Just a couple of hours ago we were standing on the edge of the peers counting down the seconds to welcome the New Year and saying goodbye the dark and unforgettable 2005. The city was alive, brimming with new found energy and confidence, ready to take on the new challenges of the second half of this decade. The kiss was sweet but sad, it was goodbye afterall.
The heaven granted us a pleasant evening, with a chilly but comfortable slow caressing wind. I smuggled a Champagne with dozens of cheap plastic cup for the Champagne toasting tradition under the umbrella of lit sky, courtesy of twin fireworks on the lake. The city would frown of such toast in public, but hell, live like you are being deported. I am shipping out anyway.
Our dinnner tasted like a slow dance in the corner with Sinatra crooning in the backround. An IKEA dinner table hosted nine guests; I wasn't cooking tonight, taking a break after making sushi for 20 people the day before and this was not my place; pasta was in; chocolate was plenty, the empanadas were sweet and the wine was superb.
My morning walk home through the 9 am street of this city was quiet and the sun flooded the sky with light, overpowering the thin layers of grey winter clouds. These streets betrayed no evidence of any wild and thunderous partying just a few hours ago. My stop at the corner Dunkin' Donut was free of the usual spectacles of vomit smelling drunkards; victims of the excessive fun the previous night. These streets divide the have and the envious. They are struggling to accomodate cheap boozes and expensive tastes, the rich worrying about how to spend their money and the rest taking crumbs off their tables.
I have seen today before; deja vu. Every 1st of January always brings a sense of limitless possibilities; everything seems possible; life was up at least for one day. Then day after new day we will forget the feeling of today, slowly chipping away our promises, building up our guilts and forcing us to yet make new promises when the new round arrives.
What has changed on this New Year's day? The streets are still dusty, the poor are still hungry, and you can only put on your shoes one foot at a time. It is us getting older, trying to fend off nature's attempt to kill us. That what has changed. Everything in front of us now are promises; some would be fulfilled, some would be regretted and the rest quickly forgotten.
And hope is still a dangerous thing.
I took a ride on the train and they welcome me with a 25 cents rise to the fare. It's two dollars a ride for now, bringing us closer to New York City fare. Last night ride cost a penny, the last hurrah of the year. In my destination, I found myself staring at a bunch of smoked cigarretes, wasting away on the sea of cigarette dusts; I am waiting for the rest of my party to arrive, to this dim sum place for our first lunch of the New Year. I told them anything Korean or Chinese will open today; the rests are closed. They work 365 days a year; come snow and huriccanes. I work 340 days last year; snow doesn't faze me but the sirens of Summer seduced me.
I am excited for this year, more than ever. We have knocked many gates down and plundered many cities. Rome will rise again.