Holy Happy New Year!

"Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu!" as we like to say here in Japan. Happy New Year, people. It's officially 2006, which leaves me confused about how to refer to time when speaking of my trip back to Colorado at the end of December. It just feels wrong to utter, "Last year, I wrestled alligators while wearing them there gingham overhauls, near the four-corners area when I ran out of gas and needed money to get my pickup back on the hi-way. " I mean, I am talking about a mere few weeks ago; and those alligator bites are a bit too fresh in my mind to consider them a thing of the past -- a thing of last year!

So, as you can tell, I'm still working my way into form-fitting silk long underwear that is 2006. Part of the fun of starting something new (as in a new year) is imagining how great / awesome / silly / strange / enchanting / challenged-ridden it can be. Just think. What part of 2006 will chafe? What part of it will be cozy and warm? Where, oh where, will 2006 leave my heart? I ask as if there were any other option than waiting to see.

My last posting was about Hercules and how he ran away from home. Well, we can scratch that. The little bugger came back last week smelling like fish and weighing in at somewhere in the realm of half his former self. I have to admit, in my over-sized and psychically-toned frontal lobe, I had an inclination that he'd be cruising home after weeks/months of tom-foolery. I believe that part of the reason I had held onto hopes my man would come back to me was because of some stranger-than-strange true life tales TV program circa 1983 that recounted harrowing stories of pets lost on harmless family vacations, thousands of miles away from home, only to find their way back via their worn paw-pads. Or, maybe it was the impression Disney's Homeward Bound had impressed upon me. Whatever it was, my stead-fast hope was rewarded with Hercules' panicked cries near my back door on Wednesday night. We embarrassed for what seemed like an eternity, but I'll stop there - save you from the crazy cat lady stories.

Half of me would like to spend the rest of this rant cursing Cupid and languishing over love, but that topic is tiresome and I'm sure I'll have much more to say when February rolls around and St. Valentine reminds us all how love can sound just a little bit sweeter when penned from a jail cell. (Valentine was in jail when he wrote love notes to his lady-love, right? Or, am I just making that up?) The other half of me would like to say how nice it is to be back on Ojika. Yeah, let's do that.

It may sound crazy, crazy like a fox, when I say that I am relieved and happy to be back on Ojika. I had a food-intoxicating, alcohol-guzzling, 4AM-bedtime of a good time in Lakewood/ Denver, but am sucking up the hours of recovery time on Ojika like an odd-shaped sponge. Over the last week I've been home, I've watched more videos than is healthy for a single 27 year old woman, and have whole-heartedly avoided any kind of cleaning-up. Laundry is not done. Plants are not watered. fridge remains empty, and I don't really care. I'm just so appreciative of having my own space (which comes standard in the form of a two-story, narrow, trap of dangerous stairs and worn tatami mats that I call my apartment) that I can't seem to move to the next stage and gain some responsibility over it. I'll slide "becoming responsible" to the end of my 2006: Resolutions -- learning to RULE sweet skills and other bits list. Right behind, "Figuring out how to get it to stop raining within the next hour because I didn't bring an umbrella to school today." Oh, I've got lofty goals this year.

What are your resolutions?