http://blog.lib.umn.edu/marty031/meredithsblog/christmas.jpgChristmas is meant to be the silly season. You're meant to eat lots, relax and forget about the reality that January is but a mere handful of days away. The silly season is over almost as soon as it began and the year looms ahead. Bah Humbug! I hear you say?
Well sure, I'll admit that it's the Pessimist's Take on the the World's Best Time of the Year. But I actually think it's a mix of trepidation and anticipation. I sort of prefer June and July over January and February because I'm already in the thick of things- on the treadmill that runs to the end of the year... whereas, Christmas and the New Year mark the start of a giant hill that you have climb; conquering challenges, the humdrum, dealing with the everyday waves that trip us up and occasionally drive us to despair.
Having said that, as long as I push that trepidation out of my mind, I'm having a ball and I'll be honest, this weekend was crazy awesome. And I mean the most crazy awesome my weekend has been in a long time. Not crazy and awesome as in, "I went stir crazy and the food was awesome", but more in the, my travel bug was reignited and I'm excited about doing lots of different things next year way. Man from Mars' mates from Exchange came to visit Melbourne- one's a Dutchie and the other is a Frenchie. They're super cool and nice. I love people who love to travel- they're always excited, open to adventure and non-judgmental. Most of the time they're also laid back and fascinated in absolutely everything, which makes you realise that all it takes is a plane ticket to anywhere, to get you feeling the exact same feeling, stoked about life, places and people- invigorated, exhausted, craving a soft bed. Appreciating the world for what it is.
We watched "Weird Science" at the Rooftop Cinema, sipped chocolately coffee at Brunetti's, had burgers in Federation Square, went to Japanese where two police paddy wagons stood out front for the better part of our meal and talked and laughed and listened. They shopped while Man from Mars and I bid farewell to our lovely friend who is leaving us for London- a teaching sojourn that will leave her Melbourneless for a year. She's nervous, excited and apprehensive- like we all are before the start of something big- but like it always turns out: the best time ever.
I can't wait to hear her adventures and I can't wait for my own- I wonder what the year will bring. This morning I sat next to my next door neighbour on the train ride into work. He was going into town to go to the dentist and had been chosen to play Santa at the local shops. With his fearsome bushy white eyebrows, a mustache grown especially for Movember and a slightly less than rotund belly, he was a perfect pick. He stared down at me and furrowed those eyebrows until they couldn't go down no more:
"When the opportunity presents itself, grab it with both hands. The youth is wasted on the young. You don't want to live with regrets."
And with a stirring shake of his fists he grinned widely. I grinned too. Every year will have its aeroplane highs, it's shitsucks lows and its terrifying moments of baulking in the face of a challenge. But at the end of the day we'll get through it, we'll wake up the next morning and do it all again.
Merry Christmas to you and to you and to you. Hope the Teens (this decade was the "Noughties" so moving onto the Teens) are good to you.
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