Busy is the Purple Loosestrife of words and I resolve to do more Stand-up Comedy in 2012.

Look mommy! Look! Look at me! I’m gunna jump in the pool! Mom?… Dad?… HEY! GUYS! LOOK!… LOOK AT MEEEE!!!

Phoebe Cates O’Nizzle. Poolpoolpool!

On Sunday evening I tested out my building’s pool for the very first time with Sean, and it was a veritable funanzza! I’d been meaning to go for a swim down there since we moved into the place but every time I got the notion to suit up, “busy” popped into my brain.

Bwahaha. Not Busy Ramone, sillies! This busy:

Ohhhh that Garfield’s so zany, isn’t he? He looks like Willie but he’s not like Willie because he’s got PEOPLE THOUGHTS, like “Where can I get some lasagna meow meow? Odie had better stay away from my littler box meow meow! Jon doesn’t have a nose and his face looks like cartoon vagine meow meow…”

“Busy” is the purple loosestrife of words in my opinion. It chokes out entire sentences, entire conversations, entire relationships. Like the noxious-yet-beautiful weed invading my province’s majestic marshes, “busy” is often perceived positively by those who reside outside of the ecosystem.

“What’s the harm in keeping busy?“, think those people who have enough leisure time to do their own laundry and cook from time to time. “Well what’s the harm in a mass of pretty purple flowers?”, said I before my Daddy (the nature pro) explained that nothing is wrong with Loosestrife, unless you ask the wildlife displaced from Ontario wetlands destroyed by it. Or farmers who’ve had massive crops killed by it. Or Kyle’s cousin Kyle who suffers from teeearrahble allahgieeees.

Busy renders plans and ideas useless where they’ve barely even sprouted, overtaking one’s consciousness and replacing joy with anxiety. Creativity with stress. Ambitious young women with overworked shells. And I will have none of it. No more.

One of my new year’s resolutions is to say “no” to busy more often. I’ll say “no” to “yes” when that’s what’s best because I’ve only got one life to live, and it’s my life dag nabbit – nobody else’s. BLONDE JOVI! Er, green jovi…

Here are a few more goals I’d like to pursue in 2012 and beyond:

Do more standup. A lot more.
Live with kindness at the forefront of my consciousness.
Work on being a more patient person.
Redesign my blog (So overdue).
Cut together a voice acting demo reel and get my silly sounds out there. Cartoon character = dream job.
Cut together my hosting reel and send it out to every teevee station and online news outlet in the whole wide WORLD!
Sleep regularly. Sleep like a real human and function like one too.
Get more involved in my community here.
Produce my own Youtube Show. Something consistent and themed and of the best quality possible.
Save up for a great camera.
Get Kickstarted.
Be like a dog in a car…
Volunteer with Meals on Wheels like I’ve always wanted to.
Keep my pretty new bike (Thanks Seany!) safe from thieves and ride it very very much. With a helmet
Play that “smile at random people on public transit” game that used to bring me so much joy when I first moved to Toronto..
Practice my Final Cut Pro skills
Learn After Effects – learn it well!
Produce some kinetic typopgraphy videos. Even if only just one.
Lauren / Sean Sundays. Keep it going all year.
Connect with more like-minded individuals and create something big.
Check out the rock climbing joint near my house before it gets warm outside. A lovely indoor activity!
Torontartica hurts my face.
Go back to yoga. One class per week, at least. I really need to do this.
Start using 750 words for morning pages, a la The Artist’s Way.
Make a friggin’ budget and stick to ittttttt.
Self discipline. Develop it.
Take an hour each week to organize, recalibrate and focus on my art.
Keep my space clean.
Make it a point to see beauty in unexpected places
Stop wasting money on things that don’t matter and saving for what does.

Lay out goals and make action plans to reach them
Push myself to try new things more often
Spend more time with good people, less time with bad influences
Visit my parents more often. Much more often. I live 4 hours away – one day, it could be a lot further.
Read more books
Be on time, all the time.
Lose bad attitudes and stop putting up with the bad attitudes of others
Believe in my own potential and take steps to reach it
Forget about the pursuit of fame and fortune, find what makes me happy every single day (probably fortune).
Make my health a priority.
Start freelance writing regularly. Actually develop and submit queries.
Figure out my niche (not cats)
Kick my blog up a few notches
Redesign and update my portfolio
BE POSITIVE
Produce a short documentary film. Maybe I’ll push myself really hard and get something cool together in time to enter TVO’s Doc Studio Contest. Surely, if I were still in journalism school, it would be ON. I miss those cameras. Those editing bays. Free time to pursue projects of great interest and importance to me. Which brings me to this final “if I’m not happy with my career in 5 years” dream goal…

Go back to school and get one more degree.

I’ve been looking into PhD programs at American universities that, as a non-wealthy Canadian, I could never afford without a massive scholarship and, as somebody who isn’t a freaking number one stunna (say what, what, what?), could never get a scholarship. Or probably even a Visa.

So maybe I’ll apply to some schools in Europe or Canada in 5 years if I’m not a bomb infomercial producer / Youtube Superstar who also hosts Weekend Update yet…