the year to come

As I write this, it is 11:56 in Tucson, Arizona, but C and I have already celebrated New Years on Texas time, and we're satisfied with that. You might call us wet blankets, but we prefer to call ourselves overachievers.

As for Tucson, well... as far as we're concerned, we resolve celebrate the fact that we don't live in Tucson daily. Austin is so, so, so much cooler. We weren't able to find any planned events for New Years, so C and I headed to downtown Tucson to look for something interesting going on.

As C explains it, it's a Romanian superstition that whatever you're doing at New Years, that's what you'll be doing for the rest of the year to come. It's been a long day of driving, so I had decided I'd be happy with a year of sleep and relaxation, but C seemed interested in celebrating, so we went downtown. We were unimpressed.

We found a grill with decent pasta primavera, so we're starting the new year with our bellies full, but we weren't halfway through dinner when we decided to celebrate New Year's on Texas time, an hour ahead of Arizona. We decided we'd buck the trend by going back to the hotel and watching Dick Clark on television, rather than going to a bar that requires a cover charge in exchange for the honor of buying drinks from them.

As it happened, we brought in the new year in Texas time laughing uproariously; if I spend the entire year laughing, it'll be a good year, as far as I can tell. And now, just after midnight in Arizona, I'm relaxing, listening to a biography on television, and posting this entry with the sound of fireworks cracking outside. I have money in my pocket and food in my belly, and I'm indulging my constant desire to travel; if the Romanian supersitition is right, I think 2004 will be a good year.