LauderBlog

New Year's Eve is a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, looking forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want and need to make.  No more pity parties, let's commit to follow through on those changes. Cheers to a great year!

Here are our top 12 New Year's resolutions for 2012:

1. Enjoy Life More
With a hectic, stressful lifestyle, it is no wonder that "enjoying life more" is a key step to being happier and healthier! Bring balance to body, mind and soul. Find inspiration with a theater performance or live concert. Visit a museum or art gallery. Take a break and relax at a local spa. Make this "your" year.

2. Stay Positive
Think positively! Believe in yourself. Success begins with positive thinking. If you believe it, you can achieve it. As you welcome the positive, your future will move forward, and not backwards.

3. Spend More Quality Time with Family & Friends
Vow to appreciate loved ones and spend more time with family and friends this year. Make plans to meet up with friends for an evening of camaraderie. Work shouldn't always come first!

4. Commit to Be Fit
Regular exercise has been associated with more health benefits than anything else. Exercise makes you look and feel better. Studies show that exercise reduces the risk of some diseases, increases longevity, helps achieve and maintain weight loss, enhances mood and lowers blood pressure. Get in the habit of taking a daily 30-minute walk, a simple and economical way to kick start the day. Now is the time to get in shape in Fit Lauderdale.

5. Be Consistent
Consistency creates new habits. Do something every day to get closer to hitting that new commitment. Even if you are short on time, take 15 minutes in order to make progress. Your goal will turn it into a habit and soon become a way of life.

6. Get happy, in the sunshine
Enjoy life's simple pleasures and lift your mood. Top happiness boosters (according to a recent British poll) include sitting in the sun, going on vacation, getting into bed with freshly washed sheets, swimming in the ocean, driving a car with the windows or top down on a sunny day.  Feel the sunny!

7. Tame the Bulge
Want to fit into those skinny jeans? You are not alone. More than 66% of adult Americans are considered overweight. Setting reasonable goals and staying focused are the two most important factors in sticking with a weight loss program, and the key to success to shed extra pounds. There are lots of options for help to get swimsuit ready--- Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Atkins, Nutrisystem, Dukan Diet, Self Magazine Jump Start and many more.

8. Help Others
A non-selfish New Year's resolution, volunteering can mean mentoring a child, helping out at the local library, building a house or helping animals. There are so many nonprofit volunteer organizations that could use help. If your time is in short supply, you can donate furniture, clothing and other household items that you no longer need.

9. Try Something New
Make this the year to get out and learn something new! Start a new hobby. Take to the water and try your hand at paddleboarding, kayaking or surfing. Get motivated to feel the Zen with yoga. Learn how to play poker or ballroom dance. Want to learn a new language, travel somewhere special, or just learn how to work your smartphone? Take a course or read a book.

10.  Get Organized
Organization is a reasonable goal. Whether you want your home organized enough to invite someone over on a whim, or your office organized enough to find the stapler when needed, this is a good time to start on the path to a more organized life.

11.  Reward yourself
For a greater likelihood of success, give yourself little wins along the way. Positive and visual reinforcement of your commitment makes it easier to remember why you are continuing your mission.

12.  Forget perfection.
Resolve to lighten up and laugh more. Believe in yourself and don't look back -- 2012 is going to be "your" year, and it is just the beginning. Today is the first day of your new life!

Last week it was all about having a Merry, Merry. Now as we approach the New Year's weekend, the time is right to wish everyone a happy holiday ... and joyful, healthy 2012. Happy, Happy! The previous blog offered some ideas about where to go and what to do on New Year's Eve. If you missed that, see below to check out the details. It's not a complete listing, of course, and there's no shortage of other possibilities as the brief work week transitions to a long weekend. Rent bikes at Broward B-cycle. Take a ride on the Water Taxi. Heck, you even can go skating outdoors if you want at Skate Las Olas. I'm planning to try out the skating for myself this week - at last. Should be some laughs.

