Nope.

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed a sharp increase in social media posts about a person's "word of the year".  This choosing of a word to reflect a mental outlook on the year is now A LEGITIMATE THING.  And most people have picked lovely words like thankful, grateful, joyful, graceful, and loving...all of which are excellent choices.  But...I'm going to have to declare my word of the year as "NOPE".  As in learning to say no to things I really don't want to do with my time instead of saying yes out of guilt. (Between you and me, we both know that I'll fail spectacularly at this, but it's the thought that counts.  Actually, I've already failed once and it is only January 16th and I'm already regretting saying yes to the thing and plotting ways to get out of the thing.  Oh, and while I'm confessing, I cried at PJP on Friday, January 12th and so much for my whole "I resolve not to cry at PJP this year."  In short, my resolutions are total garbage this year.)

Here are just a few other things of note:

1. My email apparently exists in some sort of time continuum black hole.  I can't even begin to understand it, but if you emailed me between December 22nd and yesterday and I didn't respond, blame the time continuum black hole.  Try resending it again, as apparently my email is working as of yesterday.  Or just send your note via carrier pigeon, because it would probably be more reliable than the servers that need to be backed up, mirrored, and transferred.
2. The annual Inside Columbia Best of Columbia 2018 finalist nominations are out.  We are honored to be included in "Best Bakery", though as always, the competition is fierce.  We'll consider it a win to just be included in this final round of voting.  (Though, who are we kidding, we would happily accept all the duties and responsibilities of being named Best Bakery...so if you have the time, you can vote here.)
3. And more surprisingly, I was included in the category for "Best Entrepreneur".  Whomever is kind enough to vote for me must not read here on a regular basis or they would be shockingly alarmed to learn that for the most part, I don't have a clue what I'm doing.  I would wager that the competition in that category isn't even aware that I exist as a person (or as a business, actually), so I am BEYOND HONORED to be included.
4. Though I did think for a solid 20 minutes today about the pros and cons of selling cute greeting cards at PJP and really, don't we think that is exactly what the Best Entrepreneur is always doing with her time? (Insert so much sarcasm here).  Oh, did I mention I'm the only female nominated in the category (well, there is one other but she is nominated with her husband and Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason likes to stay behind the scenes, clearly, so he wasn't even in the running).  If I win, I hereby promise you that I'll never link up to Martina McBride's This One's For The Girls video on Youtube.
5. Though, just saying that sort of put the song in my mind and I just opened another browser window to go down the rabbit hole of female empowering country tunes and then I remembered...NOPE.