I could argue that New Year’s Day is the most disappointing holiday of the year. I spent a whole day baking and preparing for a party, and dressed up the most I have since I moved here. I was pensive and contemplative all day, reflecting on 2010, the most eventful year of my life (so far), trying to decide if I had really accomplished all I had wanted to and if I was ready to face a new year with new challenges and new expectations.
And then, it’s over. The clock ticks past midnight. The fireworks die down. People catch their breath from the initial celebration and we all look around and figure out, “So, now what?”
Now, we play ridiculous party games. Now we throw around praise for the most delicious curry I’ve eaten in months (thanks to some coconut milk smuggled into the country). Now we freak out about the Kyrgyz men setting off fireworks in the courtyard and off the roof like a bunch of amateurs. Now we thank everybody at the party for turning a disappointing holiday into something worth remembering and repeating.
Now I make goals to figure out how to fill the time until next New Year’s Eve.
– Get a haircut (it seems insignificant, but I’ve been talking about cutting my hair all year, and it never happened.)
– More regional travel.
– Convince at least one person to come visit us in Kyrgyzstan.
– Fluency in Russian. Boom! A lofty goal, bu Farrell says I can do it.
– Make at least one business successful. I can’t exactly define success, but we have so many business ventures going on right now, I can hardly keep them straight. Here’s hoping that at least one works.
– Farrell wants to record another album for his band, Language of Termites.
– Learn video and audio editing software, and make at least one video and one audio documentary.
– Consume less sugar (eek!) and exercise more.
– Watch less television overall, but more Russian-language shows.
– Make my blog more awesome. Again, I can’t exactly define awesome, but I want to do some serious overhaul this year (probably very soon).
Ahh, and there they are. Hello, 2011.