Thank you for being kind about my mini-story the other day; I was weirdly seized with the desire to talk about what was going on with me without actually talking about what was going on with me and it was a really interesting exercise. Several of you asked for more chapters and you know, I might just write them. Thanks, as always, for reading the ol’ PG.
Thank you also for sensing that I have needed a little rest. I am getting a modest portion.
Now, then.
This time of year, you see a lot of “Best/Worst” year-end lists and various wrap-up features (e.g., The Year In Pictures; The Year In Memes, etc.). It’s certainly important to reflect. But it seems there’s way more retrospecting than there is futurecasting. Instead of me doing a year-end wrap up of all the things that happened on this blog in the past year — it was all a blur, anyway — how about some predictions for the coming one?
Here is a list of people, places, events, and other stuff I predict you’ll be reading a lot more about in the ol’ PG in 2018. It’s stuff I’m hoping I’ll be able to write about, anyway. I used a special machine to generate the contents, as you can see:
The PaperGirl Predictor Machine-o-Gram Predictions for 2018
Quiltfolk Magazine (my dream magazine)
Philip Larkin (my dream dog)
Travel (to distant lands??)
A move to a new apartment?? (in Chicago, don’t worry)
Love?? (possible … )
Soaring income (look, this is my predictor machine! I’m going for it)
Completion of my master’s in May (it’s gonna happen!!!)
The return of a certain podcast project??? (who can say??)
Other Wonderful Things
Great clothes, baby
Hottest year ever (not weather)
Now, the PaperGirl Predictor Machine-o-Gram can tell no lies. So it also predicted things that I might not want but that must come to pass because hey, man. Life. So the following things will probably come up as you read along with me, but it’s okay:
Woe
Illness (but nothing serious, hopefully — Thanks Machine-o-Gram!)
Melancholy
Wistfullness
Despondency
General malaise
Crushing fear
Why are you looking at me like that? Them’s the breaks, gang. If I try to land a year with only good things and no bad things, I don’t think it would make for a very interesting reading experience for you. And I live for you.
(I’m only half-kidding.)
Happy New Year, everyone.
Nancy Kursewicz
Happy New Year Mary! May you get bountiful shares of all the good on your list and none, or very little, of the bad!
Colleen Sain
Happy New Year Mary!
Jeane Fuller
Put hosting a TV quilt show (new) on your list please! My friends and I miss you!
Margie Love
Mary, Wishing you much happiness and success in 2018. You bring a lot of joy to us, your followers. Coffee just isn’t the same without you in the mailbox. And, by the way, Quiltfolk is amazing. Can’t wait to see what comes out of my state, NC.
Mary Ann
Happy New Year Mary! Yes, a Year has to have a quota of sadness and woe too but my wish for us all is peace, love and joy to go along with it.
Linda Duff`
Good thing you didn’t juxtapose a couple of words in the ” Great clothes, baby” phrase . . . . 🙂 🙂
Here’s to a slightly happier and more woe-less year for you, and for all of us! SO excited for you and all your adventures! Hope you’ll be in Winterset sometime to visit, and hope I can say HI! when you are!
Deborah Rice
Now crushing fear, I can relate to….only part way kidding.. :S. It seems to take a huge crushing of fear, to be able to climb the mountain, step by step and then to come to a platform of exhilaration….note, I did not say the mountain top. Fear, I don’t like it, but it is there. For others what I am afraid of, is nothing, they have other fears.
Now! here is to your joyful heart, your wistful dreams, the love that is coming, the peace that comes after a war is won!!!
Onward to a Fabulous New Year, no matter what it brings!!
Wendy
Dear Mary,
Oh…please dear Mary, bring them back. You cannot even know how I loved those podcasts with you and your mom. I had just discovered them…and savored them like a good little book or program….not listening to them all at once…but. planning out when I’d listen to the next one. I’d listen, walking through my neighborhood, laughing to myself or marveling at some tidbit of information I’d hope to remember…and POOF!!! they were gone.
I never even got to listen to them all. Sadness.
Please bring them back. Please. I know something wonky occurred, and they got pulled. I’m guessing you had to protect yourselves. But, they brought such joy, useful information, and inspiration.
I hope somehow they come back. Maybe you could interview some of the folks featured in Quiltfolk? Wouldn’t that be such a nice reverberation of what the magazine offers? It could only help promotion of the magazine and it’s mission.
Also, congrats on nearing your degree, on the new job, and on so much more. Yes I wrote this late because I was catching up on PG.