UP FROM THE SEA, THE NORTH WIND IS BLOWING
UNDER THE SKY'S GRAY ARCH
SMILING I WATCH THE SHAKEN ELMS BOUGHS
KNOWING ITS THE WINDS OF MARCH
--William Wordsworth

As I look out my window this morning, I can see a bright, impossibly blue sky. The pond across the street looks almost welcoming, instead of cold and gray and dangerous. The wind is whipping the tree branches about; it looks as though they could break off any momen. A few dishwater gray piles of soggy snow cling to the shady corners of the yard. I can see that spring is just around the corner. I can't wait.

March seems like a perfect month for change, a month for preparation of better things to come.

1) In March for 30 days, I will not purchase anything!! Ok, of course, I need to put enough gas in my car to get to work and back. I need to get milk and bread and oranges. But I do not need to buy a Diet Coke every afternoon at work to get me through the day. I do not need to buy lunch in the cafeteria. I do not need to pick up a Cosmo at the supermarket if I am bored. I do not really need much at all. Sometimes I forget how little I actually need and how buying things never has made me happy. In March I aim to remember that.

2) My book is "The Portable Dorothy Parker" Again, a book recommended by an outside source (Bibliotherapy) but hopefully a book that will be a little more uplifting than my last two selections. I have a vague idea of who Dorothy Parker is, but that's it. It should be enlightening.

3) I am going to start a new workout regeime in March. Partially fashioned on my triathalon idea for the summer and the need to start training for that. Partially fashioned after the fact that I have been concentrating so hard on getting the miles up for a marathon that weight training fell by the wayside in January and February. And partially fashioned to address the fact that I am one of the only people on earth who can GAIN weight training for a marathon. WTF???

4) In March, I am going to go to a museum. Not sure which museum, but I got a month to figure it out.

5) I am going to Fung Shui my apartment. I reserve the right, however, to put everything back where it started if this fung shui stuff has me moving the bed to face north when that clearly is at odds with the layout of the non-movable walls. Or if I need to hang wind chimes in such a way that I'm paraniod that they will fall on my head. Just throwing that escape hatch out there.

6) Once and for all, I am going to get my finances in order. This March, all those 401k rollover forms I have been meaning to turn in will go to their rightful owners. I will move stuff from savings to CD to mutual...all that crap. And I am going to get rid of all the special introductory rate credit cards I was suckered into getting and now somehow carry a finance charge on a zero balance. See ya! March is the time to be suckered no more.

Come April, I will be slim, trim, buff, organized, financially sound, cultered, completely balanced in my chi, and I will know who Dorothy Parker is. WOO HOO!!