Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

Some goodbyes are lingering and heartfelt, others need a good kick in the pants and a shove out the door.  Suffice it to say that 2011 falls into the latter category.  What can you expect from a prime number?  I have a soft spot for even ones, especially those divisible by two, four, and six (forget the three, it's anothe raunchy, prime number.)  So in my book 2012 should be a very good year.

I say good riddance to 2011.  It was the year of natural catastrophes (a tsunami and near nuclear armageddon in Japan, wild fires and winds in the West, an entire state turned into a frying pan [Texas], a hurricane in NYC, a Nor'Easter in October, flooding in the Phillipines, earthquakes scattered throughout the world's fault lines, the only thing missing was a volcanic eruption, but there must have been one somewhere?); economic terror (I don't need to elaborate on this one, 'nuff said); political unrest (almost everythwere in the Middle East, Russia, our own backyard on Wall Street, and, of all places, China); and generalized angst about the human condition.

There were also personal woes:  real estate troubles resulting from a discriminative and squabbling coop board that landed me in a fifth floor walkup right after I broke? tore a ligament? in my foot (the doctors couldn't make up their minds, but it still hurts);  romantic woes of course (it wouldn't be a prime-numbered year without them); the shared sadness of friends' divorces;  and the icing on the cake:  this was the year all my socks developed holes. 

But there were upsides:  good friends who stood by me; an improving job situation; the enduring love of family and strengthening bonds with more remote family members. 

Today, Poochini and I took a celebratory walk in Central Park.  Everyone's faces beamed with anticipation of the even numbered year ahead.  Cabbies let me into the flow of traffic and didn't honk!  Even the forsythia were blooming.  In January!  A cynic might blame this on Global Warming.  But it's simpler:  the forsythia had caught the zeitgeist of the day. The fluorescent blossoms screamed:  Hellloooooo 2012!!!!  We're so happy you've arrived!