Happy New Year!!!

So this will be a little scattered, so much so that I may to break my thoughts in to a few posts here - for your benefit... my brain is a little swirly trying to put my thoughts in order. It's 6:40 am here, New Year's Day.

First - Happy New Year - thanks for reading, thanks for being a party of my life, sorry I'm not with you to tell you I appreciate you and how much you matter to me.

Second - New Year's here is CRAZY!!! I left California on the 30th and arrived here in Prague around 5:20, via Heathrow (side note - my flight actually landed early - from Heathrow!!!) I had a driver scheduled to pick me up, and we talked non-stop during the 30 minute drive to my place. He's American, raised in Southern CA, he moved to Prague 15 years ago from San Francisco. He started by giving me fair warning to keep the heck out of Wenceslas Square.... too dangerous! No, not rioting or looting or drunken debauchery, the darn fireworks. I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about and then as he was loading my suitcases he moved a large box in his trunk - a case of huge Disneyland style fireworks. In his trunk. For his family.

Apparently right now you can buy them on the street. Like they sell kelbasas and hot wine, they're selling giant bottle rockets. It's seasonal, but you can do it. And then we started driving. It wasn't even 6 pm and all over the city there were fireworks everywhere!!! Private fireworks, backyard, in the street family stuff. He told me to stay out of Wenceslaus Square cause it's packed solid, people are stumbling drunk, and still trying to set off their fireworks there - which results in numerous injuries each year - dropped fireworks, thrown fireworks, knocked over fireworks, still holding fireworks, sideways fireworks.... you get the picture.

Anyway, I had plans for the night - actually a few options but had settled on one that would give me a few hours to eat, shower, nap, and recover a bit - and was looking forward to it. Then I made it to my apartment and realized sitting on a plane for 12 hours with crying infants and not sleeping had sort of impacted my body... and I was starving and really wanting something healthy - so I set out to eat first and went for a freezing cold walk (-7 Celsius, I believe) and found every restaurant and grocery store in my area closed... and then realized just didn't have the energy to take a shower and sort threw my luggage and head back out in to the cold - and a quick nap wasn't going to work any miracles, so I sat down and looked out the window and had the most incredible view of the city and fireworks going off all over... and never left.

I started to feel a little sad, sitting in my empty apartment, video-chatting with Coral and my Mom and brother back in CA, wondering why I came back when I did (good reasons that I fully rationally understand) feeling like my friends were still out of town, knowing I had things to do, but not feeling connected to them - and then my phone started exploding - and I had to delete messages to make room for the incoming texts, and then my email came alive.... and I felt better. I forgot I knew so many people here who I truly appreciate and enjoy - not just communal language friends, good to hang out with for a drink or a laugh, but people who I would seek out, at home, to spend time with... For a moment in my my overtired crabby state I had forgotten how comfortable I am here. (Coral being in CA and my being here will be another post... best rest assured it's truly a temporary situation!)

Back to the fireworks - I was really tired and dozed but I can confidently state the fireworks went off throughout the city on a non-stop basis from at least 6:00, when I stepped outside, to well after 1:00, when I finally fell asleep for the night.