New Years Eve is a time of looking back and of reflection, both for the past year as well as (when the ten’s digit changes) for the past 10 years.
Ten years ago. It seems like such a long time. 1999 was a bad year, starting with the loss of our dear friend and business parter, Karen Pratt Holmes. I remember the end of 1999, spending New Years Eve with our friend Mike Laga from Y Princesses, waiting to see what would go wrong with Y2K. It’s interesting that Mike is back in our sphere, as our daughters go to the same high school.
The last decade has had its plusses and minuses. On the big plus side is our friend Nicole (ellipticcurve), who came to work at my office in 2003, and rapidly became a close friend (and who introduced me to LiveJournal — and thus to many new friends — in 2004). Other plusses over the last decade were our continued friendships (including the growth of the friendship with Lauren and Scott), watching our daughter grow through her school years, and the people we have met and the places we have seen. In the last year, the growth of Facebook has permitted us to rekindle a number of friendships that had been lost over the year, and to reconnect with far-flung and far-too-busy friends and family.
We’ve attended more theatre over the last ten years than we did in the 1990s. Theatre is such a positive experience, and again has introduced us to some really neat people and places. We’ve gotten to know the wonderful team at Repertory East Playhouse, we’ve gotten to know some of the folks behind the stages at Cabrillo, and we’re recognized by the house managers at the Pasadena Playhouse. Again, it is the experiences we remember here.
We’ve had significant losses over these ten years, in particular my father in 2004 and my wife’s father in 2008. Health also hasn’t been such a friend, what with this being the decade of my migraines and my wife’s arthritis… and our friend’s health issues. As we have health issues and our friends have health issues, we treasure our friendships more dearly. We’ve lost folks far too suddenly (my father is an example of these), and we must take advantage of the time we have. I never understood the adage that youth was wasted on the young; as I age, I understand it these days more and more.
There have been changes in things over the decade: cars have been replaced; we’ve moved to a larger house; we have new ways of carrying our music. We’ve seen the economy go into the toilet; we’ve seen the world come under the grip of terrorist acts. But as a recent Science Friday segment pointed out, things only bring short-term happiness — it is the experiences that you remember and treasure.
So, as we enter the second decade of the two-thousands, I wish all my friends reading this — both on Livejournal and on Facebook — a happy new year and a marvelous new decade. May it be better than the old one (it wouldn’t be hard), and may it bring you happy times, happy experiences, and long-lasting friendships and love.