Well, here it is, 2004 already, and I barely had a chance to say goodbye to 2003. I must admit that on a personal level, I'm rather sad to see the old gal go, because as years go, she was mighty good to me. After all, 2003 was the year in which:

*I published my first book.
*I visited San Francisco for the first time.
*I saw my first Hoopoe.
*I discovered that my favorite version of Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals" exists on CD and bought a copy.
*I hiked to the summit of Old Rag with my son on his twelfth birthday.
*I welcomed my nephew Sam into the world.
*I got to take a trimester's sabbatical from work.
*I got a Christmas card from Martha Stewart.
*I saw Florence, Orvieto, Civita and Rome with my own eyes.
*I spent two weeks traveling through Italy with my wife while my parents tended the kids.
*I met dozens of my online friends face to face.
*I got my first royalty check.
*I finally read Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, which I'd been meaning to do for years.
*I spent a week doing volunteer work in West Virginia.
*I appeared at the Virginia Festival of the Book and Book Expo America.
*I read 128 books--more than I'd ever read in a calendar year.
*I finally bought a DVD player.
*I learned the trick of playing "Here Comes the Sun" on the guitar. (Hint: put your capo on the 7th fret.)
*I saw the conclusion of the great epic film trilogy of our time. (The Lord of the Rings, not The Matrix.)
*I ate what may have been the finest meal of my life at Pergola in Orvieto: struzzo (ostrich) enhanced by a fine Orvieto Classico.
*I ate what was certainly the finest ice cream of my life: Pasqualetti's gelato. Mmm.
*I got to appear on three radio shows and a TV show.
*I turned 40.

I suppose it's unreasonable to hope that 2004 will be as kind to me as its predecessor was. At the same time, as I look at what 2003 has meant to the rest of the world, I know I'm one of the few who's sad to see it end.

My New Year's wish: that everyone's life will get a lot better from here. Maybe, for once, I just happened to get an early start.
9:20 PM

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