The final week of the year in our office typically brings with it the arrival of calendars for the year to come.
This year, I not only ordered in the traditional ‘three months at a glance’ hanging wall calendar but also got a ‘My Week’ desk planner for 2020. Assuming the weekly calendar does not get buried on my desk, one of my goals is to get myself a little bit more organized.
Of course, that’s a goal every year and one that usually is abandoned quite quickly.
However, my lack of organization was troublesome more often than not during the final quarter of 2019 when we had to do without our Oakdale sports guy, recuperating from his broken leg. So, if anything, I learned that 2020 needs to be the year I stick with the organization theme. It’s time to make sense of the piles on my desk at work and get them cleared up so I can approach each week’s issue with a clean desk and uncluttered mind.
Probably not the loftiest of goals but one I will do my best to achieve, at least in some fashion.
I still like the three month calendar, which is hanging on the wall right across from my desk. That way I can keep track of the issue we are working on, which one we just finished and maybe even sneak a peek ahead at the next one to come. Plus it’s good to quickly look back at what the date was on Thursday when I covered basketball or soccer or what the Monday date was for a City Council meeting; it’s all just part of the process.
December literally flew by; from the first (when I celebrated my birthday) to the last minute holiday shopping (that, yes, did get done on time) and preparing for the traditional binge movie watching night to usher in the New Year, it feels like I blinked and the month (and year) was over.
Like most of us, it was a year of good and bad, happy and sad. My mom passed away in April and my daughter and I went back to be with family for a memorial service hosted just before Mother’s Day in May. Then October brought my daughter’s wedding and my gaining a new son-in-law. Then there was the semester long Escalon football season, starting with practices in the oppressive heat of August and ending in the cold, rainy weather of December with a State Championship for the Cougars.
For Christmas, my daughter asked me for a list of suggested gift items and one I put on the list was a journal. Not that I don’t write enough as it is, but journaling is obviously a different kind of writing than the keyboard pounding I do on a regular basis.
Unwrapping gifts, I found that there was not just one journal, there were three. Each has writing prompts and they are built around different themes focusing on growth, change and life in general, so it looks like I will have plenty of opportunity to learn a lot about myself this coming year.
People in my life also know me well; many chose to present me with coffee this Christmas so that particular item will not be on my shopping list until at least July. And the crazy thing is, everyone that got me flavored or specialty coffees got me different kinds, I don’t think there is a repeat flavor in the bunch. From buttery caramel to crème brulee, vanilla nut to Hawaiian roast, I will be in caffeine flavor town for months.
Christmas packages sent to the East Coast got there on time; gifts from the East Coast to here made it under the tree and we also got to visit briefly with family via FaceTime on Christmas Day as well.
It was a good way to end the year and I look forward to the new adventures that 2020 will surely bring.
Marg Jackson is editor of The Escalon Times, The Oakdale Leader and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 847-3021.