OOOOO, and They're Gold

We must be on vacation because Ms. Up at the Crack of Dawn here has been slagging in bed until 9 a.m. every single morning since last Thursday. And I'm fine with that! I had planned on getting up earlier today...we are having our annual Sing For Your Supper party tonight, I need to get groceries, an old college buddy is coming over around 4:30 for a pre-func and I still have 6 chapters to finish on the book before the end of the year.

6 chapters. At least 3 of those are essentially written. It is actually looking like all that big talk about finishing this bloody thing before '06 is going to happen. I'm thrilled and a little freaked. I've been working away at this thing for 10 years...what happens when I'm done? What's next? Having finally figured out that I really can be a writer, what am I going to write about? It will unfold and no doubt one of these days some idea is going to whomp me on the head as I'm casually minding my own business ('cause that's kinda how it happens for me) but it is still very weird to be on the cusp of completing the biggest project I've ever committed to outside of child-rearing. Very weird indeed...an odd mix of elation and desolation working at the same time.

And having this giant, end-of-the-year focus I've given scant thought to the annual question of resolutions, reviews, biggest news stories of the year and other top 10 lists. There's something a little silly about it all and yet it is a compelling exercise. The silly resides in the idea that December 31 is somehow substantially different from January 1 when really it's just a question of turning another calendar page, clearing up champagne glasses and remembering to write a new year on the tail end of a check. And yet. "Another year over and a new one just begun". Fresh pages of a journal (or your life) as inviting as nice, clean sheets on your bed. There is something to it, something exceedingly healthy in looking back on what was and making a determination or two about how to do it better. It is a project that I'm sure will engage me within the next 48 hours but really and truly I have other matters to attend to first.