I saw an internet poll the other day, I forget where, which asked if I'd ever been in Times Square to see the ball drop at the start of the new year in person. I was very glad to see that the pollster had included an option for "No, and I have no desire to."
I fail to see the point in gathering in an arbitrary place to end the old year and ring in the new one in company with tens of thousands of complete strangers. I'm not really a crowd person--I tend to avoid ginormous events altogether, and that goes double for ones that are essentially made up to market something or to provide a reason to televise something. I went to Taste of Chicago. Once. No desire to go back again. Too blinkin' many people.
I'd much prefer to spend this evening in the company of family and/or friends, quietly. I was invited to a wine tasting event in Chicago tonight, but had to decline since I'm on duty for the 10 a.m. Mass tomorrow morning. And given the weather today, chances are good to excellent that even if I'd accepted the invitation, I'd have had to decline it at the last minute. It's been foggy all day, and snowing fairly heavily since early this afternoon. The strengthening winds are blowing the fog away, but are also now starting to blow the snow around. The National Weather Service is advising that travel conditions are likely to worsen as the evening wears on, with snow accumulations from 2-4 inches from Chicago westward.
Ergo, I'm sitting comfortably in my apartment with clothes in the wash and a pot of stock simmering on the stove. I'll be watching the St. Louis-Detroit game on TiVo later this evening, and after that, maybe a movie. I've got finger foods for noshing, and a quart of rainbow sherbet and a couple of liters of 7-Up to make "New Year's Punch," a hangover from my salad days. I may stay up to midnight, or I may not--all depends on how sleepy I get. I'll TiVo the Rose Parade tomorrow morning, since it starts at the same time as Mass, and then I'll stop over at the folks' place after church with a pan of gingerbread I baked for mom this morning. Should spend an hour or two with them, and then back to enjoy my last day of freedom before heading back to work on Wednesday, and the world of responsibility.
I had planned to take at least some of the time during this week and a bit off of work to work on my overdue paper. However, the motivation just wasn't there. I've had a much better time of it just sitting around the house and relaxing--watching whatever the hell I want on TiVo, DVD, or television; reading novels; working a puzzle my sister gave me for Christmas years ago and which I never had room to work before; farting around online; and, when absolutely necessary, taking care of household chores and such. It's been a balm to my weary mind/body/spirit to accomplish this whole lot of nothing this past week. I should do it more often: I suspect my demeanour will be much improved if I do.
I also think it's long past time for me to find a place to make a good retreat. I haven't been on one in at least a decade, and I think it shows. Maybe I can make it out to the Quad Cities to visit the Trappist monastery there, and enjoy some peace and solitude.
I'm not sure what this may mean for my Ph.D. studies. I'm almost done with the required coursework, but there are five field exams on the horizon, then putting together the prospectus for the dissertation, candidacy exams (I think), and then of course researching and writing the doggone thing before finally defending it. After this year, I'm not 100% sure I have the necessary energy left in me. Maybe it will be better when it's just research and writing--but I'm also not sure how I'm going to find the time and money to stay in France long enough to look at everything I need to see, especially if they're going to make it harder and harder to use my digital camera for "note-taking." Having come this close, I'd like to finish it up and get the bloody degree, but if it's going to come at the cost of frazzled nerves and a perennial sense of being harried to do more, read more, write more, comment more, well, I may have to rethink that--or at the very least put it on a more leisurely schedule. We'll see.
Meanwhile, the promised giggle. My mom forwarded this one to me a couple of days ago, and I laughed like crazy. Be sure you read all the way to the end!
Dear All:My thanks to all those who have sent me emails this past year........
I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat shit in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing.
Also, I now have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.
I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown); who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.
I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program .....
Or from the senior bank clerk in Nigeria who wants to split $7 million with me for pretending to be a long-lost relative of a customer who died intestate.
I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.
I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.
Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.
Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca-Cola because it can remove toilet stains.
I no longer can buy gasoline without taking a man along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm filling up.
I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.
I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore and Uzbekistan.
Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my buns.
And thanks to your great advice, I can't even pick up the $5.00 I found dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.
If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 pm this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician.
By the way, a South American scientist, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with low IQ who have infrequent sexual activity always read their e-mails with their hand on the mouse.
Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late!
Happy New Year, Michael!
I don't go out any more because of the probability of drunken drivers. We lose people every year but some refuse to learn or take the free cabs. It's one of the drawbacks of living in a tourist area.
Posted by: Bryan | Tuesday, 01 January 2008 at 00:15