We all could use more laughter in our lives as we head into the next 12 months, no doubt. The past couple of years have been a little grim at times, haven't they? As I go around living my life in Greater Fort Lauderdale next year, I will try to look for things that make me smile - and to share that smile with others when I can. Big things and small things. Any things that offer something positive in a world that can feel so negative.

I saw one of these just yesterday, in fact, one of those small things just outside my Dania Beach condo. This fella parks in the drive, opens the tailgate of his van and something flies out. It's a small plastic bag, the type you bring home from the grocery store. To his credit, the guy chased that bag rather than letting it blow around to litter our grounds. But each time he approached, the bag caught another gust of wind and moved just beyond his reach. You can see it happening: The bag settles on the ground, the guy races toward it, the bag inflates in the breeze again and scoots another foot away from him. This small scene made me laugh to myself - laughing with him, for sure, not at him. Who hasn't done something like this at some time or another, right? Then the thought occurred to me. This is funny because it's so real, so much like life as most of us experience it. We set a goal, plan our approach, make our confident move ... only to have the thing we want slip slightly out of our grasp. So we try again to catch whatever it is, our own personal plastic bag in the wind. And again, it blows away from us. Living can be that way, as we all know. For this reason I'm a real believer in persistence, trusting that determined effort will overcome the frustrations in the end. I do think that's true. But I also think lots of humor along the way sure can help, a genuine smile and a deep laugh. I watched the bag-chasing dude until, yes, finally he snatched up the plastic bag and put it back into his van. A happy, happy ending to an everyday challenge for one man - and at least one happy ending to a challenging year for all of us. May 2012 have fewer gusts of wind and many, many more smiles for everyone.

Fortunately, holiday celebrating is easy here in South Florida. I've enjoyed some memorable New Year's Eves in Greater Fort Lauderdale, for sure. This year there are many, many ways to do all your ringing in, with a partial list of options available just by clicking here: http://www.sunny.org/holidays/#nye events. These choices include comedy dinner theater with the Laffing Matterz troupe at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Or professional hockey as the Florida Panthers host the Montreal Canadiens at BankAtlantic Center.

Paul Anka sings at the Hard Rock Live from 10:30 pm right through until it's time for Auld Lang Syne. At one of the higher price points in Fort Lauderdale, SoLita Italian Restaurant offers a $125 prix fixe dinner with midnight celebration. VIBE Ultra Music Lounge goes the other direction with a $20 cover charge. There's even a daytime New Year's Eve fest for kids until 2 pm at Funderdome entertainment center on SE 17th Street. But, as always, the biggest draw will be the public par-tay in downtown Fort Lauderdale. This bash has a family friendly 4 pm start time with activities for kids until 8 o'clock. Then from 8 until 3 am you'll have the chance to rock out to a variety of live entertainment on two stages. And no that's not a typo - this thing goes until 3 in the morning. Pretty cool way to see in the 13th year of the 21st Century, with a huge street festival shared by thousands of your close personal friends. But whatever you do, do something. Seriously, you don't really want to just sit alone with absolutely no acknowledgement of New Year's Eve, do you? Whether on the town for a wild wingding or at home for your own intimate celebration, find some special greeting for 2012, ok? If enough of us are cheerful to the new year when it arrives, perhaps the new year will be cheerful in return.

And so it begins. Hanukkah now, and the long Christmas weekend only a couple days off. Wherever you happen to be reading this, I hope you're in a merry mood. Many folks seem to be in the spirit here in South Florida. If you didn't happen to catch our own sunny.org take on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, you might enjoy checking it, click here. I mention this because it's an oddly accurate description of what I experienced just last Sunday. I was driving south on A1A, home from my girlfriend's place, when I decided on a whim to stop in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea for breakfast. I parked, paid the master meter and ambled through the morning sunshine to Anglins Beach Café. I got a little two-top outside, ordered my eggs and, yep, real bacon - just as I wrote in the verse. And then I watched. And smiled.

