Well, dear readers, can you believe it – it is the final day of 2015. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is the final day of 2015. This year has flown by, like a gazelle befriending a fruit fly. Does anyone still befriend a fruit fly? But enough about fruit flies, we’re having our annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash, the best place to be for a safe, fun, and crazy way to ring in the new year, which, if you haven’t heard, is a little year I like to call 2016. And of course it is my fervent hope and prayer that 2016 will be a year filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.
To be truthful, 2015, year-wise, was kind of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. But I try only to dwell on The Good and there was plenty of it in 2015. So the hope is that in 2016 we get rid of all vestiges of The Bad and The Ugly because, frankly, who needs ‘em? Not me, baby. We’re still in need of some miracles and I hope some arrive starting tomorrow, the first day of the first month in a New Year (2016, in case you’ve forgotten).
Yesterday, I got about seven hours of sleep, then moseyed on over to the Wood of West to lunch with dear reader Jeanne. It’s been way too long. We ate at her choice of jernt, which was called John O’Groats, a well-loved breakfast/lunch jernt on Pico Blvd. In fact, it’s right next door to the Pico Playhouse aka the Century City Playhouse aka Rancho Playhouse, where, at fifteen, I did a production of The Fourposter. At that time, the place now known as John O’Groats was a Mexican jernt called Rebozo’s, a place that I have very fond memories of – in fact, I can taste their yummilicious beef tacos to this day – they remain the benchmark by which I judge all beef tacos. Sadly, they’ve been gone for almost a half a century. As to John O’Groats, it was very crowded. It is known for its breakfasts – biscuits and gravy, pancakes, waffles, and all the accouterments such as eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatoes. Dear reader Jeanne ordered what she liked – the fish and chips. Well, I love fish and chips so in the end I opted for that. And they were great as was the tartar sauce. I ate it all up, and we even had a biscuit with butter, also excellent. I’ll go back at some point and have one of the breakfasts.
Then I came back to the San Fernando Valley. Whilst driving east on Ventura Blvd. I was minding my own business in the right-hand lane – very little traffic – when I see some idiot young woman starting to pull out of a parking space without even looking to see if it was safe to do so, which it was most assuredly not given that had I chosen not to change lanes I would have plowed right into her stupid car. So, I changed into the left lane. That was pointless since the idiot young woman didn’t just pull out of her parking space, she proceeded to do an illegal U-turn right in front of me. This idiot young woman should thank her lucky stars that someone was watching over us and that I’m the driver I am. I slammed on my brakes while doing a hard right with the steering wheel – not very good for the motor car, and for about a second I really thought there was no avoiding a collision, but I missed her car literally by one inch. She didn’t stop, just completed her illegal U-turn and gave me a sheepish “sorry” wave. I was so angry I almost turned the motor car around to follow her, my plan being to call 911 and get a cop to pull her over. But I didn’t. Note to idiot young woman: Get your head out of your rectal cavity and watch what you’re doing or do not operate a motor vehicle.
Then I picked up a couple of packages and came home. I’d spoken to someone at Kindle about the wacko formatting of the Kindle edition of my book, and he told me he’d just had the same conversation with someone else. I told him I’d used the CreateSpace pre-formatted Word document and that I didn’t understand why this wasn’t an easier process. He said I’d have to do a few things to it and that would fix it up. He e-mailed me a list. When I got home I did a “save as” and per his instructions, changed the font to Times Roman (Kindle can process that font better), then did page breaks rather than returns on each scene end. It took about thirty minutes, then I uploaded it to replace the other one. Then I opened the preview version to find that it was better but still amateurish looking. I’m probably just going to take it down rather than have it look like that, so if anyone’s thinking about the Kindle version, get it quickly before I remove it. I recommend the book itself. We’ll have copies up for sale today at Kritzerland – signed copies. It’s really nice-looking, with four pages of color photographs. If you don’t care about signed copies, it’s already up for sale at Amazon.
I answered some e-mails, chose the final song, and we’re now complete and ready to go for the January Kritzerland show. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I began watching The Bridge series three. I’ve been waiting for them to do series three and after four episodes it’s been worth the wait. They do throw a lot of characters at you and a lot of plot turns in the first couple of episodes, but I just love the show, mostly due to its leading lady and the unique character she plays. She’s amazing and the character is one of my all-time favorites. The previous two season’s leading man is MIA here – so a new partner has come in and it’s taking me a bit of time to warm up to him, plus I’m very curious about his backstory, which is very odd so far, but interesting. The mystery is, as always with this show, multi-leveled. It’s well directed and has excellent music. But its Sofia Helen as Saga Noren who is the heart and soul of the series, and what makes it unique and great. Highly recommended by the likes of me. I saw ten minutes of its American counterpart and had to shut it off. Stick with the original.
I watched four episodes, and then I just relaxed for a while.
Today, I have no plans to do anything. I’ll eat at some point, and then I think I’ll have a visitor for an hour or two around seven, but said visitor will be gone by nine at the latest. I’ll hopefully pick up end of year packages, and then we have our annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash right here at haineshisway.com – you won’t want to miss any of the merriment and mirth and laughter and legs, as we say a fond farewell to 2015 and welcome 2016 with a cheer and a smile and open arms. Be there or be round. At eleven or so I begin my yearly contemplation – this I do in my bedroom in complete darkness. I think about the past year, what worked for me, what didn’t, what I’d like to change, how I can be a better person, and what I want for the New Year. Then we do our countdown to New Year’s Eve and I have my obligatory one sip of champagne to welcome in the New Year.
Tomorrow I’ll be up by ten to begin my new novel. I go slowly at the beginning of any new novel, and probably more slowly since this isn’t part of the Adriana Hofstetter series. But I’ve already written the first few paragraphs, so that should get me going. Then around five I’ll mosey on over to the Pearl residence for a New Year’s Day partay. Then the weekend will just be writing and relaxing, and then the New Year kicks into high gear immediately.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, hopefully pick up packages, watch more episodes of The Bridge, have a visitor, attend our partay, and welcome in 2016. Today’s topic of discussion: What was your most memorable New Year’s Eve? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as we look forward to bidding a fond farewell to 2015 and look forward to a wonderful 2016.