when optimism fails and my cooler head prevails, i will meet you at the point of diminishing returns

Happy new year, everyone!

I intended to write a post recapping 2008 and my feelings about it, but I'm too tired for such nonsense tonight. I'll likely blog tomorrow morning (at least on the romance blog -- I need to be building it up asap), but thought you might like to verify that I'm still alive given that I didn't blog last night.

My New Year's Eve was extremely low-key. I was way too tired to go out, since I woke up at the equivalent of 1:15am California time and only took two half-hour naps during the day. I wonder if my brother made it through his day -- he also got up when I did, although he went to bed three hours later than me, and then he had to fly to Nashville for a wedding rehearsal, dinner, and a New Year's Eve party for the wedding that he was in today. I, on the other hand, had an uneventful flight (during which I read THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD - wonderful!), then did laundry, bought groceries, completely unpacked, and made potato and leek soup for supper. I wanted to go to bed at eight but thought that it was a bad idea; instead, I read VISCIOUS CIRCLE, which was another book that I got for Christmas. I haven't read two books in one day in quite awhile, but it was v. nice.

Today was quite excellent. I ate some leftover soup (with two strips of bacon -- if you eat pork on New Year's Day, you live 'high on the hog' the rest of the year), messed around on my computer, and then went over to the dirty east bay to visit John and Jessica in Berkeley. Their 2008 resolution was not to eat any chips, and they made it all the way through, so they celebrated today by making and eating a lot of nachos. I ended up staying for quite some time; at some point, after much relaxing conversation with the group of people who were hiding out from the Taboo players in the other room, the remaining people narrowed down to seven, and we played this board game called 'Manila.' I loved it -- it's essentially a probability/betting game, but with some interesting options and strategies. The best moment came when I placed my bet on the pirate ship (which is a long shot), and ended up raking in substantial winnings on a perfect roll of the dice. But then, as previously agreed, I had to drink some rum with a bit of fresh black pepper (don't ask -- if you're in the know, you can guess that John mixed it) because I had won a round as the pirate captain. So I ended up staying after the game to eat dinner with John and Jess, and brainstorm various ridiculous possibilities for future romance novels, before coming home around 10pm.

So it's been a lovely start to the new year. Hopefully 2009 will be excellent -- I'm hoping for a successful search for an agent, a second book, and an economic recovery that keeps my friends and family in business. But I guess if things get toooo bad, I can always move home and eat farm-fresh eggs. On that pleasant thought, it's time for bed!