Alas, Ye 2006, We Hardly Knew Ye

Another new year has arrived. This, of course, isn't news to anyone, and it's hardly significant except for the fact that we had a blast just being together.

While we counted down the hours, we were unsure what we were going to do; we were on waiting lists for a few places scattered throughout the city, but we were unsure as to what we really wanted to do. We opted to skip the drinks and dancing thing, knowing that it was mostly an amateur night and that all we really wanted to do was to spend some time with friends, usher in 2007 quietly with one another, and then go to sleep.

Which is what we did. We wound up seeing friends of ours, spending a few hours over dinner and drinks, relaxing, smiling and laughing, and then we went our separate ways and were barely awake for when the ball hit bottom.

Something that always puzzles me, and if someone could enlighten me I'm ready, willing and able to be graced with this knowledge, is why the ball drops on New Year's Eve and doesn't instead rise. If it's forward progress, and we're anticipating moving up and not backward, why doesn't the ball rise on New Year's Eve?

In any case, if you didn't catch it yet, we aren't really "New Years" people; sure, it was fun watching the Times Square festivities. Certainly, it was wonderful that we, yet again, were able (and willing) to celebrate with one another. But mostly, it was about spending time with friends, with family (the next day, with my sister to celebrate her birthday -- a shout-out to her), and just generally spending quality time with one another and relishing the fact that we would be doing much more of that in the not-so-distant future.

I think, on some level, the ushering in of a new year brings some measure of change, and the only real change between Kaia and I is that sometime in 2007 she'll be moving to NYC and we'll finally be under one roof, one lease and one zip code. Otherwise, things couldn't really be better. I know this time of year is typically a time when people take stock of their lives and what they've achieved and what they will achieve, and workwise I want to better myself and my business and make progress in both the quality and the quantity of stuff I'm handling; but on a personal note, all I'm looking forward to, other than spending time with friends and family and having a safe, happy, healthy year, is being able to know that sleeping quietly in the next room is someone who enriches my life, makes me happy and finds ways of making me happy to wake up in the morning and makes me smile right before I nod off to sleep at night.

I guess that's what we all want, on some level; but why I'm smiling today -- most days, actually -- is that it's very close, and as they say, the dream is increasingly real. I'm looking forward to when it's no longer just a dream but reality.

A safe, happy, healthy, wonderful new year to you all, and may you each find the laughter, the smiles and the happiness in which this year arrived each and every day from today forward.

-B-