New Year, Happy 2014

2013 was rough across the board. It was just brutal. To say that I'm glad it's over is the understatement of a decade- maybe even longer.

I spent New Year's Eve with my mum. I did several loads of laundry and we watched "The Holiday." I left at 11:30 to avoid running into any revelers while driving. My family is very superstitious about driving on Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve, or New Years. You know that song, "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer"? Well that kinda' thing happens in my family! There's the grandpa whose appendix ruptured as he drove over a bridge so he ended up driving off of it on New Year's Eve or Day and then there's a grandma that died in a motor or horse accident on Christmas Eve.

After a rough year like 2013, I was willing to embrace some superstition in the hopes of good luck and positive change. I intended to get home with enough time to throw open all of the windows and the door to air out the bad/old and bring in the good/new. Unfortunately, as 2013 would have it, the front door to my building was apparently stuck shut or frozen shut or jammed shut. I'm not sure what it was, but it wouldn't budge using a key and it didn't work using the call box. So I lugged two loads of laundry around the building to the back door while praying. That door worked. So I walked back to the front, up to the third floor (now from the basement instead of from the first floor), and into my apartment at 11:59. I flung open the window (the others were already wide open due to radiator heat that smothers) and left the apartment door open as I texted my mum "Home safe and sound! Happy New Year!!!" and it was delivered at midnight. I received a text, that I presumed was from her, right after I hit send. I closed and locked the door. The text was from a formerly close friend who went MIA. I replied to the other texts I received, put my phone on silent, and slept with no alarm turned on. It was a happy new year indeed!

I spent the evening of January 1st with my mum again. We had stuffed crust pizza and pasta (thanks Pizza Hut!) and Martinelli's Apple Grape Sparkling Cider (that was two days in a row for me!) We watched "Night At The Museum Two: Battle of the Smithsonian" and the first half of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" before I headed home. So far it's been a productive and restful year. I hope that combination continues and includes happiness and prosperity to boot! :)