Tonight you can see a partial lunar eclipse in Norway, and ’tis the first New Year’s Eve feat. a so-called blue moon in many years. Meaning that your chicken won’t lay eggs. Also, it’s freaking cold.
It’s so cold that the interns of our local gym is nowhere to be seen handing out fliers. So cold that planes are running 12 hours late. So damn cold that the far too many homeless in Oslo can freeze to death tonight. While the city spends millions in fireworks. So cold that our car won’t move until it’s been running for a quarter of an hour. So cold that the music from my cellphone sometimes drop on its way through the earplug cables. So cold we be making love all the time just to stay alive. Snotty love. Yes, it is so cold that I, Sigg3, got a cold last night.
That’s right.
We’ve got our little, brave heating fan running 24/7 in the kitchen, to make sure the water pipes are alright, but it never gets comfortable. Just alright. With plenty of clothes on. And with the everlasting ordeal of Parking the Car in a street packed with snow you quickly run the risks of cold and disease.
Oh, and I’m writing this from my cellphone ’cause we ain’t got no internet connection either. Just this lousy edge subscription without any dataplan whatsoever.
Luckily, Lady C’s ahead of the situation and got us sorted with a New Year’s dinner & celebration at her sister’s place, where we all feel very welcome and slightly intimidated. C’s sister insists I call her Vixen if I am to address the internets on her behalf. It’s true. Vixen stopped eating food altogether a couple of months ago, in favor of nutrition bags you fill with water, just like in 2001: A Space Oddysey. I hope they come in turkey too. I spent Christmas Eve with Vixen, her brother, mother and grandmother while Lady C was saving lives at work. I like her close family, honestly, quirky and relaxed at the same time. And they seem to accept me very well too, which is always a plus especially around Christmas.
It has been a very meaningful year for me, if that makes any sense. Like most other citizens of Norway, I now have a home and a huge debt. Three different loans at three different places. I also have attended some 300% more meetings at work, actually getting to know my peers in the Admin group. This bit has somewhat solidified my position, integrating me further into the work space of actual living adults. But as soon the apartment is finished I will go back to writing again. The last six months have been hard on my freedom of creativity, yielding an aspiring bitterness which stem from the dark pits of the souls of us North-Norwegians. Or the simple denial of exercising ones talents in lieu of hard moneymaking labor. It is ridiculous, unnecessary and existential Hell to my beloved C. Fortunately, my girlfriend’s love for me and us overcomes my shortcomings. To my continual great suprise:)
What we have been building the last half a year is our future. And we’ve done things, construction wise, I would have never dreamed ourselves capable of. Ditto for explicit acts of intercourse, of course, but my imagination in that area of investigation isn’t quite as lacking.
As for summing up the decade I will have to spend some more time trying to remember what the hell it was all about, but frankly I couldn’t care less. The future is now. Historians will have their say in a hundred years anyway.
It’s good to finally leave the toddler years of 2000 alone. We’re entering an era of optimism, despite the huge hords of cynics and nay-sayers online. Because we’ve got a project. The climate threat, whether real or not, could well prove to be a defining collaboration for our kind. We just need something constructive to focus on, to fill the place in our hearts that has been the captive of "entertainment fear" for so long. Scary stories can be fun, deadly fun; but they are just stories, and quickly overwon by the will of those who recognize the human potential in all its variation, and the strongest power of all: true happiness.
So a Happy New Year to everyone! Let’s party like it’s 2009, and see you in the next!