A new time of opportunity

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you have had a pleasant and fulfilling holiday. With a new year just beginning, I reflect on a the year that was. On the whole, 2011 was a pretty rough year for yours truly. A good chunk of my woe was unfortunately self-inflicted for that I take full responsibility. My plimpton-esque debacle into politics, trying to run for Philadelphia City Council, is perhaps my final 'youthful indiscretion'. As I wrote in that press release when I withdrew from the race, I knew the challenge but did not take them as seriously as I should have.
Then the bomb dropped that no one say coming. My recent medical history is now well known among my friends. But upon first seeing me, it would seem likely that I would have some ailment that could also be self-inflicted such as diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, etc. Of course, I still might but part of my resolution for the new year is to combat those health problems before they start. We'll discuss those later. What took us all by surprise in 2011 were my epileptic fits. In August, they began. Thankfully, I have only had 4 total...and two of those I slept through. Thankfully, medication has helped in preventing many others. After a few visits with Einstein neurologists, we have learned that my condition is cause not by a malformed blood vessel but a bone 'growth' or something that touches my brain, setting off a seizure. It is hoped by 2012, this problem will be resolved.
But 2011 was not a complete trial or tribulation. I met many interesting people, was witness to other people's own joy and found how many people are truly my friends. I have played with my little cousins and enjoyed the company my friends' children. I have turned 30 years old, an age I once thought unlikely to achieve even when I was 18.
So when the new year, now this year approached, I struggled to solidify my resolve. Everyone makes annual resolutions, lose weight, act nicer, leap over the Eiffel Tower, etc. But this time I was inspired by a parody artist who wrote: '"You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."' I take that as my mantra this year. I have a number of resolutions to achieve this year. Lose 50 pounds by age 31 and keep it off, find a new job, publish a book of my best writing (both fiction and non-fiction) and be more interesting and fantastic. But how can a rotund, mercurial, Falstaff-ian figure like myself achieve this? Well, I guess we'll find out together. The clock is ticking...get your running shoes.