December always goes by as a blur of presents, family gatherings, and disaster-prone holiday parties.

This December was a blur at mach-speed for me.  Work was insanely busy, I accepted a new day job and gave notice at my old one, and I flew from New York to LA to New York to London for work in the span of two weeks.  On top of that, we've got the first three chapters of our next book due in January.  Throw in a smattering of gift-getting, holiday social engagements, and Christmas with the family - well, you get the picture.

In the middle of all this, I also had my annual volunteering stint at NY Cares Holiday Lunch for the Elderly. Now, I don't want to misrepresent myself - I'm not one of these saintly do-gooders.  If I was, I'd volunteer all the time.  As it is,  I only volunteer because my friend does and she pretty much twists my arm to help out.  So every year, I haul myself up early on the Saturday morning before Christmas, march myself over to Times Square and serve lamb shanks to the elderly.  It's far from glamorous and not particularly heartwarming; we wear hair nets, the juice tastes like chalk, and the  elderly guests have a tendency to scream at us for not giving them a bigger shank.  In the middle of one particularly pleasant exchange with a silver-hared lady who insisted that she had not gotten any brown betty (even though she most certainly did), one of the other volunteers turned to me and asked if I didn't wish I had spent my Saturday doing something else.  I thought about it - true, I could have spent the day working on our next book, doing much-needed Christmas shopping, or just sleeping in.  And yet...as I stood there, I realized I didn't want to be anywhere else.  Because sometimes, what you really need when life is a blur is to stop thinking about yourself for a moment and think about someone else.

It's a novel concept, especially for a caffeine-drinking, adrenalized Manhattanite with a book coming out.  China Dolls World is bustling; in addition to working on our next book, Michelle and I have been working out the details of our book tour with our publicist, working on promotions, and planning our launch party.  It's no surprise then that I'm so used to running from one appointment to another that it isn't very often that I stop and take a breath.  That's why I've made it my New Year's resolution to do just that: to stop, take a breath, and look at the world around me. And if you happen to be looking for a resolution yourself this year - well,  I'll be glad to share.

 

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