Happy New Year, guys!

Here's what Susan did on the first day of the new year:

• Got out of bed when she felt like it after staying up till 3am watching the Downton Abbey marathon
• Watched more Downton Abbey
• Ate the last of the panettone for breakfast
• Met little sister for a winter walk in a fave spot
• Ducked into a teeny local church and learned how to take a panoramic photo
• Saw a deer on somebody's lawn
• Conversated with her Friend Who Talks To Dead People on the phone
• Conversated with Wild Bill & Harriet on the phone
• Ate roast pork dinner at little sister's house, fought to keep cats and dogs from climbing all over her then napped through most of Vertigo
• Made a pear, lemon juice, ginger, spinach, bee pollen & cayenne smoothie for work the next day
• Thought of her absent husband
• Thought of her beloved Cousin Lisa

Did everybody have a good first day?
Susan did.
She went to bed at 2am and emerged eight hours later fully rested ready to spend the day in her pajamas reading the papers, pouring Bailey's into her coffee, baking biscotti, watching an Odd Couple marathon, getting frustrated by her new laptop and going to the movies.
Susan has resolved to go to the movies more. She thinks it's something she can commit to.

Susan's daughter ended the year under the effect of her first monthly menstrual cycle. Poor thing. She's got another 40 years of discomfort and inconvenience ahead of her, but Susan did her best not to let on.

The daughter had previously been prepared with both information and supplies for the wonderful thing that happens once a month, they've just been waiting. Now the wait is over. Happy New Year, kid.

Susan presented the Monthly Mess as a club that the daughter was now a member of and welcomed her with some chewable Tylenol.

Susan had no expectations that the new year would be any different than the old year. She understands that this is a very pessimistic attitude but she's been riding a bad mood for months and is not going to change just because it's a new f*cking decade.

All she wanted to do on the eve of the new year was sit in her sister's hot tub and b*tch about her life for a while then go watch all the Thin Man movies on TCM.
Instead she ended up as the guest of a family who liked to cook, eat, drink home made wine, dance and listen to their Portuguese music turned up to 11. Even the family dogs were pressed in to service as dance partners.

Susan eventually exiled herself to the darkened living room where she found the TV clicker under a pile of coats and watched William Powell and Myrna Loy drink their way through the 1930s. Susan was only able to watch because the music was so loud she couldn't hear the television. Before long Susan's brother-in-law joined her and was making up names, dialogue and a story for the movie which put Susan into fits because her brother-in-law is crazy funny.

Midnight came and went so Susan's family slid home,
crawled into bed and woke up to a new year's miracle. She's typing on the drunken laptop!