Happy New Year!

From the weekly UU message:

Please accept, with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all...

....and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2005, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "America" in the Western Hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

(By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: this greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for the period of one year, or until the issuance of subsequent holiday greetings, whichever comes first. Warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher. Void where prohibited by law.)

Ending the Year

Since my last post, I've been trolling through other blogs. I like the "next blog" button - it's like the random I-Pod shuffle, in that you never know quite what will come next. I must say I react to the foreign language pages with as much excitement as I do all those Tony Bennett/K.D. Lang duets (which appear much more frequently in the song rotation than statistics should allow.) Neeeeexxxtttt.

I am, apparently in the minority, not falling into one of two major blogger types: the teenage girl who can't spell but is addicted to exclamation points (! Elaine Benes would just! die!!), and stay-at-home moms, who sometimes have interesting things to say, but mostly just seem eager to connect with the outside (grown up?) world. I do like the few bloggers I've run across who are using the space as an online writing journal, posting a writing exercise a day, etc. It's an interesting idea, as it's a semi-public forum - more visible than a notebook keep in the bedside table, but less than distributing your stuff in an actual writing class.

Speaking of which, I just signed up for a Gotham Writing Workshop/Zoetrope online fiction class. It cost mega $$$, but I'm hoping it's worthwhile. A friend from the Zoetrope Belize workshop said that the live Gotham workshops are great. I think I chose online because it will be easier in the winter months to go home and participate, rather than trek into Manhattan after work. But I'm also afraid it's because I'm avoiding the people part of it - online anonymity is definitely a boon to the shy and introverted.

Yup.

Christmas Eve Evening

Standing in church next to people who can sing, makes me feel like I can, too. Especially during Christmas Eve candlelight service, when it's all music and people, the usual and the unusual, and the voices swell around me in familiar all-ye-faithfully-coming tones and for a minute or two, I open my voice and I can sing.

Not sure the people next to me would agree, but hey, the wife had her eyes closed the whole time. "This is my treat," she told me, and a few moments later, the women behind us. "I don't come here regularly but I come here on Christmas Eve to treat myself to the beautiful music."

I treated myself to cold sesame noodles and General Tso's shrimp from the Chinese restaurant between church and home. I don't go there regularly, but on Christmas Eve - ah, who am I kidding. They deliver to me so much I'm in danger of becoming Sandra Bullock in "Two Week's Notice" (shut up, I saw it and I liked it): all I have to do is give my address and they know my order. (Yes, that was also Miranda in "Sex and the City" but isn't Sandra a more horrifyingly guilty-pleasure reference? We're talking cold sesame noodles, dude. Those things alone are probably the cause of my sudden eligibility for "The Biggest Loser 2.")

No, this isn't a contest for how many diverse pop culture references I can fit into one entry. But not a bad idea for next time...