I Declare 2013 The Year of Cranky

2011 was the Year of Giving which started with a great idea by my friend Stephanie.  At the end of 2011 I realized that giving to charities every Friday did NOT save the world and may have even resulted in us being scammed a couple of times (mostly Stephanie). So I decided to go the opposite direction in 2012 and I created The Year of Taking which is just what it sounds like...I took as much from the world as I could. And it was a good year filled with big laughs.

I have given a lot of thought to what to call 2013...following are a few of my thoughts.  #5, #7, and #9 were the most popular with my friends.  

1. Year of Indulgence (where I got to the spa a lot and post about it online. Possibly unaffordable)

2. Year of Insulting Strangers (Possibly dangerous)

3. Year of Living Dangerously (wait is that a book?)

4. Year of Living Cowardly (I may already do that)

5. Year of Fear (list 1 new thing I fear each week)

6. Year of Making New Friends (screw that - I have a lot of friends already)

7. Year of Alienating People (weekly tips for those who want to repel those around them)

8. Year of Beer (nah, I prefer vodka)

9. Year of Blessings (where I randomly make up blessings and bestow them on strangers. Possibly creepy.)

10. Year of Curses (Where I curse people I dislike or those whom my friends dislike. Possibly too mean.)

I had some interesting and fun suggestions from friends including:

The Year of Me (Clare)

* Every year is the year of Me...what would be funny about that?

The Year of Blessings & Curses (Stephanie)

*I liked this idea but it seems like a lot of work to do the random acts of kindness Stephanie suggested.

The Year of Laughter (Meg)

* I hope the Year of Cranky gives everyone a Year of Laughter

The Year of Receiving (Max)

* This one was more of a semantic exercise and I didn't think I could make it funny.

Year of the Bear (Jim)

* This one just made no sense and rapidly devolved into an argument about U of C's lackluster football program.  Nix.

Year of Epically Alienating People You Bestow Epic and Creepy Blessings On (Lauren - she's weird)

* Lauren likes to insert the word epic into every sentence so I don't think this was a serious effort on her part.

The Year of the Cranky Pants (Jim - Congratulations you win!)

* This one is the winner! Of course it's the result of me calling my friend Jim a "Cranky Pants" but sometimes genius is found in all kinds of strange places!

The Year of Cranky will be an ongoing description of things that make me cranky, lists of grievances, and things I find annoying or maybe funny.  Basically the Year of Cranky is a curmudgeonly look at life which I hope makes some people laugh a little or maybe it will make them cranky. 

In any case let The Year of Cranky begin!!