Dreams unfolded

Jan 1 2010

I remember last New Year's Eve – not so much the logistics of where I was or what I wore, but the feeling: so full of hope! Expectation! Pregnant dreams, ready to burst into reality.

2009 was MY year: a year full of accomplishment and adventure. Coco and Lani were full-steam-ahead on graduating, with hopeful prospects. We were on the home stretch -- I had pulled off what I set out to achieve: a happy home, busy with the girls' activities, full of love and laughter. Jan 1 2009 I went over-drive on a health and fitness program in preparation for Transpac and my venture south. (I even quit drinking!) Between projects I sailed, joined the outrigger canoe club, taught water aerobics, walked endless hours on my bucolic beach. Life was sweeter than honey.

And then: the first of many hiccups. Urgent surgery: blessedly benign. Transpac campaign: canceled ... but I got a job delivering a boat home. And on and on …. 'Not to dwell on details: but my whole world was like a roller coaster, with the highest highs, the lowest lows, and a lot of loop-de-loos in the middle. Along the way I encountered many great people: and a few real shitheads. It was truly an Upside Down Summer (and year).

So here it is: New Year's Eve 2009 … actually 1:21AM local Paraguayan time now: a full hour and a half into 2010 – and the fireworks have not ceased. The crackling and booming reverberate off buildings and hillsides and join into one massive din of artillery. (And thankfully the smoke is keeping the mosquitos at bay.)

We started the evening (after my nightly mango-thieving walk) with a fantastic dinner at the club, which was decked out as if for a wedding. In Latin America they wear white for New Year's, and all the ladies were ooh la la in teensy white chiffons and sky-scraping heels. Marie, JP and I enjoyed the fantastic buffet – where I bee-lined directly to the giant shrimp (and only the giant shrimp - 'til the waiter knew my name, and the head chef ushered me to the ice cream counter). Held in a massive ballroom, the hotel hosted mostly ex-pats and tourists: confirmed when the Brasilian music boomed and scores of dinner guests -- like a huge amoeba -- amassed on the dance floor into one big white gyrating, throbbing being.

At midnight though JP, Marie and I rushed back to Domino: the fireworks were being lit right across the river so we wanted to stand by with buckets of water (and champagne) in case a roman candle went awry and set the boat afire. No worries: the wind had shifted and we were safe, so we simply enjoyed our front row seats, tooting the horn heartily as the fireworks went off.

I am not someone to take New Year's lightly … even now it is 1:30 AM and I am contemplating my plan for the coming year. As Susan sent me, in a quote from Arnold Glasow:

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion.You must set yourself on fire."

This is my mantra for 2010. I am ready to set myself of fire!

Burn baby burn!