Tourists really were stretched out on the sand. The sea really was calm and the air pleasantly warm. And I really could sense, very clearly, how happy all those tourists were feeling.

They sat in groups at the café, families and friends from other places, soaking in that sheer delight I wrote about in our version of the famous Christmas poem. It was charming to see. Here it was, still fairly early on a Sunday, but these people already were wound for action - chattering on to each other about whatever, kidding and laughing and planning the day ahead. There was no sleepy silence over sips of coffee. They were in Greater Fort Lauderdale for the holidays and, hey, there were lovin' every minute of it. After my breakfast, I wandered over to the small gazebo that sits on the beach to finish my coffee and watch the tourists a bit more. Two visitors from Toronto were asking a local where they could ride bicycles, asking so many questions that I almost volunteered my services as something of an expert on this area. But the local seemed to be doing fine without me so I just settled back on my wooden bench, soaking up my own delight. That's when the thought occurred to me: "Wouldn't it be fun to write a blog based on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas?" Yes, I decided, it would. Two hours later, I was home and my sunny holiday verse was finished. And there ya have it, my personal Christmas tale for whatever it's worth. Do have a merry merry, whether you're celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or anything else this season. Ho-ho-ho and all the rest. It's time to enjoy ourselves. If you're down here on vacation, though, I'm pretty sure I don't have to mention that to you.

 ‘Twas the week before Christmas when all through the land;
The tourists had stretched themselves out on the sand.
They squinted as sunshine shone off the blue ocean;
And they covered themselves in sticky white lotion.
The sea was quite calm and the air was quite warm;
And they came to Fort Lauderdale's beach in a swarm.
From New York and Kansas, Illinois and Nebraska;
I think one or two even hailed from Alaska.
All here to bake in the South Florida sun;
And to find their own kind of subtropical fun.
Some sipped from a straw one mojito or two;
Or bicycled off to our butterfly zoo.
The Bonnet House offered a few monkey shines;
And parasails reached for the sky on a line.

As for me, I sat eating my breakfast this day;
At a delightfully sunny seaside café.
I couldn't help smiling all during my meal;
I sensed how happy those tourists must feel.

Who could blame them for feeling so joyful this way;
To sunbathe just one week before Christmas Day!
The cloudless December sky was so blue;
That I soon was aware I felt joyful too.
I admit that I live rather near to this beach;
Throughout the year it's well within reach.
But I still got caught up in the touristy joy;
As I sat eating eggs and real bacon (not soy).
I couldn't resist all the sunny elation;
That beamed from the faces of folks on vacation.
Those folks down from Kansas, those folks from Alaska;
Swimming at Christmas, what more could they aska?
Into the ocean and out on the sands;
Playing with beachballs or just holding hands.
Maybe stealing a smooch from their own special lover;
Or finding a palm tree for cool shady cover.
They'd left their cold places and come to the tropics;
And I saw very clearly, although I'm myopic.
No, I'd not overlooked even with my dim sight;
That view of a crowd soaking up sheer delight.
Delight in their sunshine, delight in their sea;
Delight so delightful it finally reached me.
Their seasonal joy had lifted my heart;
And inspired this small bit of verse on my part.
So I say "Merry Christmas" these few days before;
And sincerely apologize to Clement Clarke Moore.  

Who doesn't love bicycling, right? In South Florida the weather invites us to be out and about on bikes, spinning through neighborhoods on our way toward the ocean. Bicycles are big down here. Go to any Broward County beach and you'll see cyclists in ones and twos as well as in large groups all pedaling like mad up and down A1A. Bicycles are just a part of our landscape. So I was really pleased to learn recently that there's a new way for tourists and locals alike to pull up a bike seat in Greater Fort Lauderdale, easily and inexpensively. As I write this blog on Wednesday, a new bicycle sharing venture has just gone public: Broward B-cycle. Basically, you pay a modest fee, pick a bike from any number of stations around the county, ride it and then drop it off at any of those stations.

