As part of the First Night 2009 festivities, a boarded up storefront was covered in white paper and sharpies were provided for people to write their New Year’s resolutions down.

I was walking down Strawberry Way (I needed dinner and decided to hit up Qdoba since I am boycotting Bruegger’s downtown) and I found myself face to face with this wall, filled with all kinds of messages and drawings.  I was intrigued.  So I took a whole bunch of pictures.  Soon after, the paper came down and I believe construction continues behind the plywood on Liberty Ave.

So now that we’re past the halfway mark of 2009, I present to you, The July Project. 

I wonder how many of these resolutions were kept, and how many were soon forgotten.  Some are funny, some are sad.  Some are exclamations, while some choose to draw instead of write.  Others aren’t resolutions at all, but still made me stop and think about new beginnings, and the hope and promise that January 1 brings.  Maybe some of that will carry over now that we’re past July 1.  Or maybe we’ll just all get a laugh.  But however this all plays out, here’s hoping that we can all find something worthwhile.

Past the break, some comments about the resolutions seen above, as well another pic from the wall.

A lot of the messages around this logo were the standards, be kind to others, eat less sugar, put more in God’s hands, be the wife my husband deserves and the ever-popular [blank] was here.  In small pink writing is a resolution that says, “to think only truth,” one that I like a lot, but am not quite sure how to take or follow through with.  Coincidental, I find myself drawn to one written further up, “to get my resolution right.”

I’ll be running this column throughout July, hopefully I get to all the ones I want to by then (along with my trip to Heinz Hall this weekend and other stories as they come up), but in the meantime, here’s a quick resolution:

As far as I know, Sid is still single, but hey, there’s still half the year to go!