A couple days ago the rain fell and froze as soon as hit its intended target. The rain fell and froze again and again and again. The rain fell all night, and when the sun tried to pierce its way through the clouds the next morning, the rain finally stopped. Every street lamp, every branch, every blade of grass was encased in a cold, clear frame. And the untimely weather started to warm. Then the assholes started migrating back.

It is that time again kiddos, the new fucking year. The sad bastards at the nursing homes can put away their charity, tone deaf renditions of O Holy Night. Santa is done busting his ass and will be in a drunken stupor until Easter to see the Bunny crack on Jesus. One week in to the glory that I am sure will be 2005 and I have already broken my promises. I have let the exercise slip, but I blame alcohol and not myself. I strongly swore not to buy, and yet we just passed the 4:20 marker. I have already celebrated.

It is the new fucking year and the new semester is dawning. The frat boys have come back from date-raping sixteen year olds in Cancun. The STD per capita rate triples overnight. The rich girls have exchanged their less-than-hip gifts for store credit and are desperately ready find that pre-law student without a serious drinking problem. You realize upper-middle class white kids laughing at Chappelle Show is tea room fodder when you see these hillboys mean it when they spit nigger.

The traffic will be classified only as clusterfuck. People will be too busy to let another human being into the lane. Where the fuck can anyone be going in such a hurry in this purgatory winter waster land, is an acceptable question. The drunken townies will slip back down the hill from the campus bars and back into the dingy dens where they belong. Seniors who have not heard back from prospective grad schools will realize they have become townies.

The new semester will be different. I will study. I will go to class. Having broken these promises many times in the past I am sure that I will not break them again. Luckily I am a college student. So no matter how well or poor I do, I will still be able to look back at all of this too soon and consider it nothing more than another life lesson.

Yes 2005 will be different. I hope this year will be different. Too many times I feel humanity is on a downward, soul crushing, and irreversible spiral into the bleak hell of hatred. And you may find early in the morning you scream at the news My God! Is that dim faux cowboy still riding shotgun to a hollow Uncle Sam? At times you may wonder if Lady Liberty is bound and gagged, being savagely prodded by old, sagging gentlemen wearing bracelets reading WWJD just above fists clutching war bonds. Fear not. All of these terrible things may be, but not all is lost.

Love is everywhere. Love is everything. Suffering is only temporary. No one is ever truly alone because they are in the hearts and though of friends. No bullshit. I fucking mean it.

Anyway, have a wonderful year, good luck with whatever endeavor you embark for, peace.