Can't get much simpler than that. This means it's no longer necessary to deal with the hassles of bicycle ownership for locals who just want the occasional pedal to the store or the beach. It also means that visitors can quickly find a bike for a lovely self-guided tour around town or whatever else they care to do. A bicycle for one or bikes for the whole family - at convenient locations, for a good price.

So how much does this deal cost? A 24-hour pass is $5 plus 50 cents for the first half hour. Each half hour after that is another $3 with a maximum charge of $65 for a full day. Seven day passes cost $25 and annual memberships are only $45. Get the details about costs, locations and all the rest by going to their website at http://broward.bcycle.com/ As you can see, these bikes really are priced for short spins rather than all-day excursions. But really, isn't a short spin about all you want many times on a bicycle? Think about the possibilities. You're wandering around downtown Fort Lauderdale with your best friend, stopping for a gelato here, maybe shopping for a new pair of shoes there. Suddenly your friend says, "Hey, wanna grab a bike and shoot down to the beach?" You take a stroll to one of the downtown bike stations, pay a few bucks and pretty soon you're pumping the pedals past the soft blue waves of the Atlantic Ocean. What a lovely addition to this community. Broward B-cycle joins other B-cycle programs in such places as Chicago, Honolulu, Boulder and San Antonio. Like I said, who doesn't love bicycling? In Greater Fort Lauderdale, it just got a lot easier to love bicycling whenever you want.

Imagine ice skating. Outdoors. In Fort Lauderdale. Tossing off double toe loops and triple axels under the Sabal palm trees. Well, you can do that any day from now right through the New Year holiday. Uh, assuming that double toe loops and triple axels already are part of your skating repertoire, of course. Even if they're not, you can have all sorts of fun at the outdoor skating rink on Las Olas Boulevard near the Riverside Hotel. Judging by my stop at Skate Las Olas, most of the folks who strap on skates there are very much beginners. No worries on that count, believe me - if you've never skated in your life, you'll fit right in. But this place is a serious hoot, whether you plan to skate or just sit at one of the picnic tables beside the rink and take it all in.

Like the holidays themselves in tropical South Florida, Skate Las Olas is slightly surreal. It is charmingly out of place. You go walking down this lovely urban shopping street in your shorts and t-shirt, soaking up the warmth, palm trees here and flowering bushes there. Then you glance over and see people ... skating? In 80 degree heat?

Yep, sure enough. They're skating all right. The rink actually is made of a very tough type of plastic, an 1,800-square-foot pad of artificial ice owned by two former professional skaters. I've not tried it out myself yet, though I used to skate quite a bit as a kid. Even played a little hockey in high school, so I hope to give Skate Las Olas a go. Those who have skated there say that it feels a lot like real ice. Maybe a bit less slippery. This really is a delightful addition to the growing list of holiday things to see and do in Greater Fort Lauderdale. Kiddies who are on skates for the first time wobble their way across the rink, balancing on small frames that glide over the plasti-ice with them. Adults who haven't skated for many years are out on the ice too, remembering what it was like when they lived up north. Now and then, someone who can really skate takes a few spins but I suspect these folks are few and far between. Mostly it's just families and couples having a blast, gliding and teetering and stumbling their way blissfully toward 2012. You can find out more by checking out this website: http://www.skatelasolas.com/ The cost is only $6 for a half hour on the rink, including skate rental. Bring your own socks and go do the Rockefeller Center-Central Park thing right here in the Florida sunshine. It may feel slightly surreal, sure, but a little extra dose of childlike fantasy during the holidays sure couldn't hurt any of us.

What's it like to be in the Winterfest Boat Parade? It is, like, fun, totally fun. And seriously cool. You see, not many people actually get the chance to participate in this huge annual holiday event. Many thousands attend each year, of course, but they watch from the sidelines, as it were. They stand on the banks of the New River or Intracoastal Waterway, on bridges and balconies, watching and waving. And smiling a lot. So let's ride along on one of the boats - a virtual ride through this blog. I've been in the boat parade and can offer the perspective you may not get yourself. From the water. And it's a different experience, very different, from planting yourself in one spot on shore. You don't really see the parade so much. It's more like you see the people who see the parade, which is its own type of fun.

