Two Cups of French Roast and Why Am I Not Still in Bed?

I can’t believe I’m up this early. What’s up with that? Worse, there’s someone else up this early, too. I’m texting with one of my friends AT FIVE IN THE MORNING. Ridiculous. We should both be asleep.

It’s New Year’s Eve. I have a date tonight with New Guy. Should be a lot of fun for him when I pass out on him at around eight o’clock, huh? Maybe I can take nap this afternoon...


Anyway, I’m trying to come up with something wonderfully insightful to pass on this momentous occasion of the passing of one year into the next. Auld Lang Syne and all that.

Speaking of which, how 'bout a history and culture lesson?

I looked up “Auld Lang Syne” on my good friend Wikipedia for you. (What can I say? I'm a giver.) Loosely translated, “Auld Lang Syne” means “days gone by.” Now, I personally prefer that version by Dan Fogelberg, who wrote about running into his old lover at the grocery store, but way before old Dan’s ex-lover married her an architect, the song that everyone sings at the stroke of midnight was credited to the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Before that it was an oral tradition, so no one really knows who the heck thought it up. Nice try, Bob.

In Scotland, New Year’s Eve is called Hogmanay, and it lasts until January 2nd. Now that’s something to sing about. Those Scots sure know how to party. Must be all the whiskey and kilts. A bunch of drunken men and women with easy access? That IS a party…


Last night, I went to visit some of my favorite people: The gang at Solace Salon and Spa. They’re such an awesome group of people, and I make the drive over the bridge just to see them once a month.

Got the hair done. I’m blonder and thus, am certain to have more fun this year, right? Yeah, only if the blonder hair scores me a guy with a boat and a jet ski…


Well, crap. Still nothing profound. Nothing to leave you with that will make you stop and think, “Wow! This chick’s brilliant.” Maybe five a.m. is too early for profundity. Or maybe leaving my mark is not what I should be trying for as I go into this next year.

There’s something to be said for simplicity, for getting back to basics, for looking around and appreciating all that you already have in your life instead of wishing it away in your search for something better or more. What did I read the other day? “The value of a thing is never so acutely realized as the moment it is lost.”

Or something like that.

I feel as though I’ve spent this last year searching for something, and I don’t even know what it was that I was looking for. What if I already had what I was looking for all along? Or it just may be that I need to stop looking for that something in other people and start looking for that something in me.

Whatever the case, it’s a new year, so all my best to you and yours.

Have a safe and happy holiday.