OK, I caught heck from my daughter for not including her resolution in my column on Sunday, so I’m doing it here.

CELESTE’S RESOLUTION FOR 2006: Lose more teeth.

As I was jotting down my list of New Years Resolutions, I realized it was beginning to remind me more of my favorite new TV show (”My Name Is Earl“) than my previous lists. If you haven’t seen the show, it’s about a lifelong bad seed, Earl Hickey, who finds himself holding a lottery ticket worth $100 grand-moments before he’s hit by a car. While recuperating from his injuries, Earl realizes his bad karma is due to all the terrible things he’s done, so he makes a list of those things and sets about making them right.

Although I’ve done a few things in my life I’m not terribly proud of, it’s more what I haven’t done that causes me the most shame. Thank you notes I didn’t send. Kindnesses I didn’t adequately acknowledge. Money and time that I’ve wasted; items thrown away that could’ve been put to good use.

Luckily, as Thomas Paine once wrote, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

That’s what I’m hoping to do. Instead of “just” exercising more and getting my house organized, this year I resolve to begin my world over–in small ways that really shouldn’t be too hard to do. For instance, in my new world . . .

I resolve to send fan mail to writers, performers, and others who deeply touch or impress me.

I resolve to allow more cars out into traffic and more shoppers with fewer items ahead of me in line.

I resolve to attend at least one outdoor concert with my daughter. (Concerts, especially the Charleston symphony, sound best when you’re sitting cross-legged on a blanket with your kid on your lap.)

I resolve to attend more live theater.

I resolve to go somewhere in West Virginia that I’ve never been before.

I resolve to sleep outside at least one night next year under the stars.

I resolve to let my two favorite teachers know how grateful I am to have once been in their class. (I hope former Nitro teachers Judy Gillian and Tim Coll are reading this so I can put at least one check mark on my list.)

I resolve to teach my daughter the importance of helping others.

I resolve to take a class to learn how to do something creative.

I resolve to write for at least 15 minutes a day.

I resolve to cook something that requires more than three ingredients.

I resolve to read the instructions.

I resolve not to waste time worrying about something I can do nothing about, or waste time doing nothing that I can do something about.

And I resolve not to be so hard on myself if I don’t manage to accomplish every one of these many things. After all, like Earl, there’s always next season.