2013

So here we are, facing another year. Pessimist that I am, I am sorry that we misread the Mayans. I was kinda looking forward to not having to deal with any more trouble, pain or even work. Oh well.

It’s a very quiet New Year’s Day here in CT. Ransom began work at the Metropolitan Opera yesterday, covering Verdi’s Il Trovatore, so he’s staying in the city. That means he went to the New Year’s Eve party to which we were invited, but I stayed home. Perfectly fine with me. During all those years in the restaurant business New Year’s Eve was a night I dreaded. My friend Malette points out that all the amateur drinkers feel compelled to get drunk that night, but, being amateurs, they don’t do it well and ruin it for the rest of us.

So last night I finished re-watching the first two seasons of Downton Abbey and then From Russia with Love. I didn’t even note the passing of the year at midnight, but texted Ransom a few minutes later and went to bed. Today, more James Bond and lots of relaxing. Then, tomorrow, back to work – horror!

It was a typical year for me: lots of good concerts, a few great ones; excellent meals from  the best kitchen in Woodbridge (our house); a fantastic trip to Scotland; a lovely Caribbean cruise on Celebrity; lots of knee pain and lots of frustration with the medical profession; sadness and shock over the damage from Hurricane Sandy and the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary.

But what I’m thinking about most as I review 2012 is the gift of friendship. In October of 2011, Ransom and I met Jon and Ann aboard the Celebrity Silhouette and this past year brought us together several times. The thrill of meeting someone new and exciting is just as memorable as it was when I was in my twenties or thirties, and that may be the most important lesson of the last year.

To drive the point home we just met Michael and Carol on out most recent cruise, and though they live too far away for us to see them as much as we’ve seen Jon and Ann, we enjoyed them every bit as much and I was once again reminded of the joy of friendship.

And hovering over all this is the fact that my forty-seven year friendship with Don, my buddy in Richmond, is stronger and more comfortable than ever. We communicate via email almost every day and by phone more often than we used to. Like best friends who see each other every day our conversations are usually simple and trivial as we share our day-to-day experiences. Sometimes we talk more seriously, either about world issues or about ourselves. Most important to me I suppose is that Don is my history. He knew me when I was seventeen and yearning, he knew me when I was twenty-seven and politically active, he knew me when I was thirty-seven and lovesick, he knew me when I was forty-seven and moving into this house with Ransom.

I long ago gave up on New Year’s resolutions, shamefully facing their folly in February. But I have hopes, and my fondest hope for 2013 is that I get to spend lots of time with my new friends, and especially with my old ones.