It's 12:08 am on January 1, 2007. A quiet night at home, reading on the couch, the husband is asleep upstairs. He had to work tomorrow, a busy day - and I'm pregnant and nondrinking (though I did sneak a small bit of champagne last night!) So instead of partying in the New Year we stayed at home, played some cards and he went to bed at 10:30. I thought I'd be in bed soon after, but found myself enthralled by a book he bought me for Christmas. The radio was playing in the background, live from Tonic in New York City, jazz that sat in the background. Then, they counted down until midnight and "Auld Lang Syne" started up, at the same time that the sounds of fireworks erupted in the neighborhood. I've always loved New Year's, the counting down to the next installment of life that keeps moving on. Wondering what will come this year, and marveling at the ones that keep adding up behind me. This year - we hope for a baby, whose heartbeat we heard for a second time on Friday. We'll find out if it's a boy or a girl on the 26th of January, when we get our ultrasound. And I couldn't help feeling that this New Year's starts a new era for us as people and as a couple. The end of the freewheeling couple that we were - at least in the sense of out any night we felt like it, partying, dining out... we stayed in tonight and who knows what next year will be like. After so many years single, free, in a way thinking about next year curling up with the baby, the miracle that somehow we've created... sounds pretty good. There's definitely a sad feeling bidding goodbye to my younger, more independent self- balanced by this amazing feeling that soon my life will matter more than anything to one person whom I've taken it upon myself - ourselves - to raise up as best we can.
Up to cuddle with the father - the husband- Happy New Year, here's to a 2007 of peace and life, as best we humans can manage it.
Good night!