Happy New Year!!!! :)

[Guest guest]

Boy, what a nice way to start a new year! Ron and I were alone last

night, so we turned on MTV2 and listened to lots and lots of techno

music on their " Beats Per Minute " programme. Just neat music with neat

visuals. I actually treated myself to a rum and Coke, the first one in

over a year. We did lots of snuggling, and then outside with a

taxi horn, a pan & spoon (to make noise and scare away the bad luck

devils) and a bottle of champagne with two flutes to toast in the New

Year. We live above the city, actually, so we were able to see

fireworks go off all over town and hear church bells ringing all over

too. We toasted the new year, and shouted greetings to our neighbors.

I actually drank two glasses of champagne!

So this morning we woke to watch the Rose Bowl Parade and lotsa bowl

games, with the idea that we would be going to pick up Louie around 10

to watch football with his dad. Boy, did we get a surprise! It seems

that his house went up to visit another house in a village not far from

here (called Carnuel). That house, btw, has a hot tub and a big screen

tv.

They did their celebrations there, and then this morning he went bowling

with his friends! Didn't remember that we were going to come get him

till almost 9:30, and then had his dayhab facilitator call us so he

could beg off!!!!! He says we can pick him up an hour earlier on

Saturday (when he likes to go to the contemporary service at his church)

instead, but today he wants to hang out with his friend (they

share interests) and go bowling with the larger group!! Gee, I guess

he's grown up.....decided to let the old folks down easy.

The upshot is, Ron and I get the whole of New Year's Day alone together

for the first time in a couple of decades.

It's nice, really. So here I sit, sipping an incredibly good cup of

coffee (hazelnut & Kenya, Ron says), listening to the Cotton Bowl (OU

vs. Arkansas), and " talking " to you folks. It's quiet, it's serene,

it's heaven......and I'm just enjoying *not* being a parent today.

Tomorrow? Well, there is that CT scan (it got set back).....but there's

also the fact that I get to go see Lord of the Rings.....and I've been

waiting for that movie for two years now.

Happy New Year, you guys! Happy, happy, happy New Year!

Annie, who loves ya annie@...

--

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be

normal. -- Albert Camus