"...another year over, a new one just begun." - J. Lennon
Yeah, I don't know where it goes, either. Malcolm McDowell, the bad guy in one of the Star Trek movies, says that "time is the fire in which we burn." Melodramatic most definitely, but there is a chilling truth at its core.
Let's see: this past year I turned 49, my wife turned 40 (!), my parents observed their 50th wedding anniversary, my baby daughter turned 15 (!!!) and began high school and I received a 30-year service award at work. It seems there's good reason my hair has turned nearly white (but thank God I still have plenty of it).
We stayed in last night and had Chinese take-out (what I observe to be one of those Rhode Island New Year's Eve traditions but which may possibly be a universal rather than a provincial one), watched a movie (The Hangover --- I laughed out loud, despite the set-pieces being so over-the-top and fundamentally oh-so-wrong), and then tuned into the network shows to watch the masses in Times Square squeal themselves silly in the cold rain, watching the spheroid drop to mark the passing of 2009 and the arrival of 2010. Both my wife and I say that we have absolutely no interest in actually being a part of that, but maybe would if we were 19. Maybe.
Speaking of 2010, let's all try to remember that it's "twenty-ten", not "two-thousand ten". After all, we don't say "one thousand nine-hundred and ten", do we? Make this your New Year's resolution, if you must do so. My thoughts on New Year's resolutions echo Calvin's (of Calvin and Hobbes, of course). To paraphrase: "I don't need to change anything, everybody else does!"
Well, it's ironic, you see.
Let's see. Other random thoughts: I saw The Road the other night and it was what I expected, having been traumatized by the novel. A heartbreaking, depressing story, hewn very closely to Cormac McCarthy's beautiful cinematic language. I spent the last twenty minutes of the film wiping my eyes and sniffling (an oncoming head cold, you know). I enjoyed it, anyway, as troubling as that may sound. We all need a punch in the gut every once in a while, to remind us to feel.
Also watched a program last night on Palladia HD (a mostly cool music channel) that was called Hard Rock-something-or-other. It was a presentation of an outdoor music festival held at Hyde Park in the UK last summer. It caught my interest because the program guide mentioned Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which was definitely cool, but I had another observation. A young British band, the Kooks, played --- they're late-teens, early twenties, guitars, bass, drums and passion for the music. The audience, also young (for the most part) and diverse, sang every word of the song the band played. It seems to me that UK audience have a passion for music and musicianship that US audiences lack. For UK music fans, music is an integral part of their lives, a passionate affair that consumes them. I think US audiences treat music as though it's just another compartment in the TV-dinner trays of their lives. Ah, a crappy metaphor, but I'm just typing here!
Three days off and nothing on the agenda that can't be PPD'd or erased altogether. There are new DVDs to watch, CDs to listen to and an ever-growing stack of books and magazines to read. Might go to the movies and see Avatar or Up In the Air.
Just remembered: Cowboys/Eagles on Sunday afternoon (how 'bout them Cowboys!). Looking forward to that, hope I'm not disappointed.
Also, first baseball practice of the season is Janaury 13 --- just awesome, can't wait. I was on three rosters last year, maybe I'll cut that down by one, I don't know. Getting old, you see.
The New Year is 11 hours, 50 minutes old already. Where the #$@!@ does the time go?
