Tabula Rasa

Dara and I have been together five years and we’ve spent only 2.5 New Year’s Eves together. I say half because one of the times she was really sick and we did nothing, and I just took care of her. So that one doesn’t really count.

I hate how cliché it’s become to make a New Year’s Resolution and then to break it; so much so, I always avoid the pitfall and embarrassment of ever mentioning a resolution. Still, I understand the reflective nature of this time of year and the seasonal tendency to view January 1 as a clean slate. It’s very John Locke.

In that tradition, and despite my aversion to the practice, I am going to make a New Year’s resolution for 2006 and every year afterward: I am never going to spend another New Year’s Eve away from Dara. The awkward twelve o’clock moment inevitably finds me kissing my hand (or, that one lonely year: a dog). This tradition of being apart is getting older than Dick Clark, and once we’re married you can count on Dara and I ringing in the New Year in every time zone.