2002-12-31 - 6:50 p.m.

Well, I had a nice New Year's walk. After much scouring, I finally found my shelf lamp--where I got it is a secret, but let's just say that it's pretty frickin' cool and has cowboys on it and at the same time manages to look classy.

I also got a new picture frame--8" x 10", but with a big white mat, so only 3" x 4 1/2" of the photograph is viewable.

I had a couple of pictures to choose from--the Coach and an old friend of mine, the Coach and the (ex)--good photograph, bad shot of the (ex), MyS., at the zoo (but I already have a MyS. on the wall), the tops of my sneakers and the sky, taken from a swing in South Boston (an excursion I went on with my dear friend H.), flowers at night (with flash) from the Public Garden almost five years back now, and a shot of the (ex) from forever ago, outside of a novelty toy store in Harvard Square that no longer exists.

Tough call, but I picked the Harvard Square photo--always one of my favourites, and it cropped so well with the frame. (Did I use the verb cropped correctly?)

She has her head on the shoulder of a female mannequin creepily dressed up as a nun. The framed photo looks really nice up on my wall, but I must admit a twinge of sympathy for the pictures that will soon get stuffed back into manilla envelopes for future viewing.

It�s New Year�s Eve, and I didn�t have to work today. Tonight, I might head out with my dear friend R. (from college) to Cambridge to celebrate the close of the year and then the bars.

It�s my first low-key New Year�s in five or six years, but I don�t feel as bad as I thought I might about it.

I had a good year. I grew emotionally, became a better writer, wrote a couple of songs, developed tons more confidence, refined my style pretty well, didn�t travel down any horrible paths, and picked up a few nice material objects and some really great friends too.

Not bad.

If you don�t hear from me again before midnight, have a happy New Year, be safe, and have a blast tonight. We all have tomorrow to recover, and here�s to that too.