(Sunday Paper, Year V, Issue 1)

I think it’s important to start with this: I’m sure tons of people have used some variation of the “2020 Vision” joke I used as a title for this post, but I thought of it independently of everyone else and I feel comfortable using it to lay our my goals for this year.

Secondly, it’s important to note this: Last year I wanted to try yoga, play lots of cribbage, and run a marathon. None of those things happened. (I did play cribbage once.)

So let’s consider those carryover goals - if I do them in 2020, wonderful, but it’s not likely. I don’t know - I just don’t know how to start doing yoga.

Anyway, it’s not like I accomplished nothing in 2019. I just didn’t exactly do the big things I shot high for.

Here’s what I’m aiming to do in 2020.

I think easily the best thing I did in 2019 was the year of shows at Exhibit ‘A’.

We did 12 of them, they were all great, and we’ve started to build a following of folks who enjoy the shows and come back month after month. And that was one of the comedy goals I laid out last year - to not screw up the new show I had. I didn’t.

In 2019 I stopped being as obsessive about tracking my shows, which up until last year I did with breakdowns for open mics, booked shows, shows I hosted, etc. When I started doing Exhibit ‘A’ each month, just knowing I had that on the horizon all the time gave me a peace of mind where I didn’t feel the need to track everything so meticulously. I definitely did not, though, perform as often last year as I have in previous years.

So in 2020 I’m hoping to get back to performing more often without shifting focus from Exhibit ‘A’ and doing as well there as we did in 2019.

I think my biggest goals for 2020, though, are around writing. I told you that recently I’ve had a work shift that means I no longer have an outside-the-house work obligation. Starting this week, I’ll really be able to find my work-at-home rhythm, and I’m hoping to get back to the more creative writing that I haven’t been doing as much of these past few years.

Sure, I’ve had some stuff published here and there, but I’m really hoping to put myself out there with my writing in 2020 in a way I haven’t yet done since I started freelancing. I have big plans for my writing to take a leap forward this year.

That means, as you might know, that I’m also steeling myself for some rejection.

But that’s OK…because rejections mean I’m submitting, and submitting means I’m writing stuff I’m proud of.

And that’s what I’m expecting to happen plenty in the new year.

I’m already waiting to hear about what I’d call one long-shot submission…and I have another one queued up to submit soon.

It should be a productive year….I’ll do my best to keep you posted.

Notes

*A reminder that tickets are still available (though not many!) for my headlining set at Exhibit ‘A’ Saturday night. Click here to get them.

*I have to admit - thinking about the picture I used at the top of this post - this was the least excited I’ve been about getting a new calendar since I started freelancing. Not like I’m not excited about the new year…but rather I’m just not super-focused on only filling the calendar with dates. It’s more that I’m looking forward to filling it with writing deadlines and submissions.

*I had a pretty well-received first joke of 2020 at 100 First Jokes on Wednesday, so that got me good and confident about the new year comedy-wise. I’ll be including that brand-new joke in Saturday night’s set.

*I mentioned above that I didn’t perform as much in 2019 as I have in previous years…but that doesn’t mean the year was any less productive. Hosting and being a part of twelve shows for an audience that often included the same people mixed in with first-timers required me to work in a different way, and challenged me in a new way that I wasn’t expecting. I expected I’d be able to do my usual material month after month but I had to adjust on the fly and by the end of the year I was bringing new material to each show…so I now know to expect more of that in the new year.

*I’ve unveiled a new thing for the new year - Every Wednesday on the Facebook page I’m doing a little project I’ll call “Every Week On Wednesday.” (It really only has a title so I can hashtag it on Facebook and keep track of the posts.) As I was thinking about my Countdown to 40 last week, I realized how much I enjoyed doing that and wanted to create something similar (but not requiring 40 straight days of posts) on the Facebook page. So each Wednesday I’ll post a picture and write about it. I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t already ‘Like’ the Facebook page, you can do that here. You can also follow me on Twitter here.

*Tree collection here in Framingham is this week, so I took the tree out Friday evening - my least favorite activity of the year. BUT because it was a smaller tree (because of the dog, and the fact that we didn’t know how she’d react to it), I was able to completely wrap it in a tarp and there was relatively little mess. So that was a win…but I also took down the rest of the Christmas decorations, indoor and out, so that’s a little bit of a downer. I left the card display up, and my favorite ornament display…I might leave those up until March…so that will still be a nice happy touch in the dark winter months ahead.

*Happy New Year! I hope 2020 is off to a good start and thanks for keeping up with me on here. I really appreciate it. Hope to see you Saturday night!