Ya-Ya, Y'all

Well, it's 6:35 on New Year's Eve, 2007, as I write this. And I am celebrating.
I'm not especially celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of another. That's so random. What is time, really and why do we try so hard to define and mark it?
So we can get to our dental appointments when we're supposed to, I guess.
No, I'm celebrating because New Years officially ends the damn holiday season.
Yep. It's well and truly over. And 2008 will be the last year that we have George W. Bush as president, which is reason enough to celebrate.
I'm on my own back porch, as I write this. We didn't stay in the orange house on Anna Maria Island although it was actually fairly charming on the inside and we probably would have had a lovely time had we stayed there. There was a tree in the yard- I was wrong about that. I guess the orange sort of blinded me to it. And wild parrots feed in the yard every morning beneath the tree. They like the pine cones. So that alone would have been a joy to watch.
But I just wanted to come home. I didn't need to come home so much. I just wanted to be here.
I like being home for New Years. It's a good and safe place to be. An old guitar player friend of ours used to say that New Year's Eve is Amateur Night. All the people who normally never go out drinking and driving think that the last day of the year is a good time to try it, endangering everybody on the road.
But besides that, I'm old and I like being home and that's all there is to it. I wouldn't bet the ranch on me being awake at midnight and that is just fine.
Also, I don't have any firm New Year's Resolutions. Last year I resolved to wear more colorful clothing and less black and even that didn't work out too well. As always, I'll just strive to do the best I can and finish another novel and get in shape and try to be less crazy. Maybe I'll buy a few more blue t-shirts.
And I'm not looking back on 2007 with any nostalgia, either. The most momentous thing that happened in my life this year was that my nest sort of emptied out, although not entirely, since the last baby bird only flew as far as the dorm at FSU and she comes home quite frequently. I certainly didn't discover a cure for cancer or the meaning of life although I did come up with an excellent recipe for salmon which I will gladly share with anyone who wants it.
Which leads me to give you the advice I read about diet from a man named Michael Pollen who has written a book entitled In Defense Of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. His advice goes like this:
"Eat food.
Not too much.
Mostly plants."
I love that.
So I'll leave it at that and remind you to eat your black-eyed peas tomorrow. They are a big bowl of heaping natural plant goodness and if they offer any good luck for the upcoming year, all the better.
And I'd like to say that I've gotten a lot of joy from writing this blog and getting comments and reading a lot of y'all's blogs and thank-you for your words and thank-you for commenting on mine.
Be safe. Be healthy. Don't forget to dream. I hope you get to kiss someone you love at midnight.
I guess that's all I need to say.
Oh yeah. And bless our hearts.
Love....Ms. Moon