A winter at home – how exciting! It’s been, after all, whole three years since I was home during Christmas time,  so (I thought naïvely then), I’ve missed the snow (didn’t see too much of it in Thailand…), I’ve missed the cold, my coat, my winter boots, oh man, I’ve missed the winter!

Wrong (a word to be accompanied by a TV quiz show buzzer).

It took only a couple of days at home to remember how cold….cold actually is. “Gloves don’t help that much” realization quickly led to “Screw this, give me Thailand back!” reasoning. Partly, because what the Lithuanian weather (and, alright, my, probably, inadequate way of dressing) was a rather serious infection.

Irony was two-fold here. One, when I was getting my most recent tattoo, I thought, OK, I’m covering the vein (the one that’s more visible in comparison to the other arm), but, c’mon, how often do I give blood? Two, I was reflecting on the year a bit, asking myself what new things I’ve tried in 2012 (travel-related things didn’t count).

And, well, both of these semi-rhetoric questions were answered by a single medical invention: an IV drip. Which, cleverly, also solved the dilemma of which group of friends to celebrate NYE with. This prestigious reward of having me in the house during that special time went to…my parents!

So here I was, 11:45pm, the last day of 2012, by my computer, trying to come up with a meaningful facebook status while my parents were asleep already (“I’ll take a nap now but will be definitely up before midnight”). And you know what? Coming up with that status wasn’t that difficult. I have accepted – to a decent extent at least – that this New Year’s Eve won’t be the most exciting one and…it’s fine. It’s fine, and I won’t be crying into my pillow over one uneventful evening, because, honestly, my whole year has been more amazing than I could have imagined. I don’t throw statements as strong as this around, and am very lucky to be able to actually say it.

My point here: it’s great if I can “celebrate” New Year’s Eve with my parents and accept that. Maybe I did indeed experience something people like to call personal growth (other people, including myself often, like to make fun of this term).

The first day of 2013 was even more fun, no sarcasm here! For me, the whole situation seemed so iconic: me, on our couch in the living room, with that drip attached to my tattoo-less arm, while my parents are having some champagne with the doctor (who is, luckily, a good friend). This situation could have seemed a bit absurd and kinda sad but for the fact that my medicine was making me feel way better than champagne would. I might miss those drips (could this be a sentence indicating addiction?).

That was the ultimate test: to see how reasonably I can accept not going out on a night that is given such significance by others – and, OK, myself. I do like to think of New Year’s Eve as a special time, I’m not embarrassed (that much…) to say it. One, it’s a great occasion to see a bunch of your friends – although, naturally, you don’t really need an occasion to see your friends. Two, why not to reflect on the whole year and remember the “Oh yeah, I did do that! It was this year!” moments. For the second part, I had a lot of time to do that because of my sickness. Let’s hope this infection won’t be the only thing I’ll be reflecting one in December 2013.

Ah yes, happy 2013 everybody! Give some meaning to our good ol’ Earth making another orbit. Or…try not to search for meaning everywhere and enjoy the moment instead. One of these two must be right.