Happy New Year!!!

New Year's Eve brings back a collage of memories of fun times with friends and family during almost every phase of my life. Most of these memories are happy in nature, and then of course there is always one or two that bring back a bit of sadness for reasons I will not get into in an effort of maintaining a positive attitude on the upcoming occasion. To me, nothing can top celebrating this festive night in the company of all the people that I love, an arrangement that is almost always impossible because of life's incessant effect on my destiny. The moment that I set in motion my choices of attending school out of state and later taking a job here in California, the chances of sharing special occasions with those that I left behind decreased immensely. In fact, it has been so long ago that I was in Puerto Rico during the Christmas holidays that I am actually having trouble narrowing down the last time I did so. At least eight or nine years have gone by and just when I thought that this year would be no different, suddenly I received a Christmas present from my mom and older sister in the form of an airplane ticket to go and celebrate New Year's Eve and a few more days with them in Puerto Rico. Nothing can wipe away a sudden and permanent smile that has invaded my face since I got this wonderful news and I started to get ready for this trip. Tonight I am departing on a late flight leaving Los Angeles and won't make it to San Juan until past two in the afternoon tomorrow. I am so excited that this morning I woke up at four in the morning and I was never able to get back to sleep again.

As a family tradition New Year's Eve is always celebrated at my mother's home in Puerto Rico and a great deal of family members and friends will be attending as usual. This festive night brings back memories of delicious treats, delightful conversations, and a healthy dose of wonderful music, dancing, and drinking. By the time the New Year comes in with the sounds of firecrackers, laughter, and dozens of hugs and kisses, what then remains is the task of sobering up the crowd with a wonderfully steaming hot "asopao." Nobody leaves without eating first! I'll be doing a lot of catching up with my family starting this wonderful night of fun, and I am pretty sure some very entertaining post will flow from this great experience. A bonus to my trip back home will come in the form of getting back together to see some friends which have been absent from my life ranging from 20 to 30 years. I am so excited to be able to at least spend a few hours with my early college friends.

I wonder why it is that my heart beats faster when I just thing about the prospect of landing on my beautiful Puerto Rico? Inside my mind there must be some amazing neuro assosiation to my childhood and teenage life that trigger a great deal of physiological reactions in my body. I can compare this to an experience that I have that is annoying and funny at the same time. While I was growing up and living at home our next door neighbor had geese in their yard that served more as an alarm and security system than anything else. These white long necked bastards would scare the living heck out of me when I was asked to go over to their house for any particular reason. As soon as I would stand in front of their gate, no matter how far away the feathered beasts would come extending their necks and screaming right at me. I never did get bitten, but just the basic fear of the possibility of it happening was enough to give me instant "goose bumps" on my skin and all over my body. They seemed vicious and out of control, and I dreaded ever having to enter their territory unless they had been locked up. Why do I tell you this story, you may ask? Well, the plot thickens because for the last almost 25 years I have worked on a military base that is also a wilderness refuge. The place is very beautiful and includes a man made lake that is typically full of all sorts of birds including, you guessed it, geese. Mind you, not one or two fine feathered friends, but hundreds of these huge creatures have made that land their home. So on my way from the parking lot to my work building I typically encounter at least ten of these animals a day, many times more. I have tried for years to figure out why it is that every time I walk by what to me seems like alligators to others, I cannot control the rush of adrenaline and my skin curls up and I get goose bumps. The closer I have to walk by them, the less of an ability I posses to control this annoying physiological reaction. Even though I have practiced, and concentrated, and focused on trying to keep it from happening, nine out of ten times I am not able to do so. This is what I compare my heart racing when I start to think about coming back home to spend time with my family. I hold very little control over my inability to stop smiling too.

This will most certainly be my last post for the year 2009. I am actually kind of excited about 2010, for some reason I get a warm feeling that this will be a good year to me, and I hope it will be as well for all of you. I want to thank you for reading and sharing with me. I want to wish you a wonderful rest of the year and a safe and fun time too. I wish I could be close enough to each and every one of you to give you a great big New Year's hug and kiss. I am on my way to finish packing for my trip and getting ready to get my dosage of Puerto Rico, family, and dear friends. Almost 100 posts on this blog are witness to my desires of sharing my life and experiences with all of you from the bottom of my heart. My gift to you is the knowledge that I am in a much better place because of what we have learned here together, so feel proud of your role in this sharing exercise. If you have a moment, a parenthesis if you will, during these last hours before the end of the year, I would really appreciate your good thoughts, prayers, and of course as always, anything you would like to share with the rest of the class.

Dad