Happy New Year 2007

January 1, 2007

Happy New Year to all my friends and family who may be reading this.

I had a really awesome evening. We actually weren't really hungry yet when we headed out into the Luxor streets, and so we ended up just roaming. We wandered off the beaten path and ended up finding a carnival going on in the streets. I get pretty harrassed in many parts of the world such as Egypt, where my blond hair marks me instantly as a western tourist. The best part of our evening stroll is that we were away from the main streets and walking through the lives of everyday people who don't make their living from tourists - thus everyone completely left us alone. We strolled around the streets and stopped in a few shops. We checked out the carnival; we narrowly avoided being killed multiple times as we navigated the craziness of pedestrian and automobile traffic. We just enjoyed being in Egypt.

Around 10:30 or so we sat down in a little restaurant not far from the carnival and had dinner and drinks. By 11:30 we were done and so we went back to Murphys with the thought that we could have a beer and bring in New Year's in the pub. Apparently half of the population of Luxor had the same idea and so we ended up in a quiet bar across the street, bringing in 2007 with very little fanfair.

I find that I am relieved to have 2006 finally be over. It was a year of transition in so many areas of my life. It ended on many high notes, which means I am bringing in 2007 happier than I have been in a very long time. I'm starting the new year by spending 5 weeks traveling and working outside the US - literally living my dream life right now - so my optimism is rather boundless at the moment. I know that some people see New Year's as just another day, and in so many ways it is. But it is also a chance to look back on a calendar year and be grateful that there was so much good in your life and that you survived all of the bad. In a funny way it was a year that had more really bad than most of my years and yet also more really good than most of my years - as I said, a transition year. And I'm ready to move on now.

Happy New Year all.

L.