Happy New Year Everyone!

Do you want to know what your wife doesn’t want to hear about on New Year’s Eve?  Blogging.

So this is going to be quick.  2010 has clearly been the best year I’ve ever had as far as writing is concerned, and it’s been kind of a jerk in lots of other categories.  And then again, it beat the hell out of 2009, 2008, and 2007 combined.  So I’m just going to focus on the positive.

This year, like most years, we aren’t doing anything, because this is definitely one of those nights of the year where folks who don’t go out much really get their drink on, and there’s no telling what they’re going to do. 

Also, the kids are at the age where a fun thing for them to do is play music and watch movies and bop around the living room, so we’ll have about six or eight kids over here, several dogs, popcorn, pizza.  Seems pretty clear that someone needs to be here so it doesn’t turn into a rockin’ Molly Ringwald movie.

Fortunately, we are currently hopelessly embroiled in Breaking Bad, which is easily the best show I’ve seen in years.  The last time I was this into a show was either LOST or Six Feet Under, and this one’s a lot more like the latter.  I sort of bought myself the first season for Christmas, and then we started watching having no idea what to expect.

I had heard the writers on NPR talking about the basic premise.  It’s about a science teacher who learns that he has terminal lung cancer and no life insurance, and who then decides to start using his chemistry knowledge to cook meth.  The idea being that if he can save up a quick million, then it won’t matter if he goes to jail and his family will be taken care of.

I don’t want to give much away or anything, but I can tell you that the show gripped us both from the very first second.  The actual first one. 

We blew through the first season, and because of the writer’s strike at the time, there were only seven episodes.  So a few days later, we found ourselves standing in Blockbuster – not something we like to do – trying to find Season 2.

They didn’t have it.  So we drove to the next Blockbuster and got the first two discs there, and now we’ve blown through them, and it’s New Year’s Eve, and I’m off to see if I can find the rest of the season.  If I have to, I’m going to drive a forklift through the window of Blockbuster to get it, so I hope they’re open.

I’ve been a lot less active on the blogs and on Twitter and every place else because the girls are home from school and so is Marilyn – she’s a student at OSU – and next week they’ll all be back in school and probably I’ll be more visible.

But Happy New Year very sincerely to anyone who’s ever spent a few minutes reading one of my posts!  I really feel like I live in a completely different life than I did last year, and I mean that in a good way.

So, I have to run out and work for a couple of hours, then it’s going to be raining little girls up in here.  Their Wi is directly above my downstairs television so it’s exactly like trying to watch a serious drama while someone is hopping up and down on a pogo stick above your head.  That’s what subtitles are for, in case you are wondering.

I’m looking forward to next year, but it’s been a while since I got to New Year’s Eve and felt pretty decent about looking back.  Got a couple more movies coming up this weekend – True Grit and Tron, one day after the other – and a lot more sitting around hibernating, and then next week it’s a whole new beginning.

If you’re out there and you’re mad at someone – in particular if you are mad at me – please remember, it’s the time of year to forget about all that.  I know that my dad might have hurled racial slurs at you during dinner, or one of my daughters might have pickpocketed you at the mall, or my wife might have dragged your wife out and gotten her intoxicated, or my mom might have , well, I don’t know actually anybody who’s mad at my mom.

But the point is, getting all furious about The Flying Pizza’s irregular hours for instance is a silly thing to do, and it’s not going to do me any good balling it up and carrying it with me into next year. 

How can I stay mad at Flying Pizza?  And really, how can you stay mad at me, or whoever it is?  Tip a cocktail and dump it out, my friends, the New Year is upon us.

Now of course, don’t go overboard, either.  Some people are folks who we should stay mad at.  Like I’m still mad at Jeffrey Dahmer for eating all those people, New Year’s Eve or not, you know?  But I think that goes without saying.