More or less made it to the new year last night, but only just.  We stayed up “late” by watching a movie and heading for bed at 10:00pm.  We’ve been on sleep triage lately trying to get to bed soon after the baby.  This was an exception.

I read until about 11:50 and fell asleep.  I got to ring in the new year when neighborhood fireworks woke me soon after.  I listened to the booms and cracks in a sleep-sodden state of half confusion and half concern for the sleeping baby.  Luckily, he and his mother slept right on through the ruckus.

Woke up to 2014 this morning with the U2 song “New Year’s Day” in my head.  Just the chorus, really.  Great song, but I was just turning the chorus over and over.

Luckily (?), a little later in the morning I ended up on the Death Cab for Cutie song “The New Year.”  Again, just the chorus: “So this is the new year, and I don’t feel any different.”

Not quite the case, though.

I like new beginnings and rolling the year over another digit.  I enjoy the idea of resolutions and reframing.  As a college swim coach, starting the new year kicks our season into high gear.  Our team put in a lot of work in late 2013 and now we have the six-week run up to the Conference Championship.

That 14 at the end of the date brings immediacy.  It tells us we’re just about there and that big excitement is ahead.

Heather suggested we go out for breakfast.  One great thing about the baby schedule of early rising: we beat Portland’s breakfast/brunch crowd when it comes to the must-eat restaurants that are hard to get into.  We ate at Zell’s on SE Morrison.  Only one other couple under 40 in the place.  Most of Portland’s hip younger set still tucked into warm beds or sprawled festively on couches somewhere about the city, the night’s revelry still fresh.

Not we new parents, though.  Not us.  In truth, we were already prime candidates for this schedule, considering we didn’t go out or stay up super late pre-Jakey, either.  Don’t take anything I’ve said as implying we are part of Portland’s hip younger set.  The fact I refer to it that way in the first place should brand me something different.

I read an article about resolutions last night suggesting that maybe January 1 wasn’t the best day to leap into a new regimen.  Coming off a couple stressful, discombobulated weeks in December and all.  For most of us, isn’t it pretty discombobulated from Thanksgiving onward?  Really gets a person ready to ring in the new year and settle back for some routine.

I am for new year’s resolutions.  Taking any time to reframe and focus in on goals is a great idea.  Daily drive to make progress is the key, so setting these goals at the start of the year is as good a time as any.

I am also for follow-through.

Set the goals, move toward them, set new goals.  It’s serial more than linear.  There needs to be responsive reevaluation along the way as well as continuity.

Then it’s worth resolving to do this or that.

So this is the new year.  Make the most of it.  Happy 2014!