There is a feeling of anticipation, a happy tension, before the first boats begin to move forward. You probably have a lovely cocktail of some kind in hand, chatting with friends as you feel a small lurch and then you're underway. You look at the boats directly behind you now, each chugging along within a glare of holiday lights and a blare of holiday music. And you think, "This is gonna be amazing!"

You wander to the bow of your boat, standing for a while as you check out the vessels of all sorts up ahead. Megayachts and cigarette boats, sailboats and small motor boats, each draped in light, each glowing into the calm waters below you. For a moment, you don't know quite what to do, how to react to all this. So, like the crowds milling on the banks, you smile. The balmy tropical air blows pleasantly over your skin and you take another sip of that cocktail and, at last, you start to relax into the experience. Hundreds and hundreds of people are looking at you, after all - and they're waving at you. Now you begin to wave back. Sometimes you're so close to the shoreline that you make eye contact with this person or that one, sending a special wave to him or her alone. The buildings along the route are lighted in a shared holiday greeting. The bridges are all open for you, the crowd is happy to see you. The people wave from those buildings and those bridges as you glide east, then turn to the north for the long float up the Intracoastal. It is a different experience all right, a glorious opportunity to motor your way into the heart of the holiday season. But whether you're afloat or land-bound, the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade is utterly charming. Find out more information about this year's 40^th edition by clicking here. It begins Saturday, December 10, at 6:30pm. On the water, you are swept up within the event. You are part of the show. On the shore, you are swept up by the event. You are the show's audience. Either way, it's a memorable night.

Wow, what a difference a few years can make. Today's Fort Lauderdale is a major cruise capital - arguably, the top cruise capital in the world. We're on the threshold of earning that title based strictly on the numbers, by the way. Already in the top three ports on earth based on passenger stats, Port Everglades should take over the top spot quickly, perhaps as soon as 2012. For me, it's hard to believe we haven't done that by now anyway. Because this is a different place for cruising than it was not too long ago. I was reminded about all that over the weekend, which began for me on Friday afternoon. I had just driven near the port to see a ship I'd sailed on this spring around the Middle East, Silversea's Silver Spirit. She's a beautiful ultra-luxe ship, now doing some Caribbean voyages out of Fort Lauderdale.

Then I stopped for coffee at the Starbucks on 17^th Street nearby. Many cruisegoers as well as crew members sip their lattes here before or after voyages, so I kept looking for staffers I knew from the Spirit. Didn't see any, unfortunately. But a small group of people at the café spoke to me as I was leaving. One woman asked, "Are you on the cruise?"

I wasn't on the cruise she had in mind, of course. But the woman explained that she had come down from Philadelphia for a few days before cruising on a large Princess ship. She was soaking up the sun and the generally gorgeous weather with her friends. For the rest of the weekend, I was reminded over and over about all the tourists and all the crew who pass through our fair port-of-call these days. They come and go in huge numbers, something you can see for yourself around the 17^th Street Causeway. Especially on weekends. On Sunday I counted at least six, maybe seven, ships in port at once as I drove over the bridge. The causeway was buzzing with shoppers, taxis were ferrying passengers in and out of the port, cruise crews were catching up on email and Skype calls at café tables. It wasn't always like this around here, not by a long shot. But it's nice to see, just another part of Greater Fort Lauderdale's evolution as an important worldwide tourist destination. Then later on Sunday I was sitting in my living room, perhaps two miles or less from Port Everglades. I heard the great bellow of one ship horn, soon followed by another at about 5 pm, then one more around 5:30. With that traditional blast of sound, the ships were leaving on their voyages. But in a way, the horns were announcing something else too - telling everyone within earshot that Fort Lauderdale has arrived.