I think today should really considered to be the first day of the New Year, because if you spent New year’s Eve with friends like mine,  you kinda need a whole day to recover. In fact, I think there should just be a skip day. A day that really doesn’t exist.  Just an unspoken mysterious recovery day. New Year’s was great, however I learned a great lesson in not mixing red wine with ANYTHING. You can click on the above picture and link to my Flickr photo account to view some of the debauchery.

Nonetheless, I woke up the next day and three Excedrin seemed to take care of things enough to coordinate a Dim Sum New Years Day lunch with 9 friends. Ha – I just realized 9 of us for the first meal in ’09…weird. It was a grand affair and I don’t think I have ever seen so many plates of dumplings, meats, and dough balls in my life. (That’s right I said balls!) Del was waving in plates with the dexterity of an air traffic controller and Chef Marc was mission control in coordinating what to order next. The whole event would have made a great Food Network special.

Afterward we hit up the stores in the Asian market and I ended up buying the Buddah statue pictured above. I hear it is good luck to bring some wew addition into your house on New Year’s Day. I love everytihing about this statue. The joy on Buddah’s face. The manboobs, The belly. The fact he is holding two balls and seems to be saying “Raise the Roof Y’all!” He makes me smile.

To pretend that ’09 is off to a great start would be ridiculous. The economy is in the shitter, people are loosing jobs, and those who have jobs are facing an insane amount of stress. Yet,  I still think 09 is going to be better than last year. I think mostly because there is a coming to terms of what is truly important. Personally it means working harder and smarter than I ever have, wearing sunscreen, recycling and eliminating mental and physical clutter.

In my family we have this saying that when one of the dogs in the family rolls on to their stomach to for a belly rub we call it “the happy dance.”  You can’t help but laugh at a dog who is rolling around on their back with puppy limbs flailing in the air with joy.  More than anything in ’09 I hope for everyone to find their own happy dance. Because now, more than ever, we need to rub some Buddah belly’s and share some joy.