Near miss.

The near misses seem to keep coming, including one of our own - we crashed our car but only the car got hurt. A plane with 150 + passengers goes down into the Hudson River with both engines on fire and then taking on water and somehow everyone gets off alive and with only some minor injuries reported. A mutant flu virus this year is resistant to Tamiflu but the flu season has been very mild. A girl at Stuyvesant high school unfortunately died from bacterial menengitis but two other exposed students tested negative and an outbreak was averted. One of the Jena 6 teens attempts suicide shooting himself in the chest but lives to tell his tale. Then there's the guy with money troubles who tries to fake his own death parachuting out of the plane he was piloting and leaving his plane to crash into whatever, coming within meters of peoples houses!!. Some real nice guy even left his mini poodle in his parked van at a Vermont airport in freezing cold weather and the dog was rescued after 20 days!! Maybe this will be a year of near misses, forcing us to refocus on what's really important when the economy is going south and people are stressed about jobs and paying the bills. And maybe we should bone up on all sorts of insurance.

I for one could do without that kind of excitement - after a year of life changing experiences and a month of travel I was kinda hoping to hit the cruise control button until we crossed the finish line into 2010. Get cozy in our apartment, work on a sleeping schedule with Maya (still failing grades in the sleep category), soak up parenthood and maybe even learn a little about football (Brian and I really did try to watch the game on Sunday and lost interest within 20 mins. WHY do they stop the clock every 5 seconds? The turkey chili was good though.) Nonetheless these experiences serve as a stark reminder of the only things that really matter ... and to listen to your mother when she reminds you to wear a hat and look both ways before crossing the street.