The New Year came to me on a high roof in San Francisco w/fireworks over the Embarcadero & wine euphoria & one of my favorite people suddenly singing ‘it’s the end of the world as we know it’ beside me while the explosions intensified in tempo & color. A real moment.
Earlier there was a feast among friends & blind Cab Sauvignon tastings & maybe just a touch of apprehension over the looming year… & the last, a troubled knot in the history of this stupid & beautiful world. All that was lost by the final hour & I felt hopeful in ways I didn’t wish to admit.
I spent the first daylight hours of 2012 above the Golden Gate on high cliffs w/my wife & our friends. We had a blanket, a baguette & goat cheese, apples, dried papaya & bottled beer. I’d seen dolphins in the water from the same spot in another life (mine, but long ago in another time). By midday we moved on to the Cliff House for three rounds of coffee, an Irish Coffee & two Ramos Fizz. The ‘Giant Camera’ outside on the landing reminded me of the time I attempted to turn my entire apartment into a camera obscura - 2011. The waves beat on. The sun astounded. People everywhere, laughing like sea birds on new years. I forgot everything but happiness before the new winter day was down.
