If the rest of 2005 is anything like the first 24 hours of it have been, then I can say that it's going to be a very good year. It began with a very great party. It was the kind of party where everyone talks for so long about so many interesting things that the party believes itself to be making real progress on the question of nature vs. nurture, the kind of party that ends when the five remaining guests tiptoe out so as not to awaken the hosts, who have gone to sleep, and find themselves in a brilliantly sunny spring morning on the first day of January.

It's true, what everyone says--the morning really is a beautiful time of day. The last time I saw anything after the dawn and before high noon it was months ago and not in this country. It is very lovely the way the sun shines so brightly. I tend to only catch the sun on its way up or down and had forgotten how brilliant and illuminating it is, all that hydrogen fusing into helium 92 million miles away. It made the sequins on my disco-ball dress all the more shiny.

I've resolved not to make any resolutions because they just make you feel guilty. All I can say about the coming year is that I will try to remain well hydrated and while I hope that neither my person nor my heart sustains any major injury in 2005, I can't say that the risk of these eventualities is my primary concern.