seedy salt crostini with goat cheese, mascarpone, lemon zest, bacon and vermont maple syrup

I am not a fan of celebrating the New Year. Time is a man-made convention designed to make humans feel as though they have control over something completely uncontrollable and age should not be measured in years but in experience.

imho

The year 2011, however, has been something else and I feel as though I have no choice but to acknowledge the passage of this thing they call time.

Here's what I've learned

• Do not adopt a cat after drinking a martini and a Founder's IPA.  
• Being the most qualified for a job doesn't mean you're going to get the job and sometimes the job you think you want is the wrong job for you anyway.
• It is impossible to plan a small wedding unless one is willing to alienate a lot of people.
• Hendrick's gin is the best gin especially in the summer with cilantro, cucumber, lime and peaches.
• Biking in a major metropolitan city is not only possible, it's preferable.
• 8 hour brunches are the best
• Friendships take tending. Do not take them for granted.
• Marriage is more than a piece of paper.
• Experience gifts are just as good as home made gifts.
• Babies are not alien creatures.
• Oxtail stew is delicious.
• Faulkner is amazing.
• Family-in whatever form you are fortunate enough to have it-is the single most important thing in the world.

I have friends who are facing incredible challenges right now-cancer, loss of a parent either physically or mentally, joblessness, unstable partner relationships...The stroke of midnight isn't going to cure Gideon's cancer or bring Kari's Mom back from Alzheimer's, or help Christina and Rebecca find the jobs they deserve.  What it does do is remind us that change is the one constant and the single best thing we can do is embrace this truth and live every moment of our lives to the fullest.

Happy New Year, friends.