Letters, oh we get letters.

Tracye wrote: Nyquil is a good - no, GREAT - bedfellow - but he is not a longterm partner. He's a one-to-two night stand. Three max, and by the third night he's beginning to lose interest in helping a gal out. Don't abuse Nyquil, just love him for the shortterm.

Girl, you ain't lyin'. That is so, so true. I feel rather rode hard and put away wet, as I have been around the cold medicine block. So, I broke it off with NyQuil, deciding to go with the non-drowsy cough syrup coupled with not one but two Advil PMs. Sounds good, right?

No! That cocktail kept me up until four in the morning. You try staying awake on two Advil PMs - it is a trip.

But what kind of sick (literally) moron am I? I'm the kind of sick moron who tries this recipe for disaster a second night and is surprised when doing the same thing gets the same results.

I won't even go into how I realized today that I felt like my entire body was carbonated and maybe I was having side effects from the non-drowsy (read: laced with meth) cough syrup.

I've been drinking a ton of water and eating fish tacos in an effort to cleanse my system.

What were we talking about again?

Sherilee wrote: I'm curious which of Cathy Lamb's you'd recommend for a first-time reader?

Hmm. You really can't go wrong. They are all fast, fun reads. The first I read was Julia's Chocolates, which I recommend mostly because I love the visual of abandoning your wedding dress in a tree at the side of a road.

I'm not giving anything away. It's on the cover of the book.

My conscious asked: Speaking of your year-end posts, dear Cha Cha, you sorta left us hanging on what your plans are for 2010. What gives?

Yeah, well, Wretched Cold sort of took over any thoughts I had toward the future. It made me think back wistfully to my younger days, like, "I used to wear jewelry and sing and wear bras. Those were the days!" I was in the autumn of my years. But now I've started to feel better and am less, you know, at death's door.

So, basically, I have two resolutions for the new year. The first is a continuation of last year's goal to cook more. I like to cook, and last year I received some kick-ass knives for Christmas. This year, I received a kick-ass blender, and I gave myself a little present in the way of The Earthbound Farm Cookbook. It's the sort of cookbook I dig - gorgeous color photos of all of the recipes, because I'm a visual learner. And all sorts of useful info about eating organic and knowing where your food comes from.

The second resolution?

Umm? It's sort of shameful.

See, I'm an editor. But really? I'm an editorial manager. At a Fortune 500 company. Not that I'm hot shit (I'm not), but just some context. I'm an editor / editorial manager ... and I don't know the proper usage of lay and lie.

I KNOW!

I'll learn it, but then I'll see something shiny or Hoarders will come on TV or Lil' Frank will poo on the floor ... and I totally forget about my romance with the tricky verbs. I get it, but I never really embrace it and make it my own. I flirt with it and then forget allll about it.

So, 2010 is the year I finally master lay / lie / lain / laid / lalala.

I feel as though I have totally just thrown down the gauntlet. Bwah ha! Verb mastery shall be mine - and no wind, no rain, no trash TV shall stand in my way!

Wish me luck.