Up for Another Year

by Tricia Dower

Another New Year’s Eve. Getting ready to appear on Colin’s CFUV radio show, Concert Studies, later this afternoon with our friends Chuck and Judy. Each of us has chosen three songs to introduce in keeping with the theme, “Dancing into 2009.” (Mine are Chopin’s Waltz in C Sharp Minor and Polanaise Militaire plus Valdy’s Renaissance.) We don’t expect many listeners and most of the radio staff will have gone home early, so we’ll kick back and have fun talking to ourselves. After the show we’ll traipse back to our house for dinner and a movie: When Harry Met Sally or Some Like It Hot, perhaps. We’ll pretend we’re on east coast time so we can kiss the new year in at 9 and call it a night. We could get wild and crazy, though, and watch a second movie. You never can tell what might happen when the Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Juice is flowing.

When I was a kid, my parents would put us to bed at the usual time then wake my sister and me around 11. Popcorn and chips would be set out on the card table with a selection of baking pans and spoons. At midnight we’d stand on the front steps, bang those pans, and scream “Happy New Year.” Across the street, Mr. Dunphy, the fire chief, would shoot his rifle into the air and a couple of streets away, officer Kenney would discharge his police revolver. It was the same every year and always satisfying.

When I grew up, New Year’s Eve became more complicated, more alcoholic, more disappointing. So much expectation invested in one evening. So much hope invested in the following year. Not all years delivered on that hope. The nearly broke ones or those with deaths and divorces, for example. (If your life was one giant year, those would be like the months without Rs when oysters can make you sick).

But 2008 has been one for me to celebrate: Silent Girl published and the chance to read from it in six cities. Positive reviews. My own website. A video trailer. Train trips from Seattle to Toronto and Toronto to Vancouver. Visits with my kids and grandkids. A high school reunion. Getting to meet a number of "virtual" friends for the first time, including the CWC's Tamara and CWC alums Patti and Jen. Getting to see Andrew again. And Christmas last week in Ucluelet, on the beautiful and rugged west coast of Vancouver Island. Can’t imagine how 2009 can top 2008 but I’m up for it if it wants to try.

Happy 2009, everyone!

Photos: Christmas in Ucluelet