Buon Anno

It's a new year, again. Funny how it always seems to happen without my consent. I have high hopes for this year, but I'll try not to be too optimistic. I don't want to jinx myself. Ah, I see there is still room for the pessimist within me.
For the first time in many years, as far as I can remember, January first was not gloomy and overcast. However, I did do many of the same things I usually do on January 1st which is next to nothing. I did not do the following: 1) wake up with a wicked hangover, 2) get two or three hours of sleep because of no. 1, 3) go out and find the only diner open for miles, mainly because diners don't exist in Italy, and 4) have fried eggs and hash browns for breakfast.
I did miss not doing 3 & 4. It's my favorite New Year's Day activity. One particularly memorable New Year's Day I went with a friend and her then boyfriend, both of whom shall remain nameless, to King's Diner in Raleigh. I remember somehow I found out through a friend of my sister's which Raleigh diner was likely to be open on New Year's Day and it's location, but I'm a little shaky on how it transpired.
We had spent a quiet, but enjoyable New Year's with said friend's boyfriend's sister. Usually we celebrated in much more raucous style. That being said, New Year's in Chapel Hill was always a difficult proposition. There was never anyone in town, and the only bar open was usually one that just wasn't our style. For awhile it was Four Corners, which was located next to the post office, and attracted a more collegiate crowd. Most of the time there were rumors of parties that we spent hours trying to find. I remember wandering around the empty streets of Carrboro only to find a few stragglers, along with the last strains of Taz Halloween's performance, in a building on Weaver Street. Out of beer, and out of luck, we all wandered back disheartened to my apartment. Sadly, this was a typical experience.
The next morning always seemed to be the same. Gray skies and the search for the open diner. The year in question, in Raleigh, was no different in this respect. Since we were a trio, and I was not part of the couple, we sat in a booth in the formation of a triangle. Another trio of people came in and sat in the mirror image of our configuration. I was left facing this guy who continued to stare at me the entire time we were there. I was never really sure that he was actually staring at me, or if due to the way we were seated that it just seemed that way. However, as we were pulling out of the parking lot in the boyfriend's van, this guy happened to be exiting, and continued to stare at the car as we pulled away. We had a good laugh about it, and drove to a neighboring town to see if my current love interest was home. You can tell by the fact that I didn't actually spend New Year's with him, as to how stable that relationship was. He wasn't home of course, and we drove from Sanford back to Chapel Hill, as the gray day became an even grayer evening.
I'm not sure what a sunny New Year's Day portends, but I can only surmise that it is a good thing. Hopefully all of you had sunny New Year's Days too.