For Auld Lang Syne…

Y’all Listen.. I only consider myself slightly superstitious when it comes to certain things. Someone once told me that if you wash laundry on New Year’s Day that you would spend the whole year doing it. I also grew up eating pork and sauerkraut on the first day of January to bring luck. Having now spent the better part of my life in the south, I have also made collard greens and black-eyed peas to bring health and wealth. It was not until the other day that I realized what has been missing from my recent years. While I know this is hardly a way to begin my return to this blog, I must start somewhere; so please bear with me.  As we are preparing to ring in a new Year, I started to think about years past of course. It was then that something struck me. Not in the last four years have I had the opportunity to celebrate this transition from one Year to the next with a large amount of cheer and fanfare.

In 2018, I was on the high of being newly engaged. I had just gotten to celebrate Christmas with my Family and include my new Fiancé. He had to work on the 31^st day of that December, and thus was a bit tired by the time we got around to the party we attended. But party we did, and it was a magical night, even if he did fall asleep just after the ball dropped. I remember drinking champagne and dancing and wearing a pretty dress, that had spaghetti straps because well, NYE in Florida is just like that! It seemed as if we had the whole World at our feet at that time. We kissed at midnight, and we then went home, with a buzz of happiness that not even the finest bubbles could produce. In the morning we went to a brunch with a group of my friends and sat on a boat dock in the sunshine, wearing what could only be descried as a deconstructed suit. I had on his tie with my dress, he had on his vest and we both donned large sunglasses (my style was beginning to rub off on him already). That group of friends can never be replaced, and I wish I was near them still today. That year was blessed early with laughter and good times, yummy food and love. That was the year that we married. Surrounded by the very things we celebrated just after midnight. 

Life sometimes moves at warp speed, and in the fall of 2019, we saw our one-year wedding anniversary pass. We had our first Christmas as a married couple. These are the types of milestones that you have faded photographs of when you reach old age. That first year came and went in an instant and we were soon about to welcome our next year. The only problem is that I was working an overnight shift. My work schedule certainly does know how to ruin a perfectly good holiday, and I have become adept at working around things. However, you can’t work around not being with your special someone as the clock strikes twelve. So, I had to settle for a quick phone call to my sleeping Husband and go on saving lives. The year came in, just not with a bang. Little did we know that everything that we thought had become normal for us was about to be questioned.

This now brings us to 2020. The year that the entire World was shut down for weeks and months on end. This was the year of the coronavirus. There was nothing that we could do to prepare for what this year would look like, or the things that we would have to do to adapt. We learned about virtual happy hours and started getting our groceries delivered. We wore masks and socially distanced from everyone. The thing that sometimes feels not totally fair for my Husband and I, along with millions of others across the globe, is that while we were quarantining on our off time, we still had to go to work. I had to miss out on the fun of Life, but still had to do the drab. I struggled very hard with the changes, and the inconsistency. When it came time to think about celebrating, I was almost happy that I had to work. I was on day shift at this time but had to report early the next morning and Husband was at work that night. I was asleep many hours before the fireworks started and would wake with the dawn to another Year.

As the months of 2021 wore on, the Country seemed to have a better grasp on the pandemic, and things started to open again. We were able to see friends and go out to eat. The first time a server asked me if they could get me started with something to drink and an appetizer, I almost hugged him. It was still not the same as before, but it was getting there. We went on a cruise to celebrate two years of being married. We were living life, and at times felt like we were making up all the rules as we were going along. I can’t say that the beginning of marriage is something I would recommend to anyone. You can’t avoid it, but the person you were once obsessed with is going to get on your nerves. Don’t worry, everything will be fine, and you will soon find yourself gearing up for another Holiday Season. For us, that would be halted in the middle weeks of December when my back stopped cooperating with regularly scheduled programming. This was the year I hurt my back. I had a ruptured disc, that lead me to being stuck in bed and then, in emergency surgery on Christmas Eve. I was not a happy camper. I will save the gruesome details of that for another post, but I can tell you that it was something of a miracle that we both survived that with some level of dignity and grace. I was using a walker and dealing with the side effects of healing as Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve graced our screen. The new year came, and I was glad to see 2021 go..since I really put my back into it.

By December of 2022, we were in a new beautiful apartment. After I was able to fully recover from surgery, we packed our Floridian doggy and all our belongings and came to the First in Flight state! I was selected for a position at the largest Army base in the World, and we were enjoying being somewhat tourists. I found cool new things for us to see and do and smell and eat! I love to explore a new place and map out all kinds of adventures. This was what seemed to be our biggest adventure yet, but it was not without some amount of setback. This was the year that Husband stopped drinking. Again, whole posts can be dedicated to how we navigated that, and to the fact that he is now over a year sober, but at the time, things were tough and uncertain. You never know the strength you have until you have to use it. North Carolina was still showing me wonderful reasons to be happy to live here, including being much closer to Family. We spent a weekend with them, went to a German market, had laughs and great food. It was just when I was thinking that I would have a perfectly complete Holiday Season that the Flu hit. It took Husband out first and left him in bed asleep for the whole Feast of Seven Fishes, and he hardly got up to enjoy opening gifts. The following week, I was hopeful that I had escaped unscathed when, alas I awoke myself with a fever and congestion. We were quite the pair, both taking turns blowing noses, and taking medication, and sleeping through what could have been a time of revelry.

This of course brings me to today. December 31^st, 2023. The year has not been perfect, but I can fill you in on that later. I hope to be around here more from now on. We had a really happy Thanksgiving. Of course, we ate ours a week after everyone else because I had to work but our meal was amazing, and we truly do have many things to be thankful for. We then moved on to an outstanding month full of merry making, celebrating, decorations and cooking galore. Christmas found us a few days early, but it was a magical one. We are both at work today but are getting off early enough to be together when the clock chimes and welcomes in another 365 times to reinvent ourselves. I knew I didn’t want to run around trying to get to some party or overpriced restaurant. A simple meal at home for two. That I may have obsessed over just a little bit. Some champagne for me, and a sparkling drink for Husband. Together with our little doggy Waylon, we can finally put an end to the curse of New Years Eve.

Superstitions may never fade, perhaps there are some old acquaintances better left forgotten, and I will probably not do a single chore tomorrow except for making our dinner What I do know is that as the years go on, I understand how to be kinder to myself. I make more of an effort not to put too much pressure on everything being just right. I hope that you all celebrate in a way that is perfect for you. I have just about twelve hours of this year left…here’s hoping I haven’t jinxed us!

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