Reflections on a New Year's Eve

I wanted to get one more post in before we call an end to 2008, looks like I made it by an hour and a half (we're six hours ahead of Vermont). It has been one amazing year! For me 2008 will go down as the year when everything changed. When it began, if memory serves me correctly, I was toasting in the new year at a party in Brattleboro Vermont with my buddy Doug. That seems so long ago. Tonight, I'm in Augsburg Germany with my sweetheart. We just shot off some fireworks in the street between the apartment buildings. They sell fireworks in all the grocery beginning on the 29th, and allow you to shoot them off pretty much anywhere you want on the 31st. It's crazy! Marietta told her elderly downstairs neighbor to look out her window to see the show, and the two of us proceeded out into the street, champagne glasses in hand, and fired off a really nice display into the cold Augsburg sky. It was lovely. A couple of "Happy New Year" wishes and a long kiss, and we're back inside to get ready for the party upstairs. It's too cold to venture into town and it'll be nice for us to just be here. At midnight, most of the streets in most of the neighborhoods here fill up with New Years revelers firing off their grocery store pyrotechnics (which are really hight quality, by the way). I'm told it's quite a spectacle.

So, what does 2009 have in store? I have a few wishes (in no particular order). Here goes... I hope we can make our way successfully through all the red tape required for me to remain here in Germany with Marietta. I'm hoping our relationship continues to grow even stronger the more we get to know each other. I hope the economy gets better, both here and in Amerika (that's how it's spelled in German, yeah I know, it's weird). I hope people don't expect too much too soon from the new American President. It was a miracle that he was actually elected, and he deserves an unimpeded chance to fix the mess they're in over there. I hope my family back home experiences happiness and trouble free good health (Hi Eliza!), and that they don't hold it against me for being here and for following my dreams. I hope I never lose touch with all the friends that have sustained me back home and all along my route. I hope Carla keeps up her blog. I hope Doug finds a girlfriend half as good as the one I found (not that he doesn't deserve one "just" as good...anyway). I hope anyone that I may have left feeling hurt can find forgiveness and understanding. I hope I can do the same. I hope I can keep off the 25 or so pounds I lost on my bike ride (between you and me, I kinda already put ten of them back on). I hope I can continue to evolve, always going forward, able to resist that old tug to return to what's familiar and safe. I hope for universal health care for all. I hope for kindness. I hope for peace. I hope 2009 brings happiness to all. 

For me, as I sit here and reflect on 2008, my new favorite year, I realize happiness is exactly what I found. I'd say the new year has really big boots to fill.

With champagne glass in hand, I say... Cheers!

Happy New Year!

~B