Reflections on a New Year

1/1/11

Dear family and friends,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hesitated writing a blog for a long time, mostly because I was afraid I might offend some people.  But then I came to the realization that I am who I am, and after all these years, people who like me, like me with all my faults.  In addition, we do live in a marvelously free country, and I feel that everybody is freely entitled to my opinions!

Over the years, Terry and I have fine tuned our New Year’s Eve celebration due to several factors such as the drunks on the road, the (in) famous Stockton fog, and mostly our aversion to DJs at parties.  These obnoxious DJ people, I suspect, go to some obnoxious DJ school where they were taught to play obnoxious music, obnoxiously loud.  It just ruins everything; you can’t even talk to your friends.  So we decided to stay home, chill a bottle of Champagne, order take-out food (Chinese, Pizza, etc) and celebrate the  arrival of New Year on an hourly basis;  it is New Year’s somewhere in the world, we slowly reel it in to California.  However, lately we can’t seem to make it till California mid-night, so we close with the grand celebration in New York, may be watch a rented movie, finish off the Champagne, and go to bed.  Believe me, it works!

This New Year’s Day morning I woke up to rain and cold weather outside, but undaunted, I fixed myself my daily morning espresso, and decided to chase it with a cup of hot chocolate.  Then I turned on the TV to see the Rose Parade.  This has been a grand tradition in this country to watch the Rose Parade where all those spectacular floats are made and decorated with all natural materials, such as flowers, leaves, bark, seeds, branches fruits, nuts etc.  It is truly one of the most spectacular things you would ever watch on TV.  Of course, all those marching bands from all over the U.S., smartly dressed and playing wonderful music to precision marching will no doubt warm your heart and might even bring a happy tear or two.  Then there is the Rose Bowl foot ball game to look forward to.

I leave you on that warm note.  But not before I warn you not to make all those ridiculous New Year’s resolutions which nobody can keep.  Try to be true to yourself, your loved ones, try to be compassionate, and be thankful for what you have.  Make it a point to start looking at life from a glass-half-full point of view, and see how much difference it makes! 

Go forth and be happy!

-----drtutu