Chapter 30: Happy New Year

I have entered 2005 with optimism. I accomplished one modified goal -- my novel has reached 300 pages, and the end is in view. Despite a crummy day on Sunday that included an unexpected confrontation that may recur later this week, I remain positive about the month and the year ahead.



Ten years ago was the last time I went into a year with such optimism, and that was due to a personal fiction. One of the songs I wrote and performed in the early 1990s included a line: "only $19.95," which obviously referred to a price. (I won't bore those few readers I might have with the song's details.) When I wrote the song, however, back in the late '80s, that line always felt like a precursor to the year 1995, which is what I mean by 'personal fiction.'



I remember bumping into an old friend at my favorite Hoboken bar, Fabian's (which no longer exists) a day or two before new year's eve. We talked about the upcoming 1995 and our expectations of it. I reminded my friend of the song (which he knew) and predicted that something good was going to happen to me that year -- after a mostly dismal 1994. Sure enough, by the end of the year I was getting ready for married life.



A decade later, I enter the year full of hope after much despair. This year will be different. I hope yours is too.