Happy New Year!!

Greetings from ... well, we're not exactly New Year's Eve Central -- that'd be Times Square -- but we're definitely where everyone looks on New Year's DAY. Saw a movie and had dinner with some friends -- walked there, because driving in Pasadena on New Year's Eve is just insane. A couple blocks of my walk home was right along the parade route, and all along the sidewalk were people camped out, ready to just spend the night. (Most of the stores had boarded up their windows against minor acts of celebratory vandalism. Except an enterprising shop on the corner selling cookies and hot chocolate -- said he'd stay open till 1:00 and reopen at 4:00 in the morning. And there was a line.)

My overpriced temporary corporate housing apartment is two very short blocks from the parade route. Watched the ball drop on TV and then went out on my balcony -- could hear cheers and fireworks (although I couldn't see the latter). But could definitely hear the celebration from everyone on the street. It'll peter out in a bit, then everyone will settle in for a few hours of sleep. (For my part, I'll collapse in bed, be rudely awakened by the sonic boom that accompanies the Stealth Bomber flyover, and then go back to sleep until, oh, say about noon.)

As for summing up the year ... I guess I'm having the same sort of trouble I had with the whole "things I'm thankful for on Thanksgiving" thing. There are some years that are so crappy you just can't wait to see the bastards out. I certainly wouldn't say that about my 2008 -- it had a lot of good things in it (the knee-jerk top-of-the-list entry would be that I finally unloaded the condo; but, on reflection, things like health, and safety, and having a job probably deserve to top it on the list).

But I can't really put 2008 in the "bestest years ever" column either -- mostly because we don't really know how everything is going to turn out. I mean, the economy is in the crapper; my employer (the Great but Financially Unstable State of California) is considering mandatory furloughs (a.k.a. 10% less work for 10% less pay); I still haven't found a house to buy yet; my sister moved to Connecticut (and hasn't sold her house out here yet); and while I'm pretty happy that Obama got elected, he's got, y'know, something of a difficult task ahead of him to bring the "change" that we're all hoping for.

Ultimately, I guess 2008 was one of the transitional years. Kinda like the second movie in a trilogy. Just sorta setting things up for the future. I won't really be able to properly evaluate 2008 until we can see what grows from the seeds we've planted this year.

But I'm hopeful.