I’m happy we got to spend our New Year here, which is our first in this neighborhood. It reminds me a lot of how my hometown celebrated the coming of a new year: everyone’s outside, screaming, making noises, lighting firecrackers, kids jumping about, and teens turning up their speakers. And of course, the fireworks. I need not say much. Pretty much anyone who knows me well knows how much I love them, and the fascination that I hold for them. For me, fireworks are lit to cheer me up. And they never fail.

I’ve expressed my sentiments about how the previous year is an epic fuck-up, and I’m a little surprised to see so many people echo my views. I probably should have guessed: this year brought a lot of tragedies that it makes one wonder why the forces of whatever’s out there is hell bent on taking a huge, steaming dump on the Philippines. But my reasons for wanting to end 2009 are more selfish. I guess, in some ways, everyone else’s reasons are a little selfish too.

But New Years are always happy: they symbolize what everyone needs a little dose of, sometimes–a new beginning. A clean slate. A fresh start. Never mind that anyone can have these anytime they want. Sometimes people need something to remind them that all the mistakes and hardships and shit will definitely end, that everything will end all right. That after this one last night, everyone gets a do-over.

Happy New Year guys. Let’s make this one rock!