Goddess is licking my face which is on the corner of the bed. It is way past time that I’m normally up and taking her for a walk.
“Happy New Year Pup,” I say.
She licks my face again.
I throw a pillow at her. She takes this as a sign to play and jumps into bed, tail a wagging, licking my face.
Stumbling to the shower I fall in.
“Goddess” I scream! “Turn the radio down!”
She ignores me. She can be such a bitch sometimes.
I fix coffee and pour the first cup over my head. I drink the second.
I turn on the computer and my dear friend Stacy wishes me a Happy New Year. Damn Stacy instant messages loudly!
Then my friend Dedra sends me a text and it’s even louder!
Sitting on the beloved back deck, Dean who runs the pier has a band playing or something. While the pier is about six blocks away, IT IS LOUD!
Wow. It hurt to type that.
If I had a rocket launcher Tybee Island would no longer have a pier.
OK. Happy New Year everyone!
It’s not a bad way to start. Thank God the last one is over.
My friend Claude in Louisville just to have this theory that years ending in even numbers were bad years and those ending in odd numbers were good. Of course he was from Louisiana and went to L. S.U. (which stands for “Let’s sober up” he once explained).
OK. I’m back.
I just enrolled in L.S.U.
The band on the pier is playing “Twist and Shout.”
I think that I can twist and fall down.
This is my first New Year’s Day in the United States in a long time. I now remember why I spend them in St. Martin.
Several years ago, in St. Martin I was dancing the night away when the band stopped in the middle of a song. The singer screamed “It’s time!”
Except he did it in French and I didn’t understand him. But the crowd rushed outside to the beach and I followed. Then fireworks blasted overhead. Then the remnants of fireworks fell down on our heads.
I looked over at my friend Nancy, a waitress at Papaguyo and she was crying.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“Oh Micheal,” she said in broken English with a French accent, “I am pregnant!”
“I can prove where I was and who I was with,” I reply.
She looks at me trying to understand relationships in the United States.
Then I lean over and kiss her stomach.
“God bless your baby,” I say.
She hugs me and then we run back inside from the falling remnants of fireworks.
What a funny thing to remember this morning.
What a lovely thing to remember this morning.
This is a year of new things for me. The old has passed away. I wished it well last night. And today things look good as I sit on the beloved back deck, with Goddess asleep at my feet, wearing shorts and no underwear and no shoes.
Wait a minute.
I had underwear last night.
