new year
we packed the cat into the car and went off into the west cork night. yes, we are becoming those people who take their cat with them everywhere like a child. it's true.
like the anxious parent, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the cat climbing along the supporting beam in the house, a good 12 feet above the floor. calmly the cat walked to the end of the beam, brushed the cobwebs and dust from it's whiskers, deftly turned about face and walked back to the balcony. no reason to be worried at all.
while we were out west we went to the beach twice, drank a celebratory amount of wine and stayed up late into the night chatting around the wood fire. we climbed up to the headland and stuck our pink noses out into the atlantic wind. we called around to visit albion, who was sweeping the floor when we arrived. "it's just so mucky here!" he said, "i'd forgotten about all the mud."
we saw a seal on the beach, expertly camoflauged by the rocks. we saw swimmers running into the turbulent sea on new year's day, their white skins glowing neon in the sun while everyone else was bundled up with scarves and wooly hats and techy gore-tex jackets. we saw hundreds of rabbit holes in the abandoned golf course beside the beach, some big enough for my 5 year old niece chloe to fit into.

we got dressed up for a new years party, drove out to bantry to find it, got all the way down the muddy irish road without getting stuck, and arrived at the house to find that there were only three cars parked outside. we sat outside in the car trying to decide what to do, our friend wasn't there and we couldn't get ahold of him on his mobile, neither of us knew the hosts or anyone there except our friend who hadn't arrived. what to do? I'm a big chicken. we turned around and drove back up the muddy boreen and as we turned out onto the main road a white volkswagen van turned in onto the side road after we pulled out. was that our friend? would we follow him? we had no way of knowing so we chose what we did know - we drove back to andy's house and ate white buttered toast while toasting the new year with champagne. the radio was playing a racous version of auld lang syne, then the DJ put on the first song of the new year - "I'm waiting for my man" by the velvet underground.
i still haven't decided if there is any significance to the heroin dealer song, but i have decided that this year is going to be the year that i DO things, where I have more action, more words, more oomph and bang. where i go out, meet people, invite friends over for dinner and work ambitiously at what i want. no more waiting around, i am going to be who i want to be. I've started saying "I want to do x" instead of "i should do x". it's a subtle difference, but effective.
click on the photo above to see the new year's album.
