drain to clear a clog. We also learned what a horrible and vile and disgusting little nuisance a cockroach can be. We got to watch one of the coolest people on the planet get married to another ridiculously cool human being. We went to a family reunion — where we got to hang out with wicked cool cousins — right before going to the BlogHer Conference here in Chicago. We learned that there are few things more entertaining than my brother dressed up like Harry Potter as part of his job at a bookstore. We celebrated my 22nd birthday by going to Jazz Fest and accidentally turning into an 82-year-old woman. We fell in love with some random guy from Panera who has never shown his face again. We rediscovered the awesomeness of MSPaint shortly before scaring the pants off of people with my growly face in the midst of NaBloPoMo. We found out that posting every day leads to insanity, which in turn leads to therapy.

All in all, I'd say I enjoyed sharing my life with you, 2007. You weren't the best of years, but you were better than 2006 in many regards. You did a much better job sticking to the rules I gave you on New Year's Day. You only gave me one Hell Week, you rocked my socks more times than I can count, and you certainly were super nice to my family and friends (for the most part).

Well done, 2007. I will think of you fondly. Best wishes as you make your way toward the history books.

Much love,
Rachelskirts

For the past few years, I've made an annual tradition of writing a letter at the end of the year and a letter at the beginning of the year. I lay out some ground rules, telling the year exactly what I expect of it. Then, I review how well the year did at sticking to these rules. Here's what I wrote on January 1, 2007, back when I was still splitting my time between LiveJournal and Diaryland and poking this site with a stick.

Dearest 2007,

It is time to lay down some ground rules regarding how this year should go. Please pay better attention than 2006 did to these rules. Thank you in advance.

Rule #1: When I asked 2006 for zero Hell Weeks, it gave me two. Therefore, I'd like to establish a maximum of one Hell Week per year. I think that's reasonable.

Rule #2: Feel free to rock my socks off as often as you like. I'll say nice things about you in my blog when you do.

Rule #3: Take care of my friends and family. (Hint: My uncle could seriously use a break from the awfulness.)

I'm not going to make a rule this year about motivation and success because I'll be taking the responsibility for those this year. (Gasp! Don't let the maturity knock you out of your chair. Especially you, dear Lauwen, Mistress of Falling Out of Chairs.)

Really, I don't ask for too much, 2007. I'm even making things a bit easier by starting out the year with a no-boys semester, so you won't have to worry about finding me a boyfriend or anything complicated. Unless you cut off my supply of LOTR, pirates, chocolate, or pizza, I think you have a 100% chance of success in this venture.

God bless, my sweet 2007, and best wishes to all those who will be enduring it with me.

Later today, I'll be writing my second letter to 2007 to review how well it did. Stay tuned.