GOOD MORNING, Laura. Your life awaits.

What a great way to start the year: waking up at 2 in the afternoon.

That won’t bother me, though, unlike some of my aunts and uncles who say “You were sleeping when the new year came! You’ll be sleeping for the rest of the year!!”

Yeah right, as if I’ll actually be sleeping for the whole year.

Anyway, I don’t believe any of that stuff. “You’ll be lucky in the coming year if (and only if) you stand on your head while gargling cold mixed with a drop of squashed cockroach drunk from a golden goblet,” and such crap.

For all I care, unluckiness can come at me with bows and arrows! We’ll just have to see what happens then.

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The new year marks the start of another period in your life. Aside from this it also marks the end of another period of getting together with my relatives. Well, not until the next birthday comes up, and that isn’t for another two months.

My family is always fun to be with. Somehow I like spending time with them a lot better than my friends. Is that right? Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? That’s how most of the people I know are: they love their friends like their lives depended on it while hating the guts out of their families. I guess it depends on the family, huh?

I spent the New Year’s at my aunt’s house, as usual, with mountains of food and overflowing wine. Halfway through the night the buffet table still looked untouched. I think this is one of the things I love about my family: it’s always no holds barred. If it’s go, it’s go. Sometimes I wish I were like that, especially with facing life. I mean, I have so many inhibitions that I can’t possibly list them all. Not that I’m unconfident, mind you. It’s just that I seem to hold back a whole lot. Opportunities slip past my fingers and I’m not doing much about it.

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Another new year = another chance at changing yourself. I’ve tried that last time, but a year has passed and I seem to be the same person I was then.

…am I?

Whatever will happen this year?