What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? (written by Frank Loesser, so many covers!)

Happy New Year's Eve Day!  Whew, what a year (major understatement... 😝 )

Chico, Rob, and I (Eric has to work) will gather about 7:00 p.m. at Sarah's for sushi delivery, a bit of champagne, and maybe a Disney+ offering (ooh, kinda hoping for Taylor Swift's Folklore:  The Long Pond Studio Sessions documentary/concert?).  Definitely leaving there before the ball drops (Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen!), and crazy traffic and fireworks ensue.  Broward County actually has a 1:00 a.m. curfew.

Much more to say but, for now, I'll just wish you all a day/evening of reflection, gratitude, and anticipation as to what 2021 will bring.  Hoping that the stroke of midnight sees you in the arms of a loved one and, if that's not the case, hug yourself for making it through these difficult times.

Here's/cheers to Better Things... 💞

If you were able to look back at your most brilliant successes, stunning comebacks, amazing catches, and smokin' ideas, Susan, and you were to find that virtually all of them seemed to materialize out of thin air, when you least expected them, and that they had exceeded even your greatest expectations at the time, how excited would you be about the new year and whatever else I've got up my sleeve? 

Hubba, hubba - 

  The Universe

P.S. If I've ever helped you before, Susan, don't you think I can do it again… and again… and again… ad infinitum? Actually, it ought to be even easier next time, with your new saunter.

SONG:  What Are You Doing New Year's Eve (written by Frank Loesser, so many covers!)  Here's one of my favorites, by Mary Margaret O'Hara... 💖

BOOK:  Alchemy 2020: Concoctions of the Quarantine by Cheryl Poepping

POEM:  Twenty Twenty by Lana Hechtman Ayers

This was the year breath became death.

The year the grandparents and great grandparents left us by the thousands, taking their wisdom with them into the great oxygen mask of the heavens. This was the year we covered our mouths and smiled with our eyes if we were able to smile at all.

This year handshakes became passé and hugs a mass hallucination we once had.

This was the year we transformed into a tribe of screens.

The year we finally acknowledged how crucial delivery drivers and supermarket stock clerks are. First responders heroes now more than ever.

This was the year we remembered how to bake bread, learned how to garden.

The year we discovered different species of trees possess distinctive aromas.

This was the year we binge watched and wore out pajamas.

The year we took our pens up and our notebooks seriously.

The year we were speechless.

This was the year we discovered the Zen of handwashing, observed all the delicate shadows the moon tats across night lawns.

This was the year we cancelled weddings, Christmas, died without anyone familiar by our sides.

But this was also the year we took unscheduled strolls in the forest alone, attended the sea’s susurrus lectures, hiked higher than ever before.

The year we feared air and loved air and drove less, thus clearing the air. This was the year we did more fretting, more regretting.

We vowed to vote and kept our promises to ourselves and others.

This was the year we stood up to racial injustice in the myriad ways we could—in the streets, on Facebook, writing to our senators, calling for action against the police, donating to causes, celebrating artists of color, holding our white tongues so the underrepresented could be heard, acknowledged, admired.

This was the year we used our phones to make actual calls, voice to voice, not just for texts and emojis.

The year we cried and shook our heads and wrung our hands at the headlines.

This was the year we lost sleep, lost heart, found hope is action.

This is the year we said I love you over and over.

Sometimes to the person on the other side of the glass.

Sometimes to songbirds.

Sometimes to ourselves.

The year we said I love you to our fragile Earth.

Said I love you, I love you to the universe, and I love my humble place in it, no matter what.

QUOTE:  "If there was a time machine and I could tell my younger self what I'd be doing in 2020, there's no way I'd believe it." ~ Jonny Kim