I’m not a fan of doing year in reviews.  They’re too long and it’ll take 20,000 words to detail everything.  Nor am I a fan of making predictions for the upcoming new year.  Who knows what’s going to happen. 

With that in mind, our fascination with the beginning of a new year is quite interesting and amusing.  Synchronizing our watches with the Time and Date website, to make sure we ring in the New Year on time; scurrying around the malls to find a cocktail dress for the big NYE party; having enough champagne bottles to open; and planning how to watch bowl games while nursing a huge hangover. 

This is also the last day that I can say “I’m 36 years old.”  New Year’s Day is my birthday.  So tomorrow, I’ll be 3 years closer to 40, which is hard to imagine and yet I look at this as not such a big deal. 

Sort of.

I’ll be three years closer to moving out of the young professional demographic, 3 years closer to hitting that dreaded “The 40 Year Old” territory, and other frivolous things.  Now, I see why Jack Benny kept insisting he is “39 years old” and in the process, aged gracefully. 

Any way, I’ll keep this short, for this is blog #399 for this writer.  

Where ever you are in this big, crazy, confusing, wonderful, and interesting world we are living on, I wish you a Happy New Year.  May we take the lessons we have learned from 2012, reflect on the good times and bad, and hope for a better year than the last.