Obligatory

And so we stand, friends and foes alike, with our hand poised on the last calendar page of the year, waiting ever-so-anxiously to turn to a new year. Never you mind the fact that few calendars have a January page following December, that's not the point. Pretend that your mouse pointer is hovering over the little "forward" arrow on your Google calendar if you must. Either way, at the stroke of midnight we all move into a new year! Unless you take into account different time zones across the world, that is, in which case I'll pretty much be one of the last people to enter 2008, whereas we have a friend in Japan right now who is probably sleeping off a celebration-found hangover. Yet he might be planning to celebrate the Chinese New Year instead, which doesn't occur until February 7, 2008. But I mean, whatever. Total togetherness and all that.

Do you believe in making New Year's resolutions? I don't. I tried, once upon a time. I found that when I checked in with these resolutions at the end of the year--or hell, even just a few months in--I usually ended up more disappointed than not that so few of my goals had found their footing. Wanting change for oneself is all well and good, but not at the cost of emotional bereft at the seemingly inevitable failure down the road. I'd rather just do what I can to focus my life in the areas that need it, when they need it, rather than wait for some monumental holiday that most everyone who celebrates directly connects to failure. That does not sound like a jolly good time to me. But now I sound awfully jaded, which is not the point. The point is...

The last 365.25 days have been good to me. It is now that I feel drawn toward giving thanks for the fortunes I have seen... I find myself with more close friends than I can recall having in some time, most of whom I have found--or who have found me--thanks to the steps I have taken to improve other areas of my life. One good deed deserves another, as they say. And I find myself even closer to Makal, which really is remarkable since we've been attached at the proverbial hip since we first met in 2005. Yet there it is, friends and love and happiness, all wrapped up in the tiny little Web2.0 bubble that is 2007.

As for the next 365.25 days, I definitely have my hopes. I'll be turning six, and of course I'm excited about any year I have a birthday. I could be simple and celebrate the miracle act of a ball of absurdly expensive crystal dropping and not breaking, but I'd much rather hold my enthusiasm for... umm... for my own personal balls to drop. Uh, yeah. No but really, a lot of things in my life have been set in motion during the 2007 months and I'm looking forward to seeing the returns this next year. Yes, you too should be excited to see my balls drop! Until they do, rest assured that my use of that phrase is metaphor, sure and true.

Everyone out there is saying that yes, 2008 will be the year things change and improve. We are sure of it. It will be a good year. All signs point to yes. And right now I'm inclined to agree with them.

Happy New Year, my darling readers. May all your balls be made of Waterford.