Greetings in 2011

Happy New Year, everyone. As you know, January 2 is one of my favorite days, because it signifies the end of all this holiday sh...er, nonsense for another year. :-Þ  Did everyone have a nice Eve? Any resolutions? I do not make them, myself. I used to. Especially when I was in my 20s and still a virgin. I remember writing in my journal every freaking December 31: "Goal for 19XX: Get laid." Well, it seemed of utmost importance at the time.

I vaguely recall my father, back in the day, sneeringly referring to New Year's Eve as "amateur night." I guess I could see where he was coming from; the folks who used a calendar date once a year to get plastered must have looked silly to hard-partying sorts like my dad and his cronies who did that every weekend. Who would have thought his daughter would turn out to be such a lightweight! Well, at least I stayed awake until midnight, which is more than I could say for John.

As I drove up the winding canyon road to his house, I kept seeing signs tacked onto trees, with "NYE Party" and arrows drawn on them. I saw at least a half-dozen of those and thought, "Wow, someone's having a blowout." Then I reached John's... and saw that the blowout was next door. (groan) When John's neighbor has a party, it's like being next door to a rave. Oh well. So much for a peaceful evening!

We made the best of it -- went out for a nice dinner, came home and lit a fire. I'd brought a movie, but John fell asleep on the couch around 10, so I put the DVD aside and channel-surfed. I don't really like the NYE specials. I mean, how many more years are they going to resurrect poor old Dick Clark from the dead, prop him up in a chair and have him slur the countdown to midnight? So I surfed around for a while and then Eureka! Twilight Zone marathon!

Yes, folks. You know you're getting up there when you spend New Year's Eve watching a marathon of a show that's as old as you are. And extra geek points for actually being jazzed when you see an episode you've never seen before. I mean, that so rarely happens!

So anyway, after watching the kid talk to his dead grandma on a toy telephone and people in a diner accuse each other of being Martians and that poor nervous wreck of a woman running into a creepy hitchhiker everywhere she goes, it was nearly midnight, so I woke John and he went and opened our champagne. That part was quite lovely. :-) I was with the man I love more than anyone else in the world, and he was well. A bit lumpy and itchy, and not out of the woods, but very much alive.

We drank our champagne and stayed up watching TV until nearly 2:00 a.m., putting off the inevitable (trying to sleep with the racket next door). They kept it up until 4:30. But Saturday was blissfully, blessedly quiet. Not one peep from the neighbor -- even his dogs didn't bark. :-) They probably knew they'd split his head wide open if they did.

So it was a nice weekend. The only part that made me a bit sad was when I called my mother to wish her happy New Year. "Oh, I'm so glad you called," she said. "I've been so worried about the kids. Do you know what's happening with everyone, have you heard anything from Erica, from Kenneth?" "Mom, I'm Erica." "Oh, you're Erica! That's great... I'm so happy to hear that. What about the others... how is Ken?"

Ken... my brother. The one who's been dead since 1972. Oh, Mom.

"Mom, Ken's gone." "Oh, I'm all mixed up. Who else? Aren't there other children -- isn't there a baby? Who am I missing?" "No one, Mom. It's just me." "Just you? And you're OK?" "Yeah, Mom, I'm fine." "Oh well, that's wonderful then."

(sigh)

Enough of that. The year ended on a good note. On the 30th, I even got some surprise year-end residual checks from my father's work, which more than made up for having nearly no work the past couple of months.

Thanks, Dad. Still looking out for me, aren't you.

New episode of Desperate Housewives tonight, and first spanking of 2011 tomorrow! :-D  See? Contrary to popular belief, I'm really not all that hard to please.