Journal #20: "Hittin' the Restart Button to a Whole New Year"

As I sit in my room reading blog posts on tumblr.com about how everyone is going to miss 2009, I pause for a slight moment and reminisce on the times I've had throughout the year. I think about the days at St. Theresa School, the funny moments at dance, the ti-- "Czarina! Auntie Charie! Come down now, we're going to eat, now!". A loud voice of a child suddenly interrupts my train of thought. As I look towards my left, I see my mom getting her "bingo kit", as I like to call it, out. "Let's go, anak." Anak in English means child. Slowly, I begin close my white laptop and walk towards the door. But before I left, I noticed a small change in the way the kitchen looked. I tried to find what was different, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Suddenly, I noticed 13 different fruits on the table! I jerk my upper body towards my mom and say, "Mom, why do we have so much fruits on the table? We usually keep a couple out." My lips curl up and my right eyebrow goes slightly lower than the other making me have a confused expression on my face. "Didn't you know that it's lucky to have 13 fruits on the table before New Years?", my mom says. I scratch my head a little. "But why 13??", I say with a slightly confused tone. "To me and my family it is a very lucky number. You see, having round fruits signifies coins so having a lot will bring luck and prosperity this coming 2009." I nod my head up and down a couple of times reassuring to my mom that I get what she's trying to say. The voice once again screams, "Auntie Charie! Czarina! C'mon!" My mom and I turn towards the door and make our way down the wooden stairs that lead to two other houses right below us. As I walk towards the table, I can already smell the warm, pink salmon that melts in your mouth like hot butter. My 11 year old friend, who I look to as my little sister, Jessica walks toward me and gives me a warm bear hug and says "Hi Zee! Oh my gosh, I'm going to miss 2009." Her face then drops and her eyes face the ground. "It's okay Jess. It's going to be a whole New Year! Let's make the best of it!" A grin then forms on her face as she and I go to the table and say our grace. The smell of the salmon, baked chicken, and spaghetti make it's way into my nostrils and down to my stomach. A soft, quiet grumble comes out of my tummy and by that very moment my taste buds started kicking. Nobody had noticed, but I was already imagining the taste of the food in my mouth. "Name of the Father, Son, Holy Sprit, Amen. Let's Eat!", Isabelle yells. I grab the nearest white, plastic plate by me and grab a spoonful of the baked pink salmon that was smothered in onions, one piece of the baked golden chicken, and a scoop of the spaghetti and meat sauce. My eyes examined which I should eat first. My fork did the same. It was as if I was painting something in mid -air using my fork. All of a sudden, I feel an urge to dig my fork into the salmon, and so I did. I stuck it in my mouth and my taste buds danced around like the smoke that was blowing to us from our neighbors' house. I hear footsteps walking closer and closer to us. I wondered who it was. I swallowed the salmon that was in my mouth and took a close look at the shadows that appeared on the stairs. The shadows finally disappeared and what appeared were four bodies standing at the top of the stairs. "Surprise everyone!" My eyes open widely and a big smile forms across my face. I run to hug my two little friends, practically siblings, Hannah and Jonas with their mom and dad. We haven't seen each other in a while so we missed each other very much. Everyone started hugging each other and tears of joy dripped out of some of our eyes and down our cheeks. So a couple hours have passed and now, the adults are all playing their usual bingo and us kids are playing with the fireworks. I grab a couple of the morning glory and a lighter. As I turn the lighter on, a small orange an gold flame appears. "Zee! Zee! Light up mine!", yells out the very excited looking Jonas. I move the flame towards his morning glory and all of these sparks start to appear. The rest of the kids, including me, grab our morning glories and point them towards Jonas' so that our would have those colorful sparks that looked like miniature shooting stars bunched up altogether. I look up at the clock to see that there's 5 minutes left of 2009. "Hey, everyone! Come drink hot cocoa! It's cold!", says Isabelle's grandma. "Nanay! (Grandma in filipino) everyone! 5 more minutes!", I screamed so loud that even the neighbors heard. I look next door and saw all the men clank their beer bottles together for the last toast of 2009. As I sip the sweet, warm, hot cocoa, I look at the clock to start a count down. "Ready everyone? 10... 9... 8..." By this time, basically, everyone in Kalihi was counting down. "...3...2...1! HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!" All the kids jump up and down on the couch messing up all the neatly put pillows. I flopped down on the couch and watched everyone hug each other thanking them for all the memories from 2009. All of a sudden, there's a warm feeling in my heart. The feeling you get when you're home and everything is so peaceful and all you can think of is happy thoughts. My thoughts are once again interrupted by the vibration coming from my phone one after the other as I get loads of text messages saying, "Happy New Yrs! Thnx 4 da memries!". I do a quiet little squeal thinking about how great I know 2010 will be. 2010, here I come!