Auld Lang Syne

And here’s a hand my trusty friend and & gie’s a hand o’ thine,
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet for auld lang syne


Time flies. I was going through an old photo album last night, and found pictures from old Halloween parties. I realized that this year marks my 20th Halloween party. Oh my god, talk about evolution! (And no, I was NOT gray then!) You can document changing popular culture just by looking at the pictures from the parties. The first one had maybe 10 people, and only a few were dressed up. I vaguely remember having dry ice on the floor and the cat and dog walking through the fog. Mainly, people sat on the couch and chatted. We were kids. Now we have kids. (Well, except for me…I have cats.) We sat and talked about things that were important to people getting ready to go out into the world, like what kind of car we wanted, what our dream job was, what kind of relationship we thought we would have, what our ideal mate was, etc. I think only two people who came were married at the time, and they had only been married a year or so. I don’t think I quite had down my ideal mate, but I think I’ve found it now. J I found it comforting that I am still in contact with most of the people who came, I guess that shows I keep my friends…or that everyone I know is co-dependent, however you choose to look at it.

Looking back, was I even close to guessing that I’d be where I am now? Uh, no. For clarity, I looked up in my journal. (Yes, I write and then squirrel things away, get over it.) I wanted to be “settled, married, have a job I reasonably like, and be published”. So far, I have achieved 1, 3, and 4. Three will have to wait for a trip to Canada. Did I know that I’d be writing a blog everyday? No, I didn’t even know what a blog was, and the internet was a boring tool used only by researchers, and my Apple II e didn’t have nearly enough memory to surf the ‘net that we now love dearly. (But I did love the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Program, and King’s Quest games and they were all text based!) Anyway, a lot has changed, including me. Who knows where I’ll be in 20 more years? Chances are, a lot of you will still be in contact with me, and we’ll have grown because we endured more crap. But I know one thing, put this year’s party on your calendar; you won’t want to miss it!



* Try Bittersweet and Briers Live at the Indy Folk Series