Xin Nian Kuai Le! or, Happy New Year!

It's a new year, and I don't know about you, but I'm still alive. Kind of amazing really. Anyway, nothing terribly exciting has been happening. Same ol', same ol'. Still never have enough time, what with taking Mandarin lessons from a pretty (and married) young Chinese woman in a laundromat, among other things. Yep, in a laundromat. That's what I said. The other things? Well, I'm still tutoring Esol (English as another language) at the Library 6 to 7 hours a week. And to quite a wild bunch of Chinese, Haitians, & South Americans.
And of course, there's Eddie, my wonderful cockatiel companion with a male pattern baldness problem. Not that he minds. His only real concerns are being fed, getting lots of head rubs, and yelling into the telephone whenever he gets the chance.
My other companion, Albert, who happens to be a black bear, is at this moment hibernating in one of my larger closets. Before the hibernating thing overtook him, he was busy traveling trying to scare and intimidate as many Republicans as he could through the South and West. But he finally called it quits, at least for the time being. He made some comment about it there being  too many of "those stupid idiots" for him to eat. That's the best I can do translating from bear language.
Anyroad, right now I'm suffering some type of cold virus, or sinus infection. Just been laying around the house the last couple of days, watching bad tv, drinking lots of herbal (and some green) tea, and sucking on Hall's cough drops. Can't really complain though, this is the first cold I've had this Winter season. If you can call this a Winter.
I hope y'all are doing just fine, and finding as much enjoyment in life as you are able. Remember, if the Mayans are right, the world ends this December 21st. So make a point of doing all those things you been wanting to, just in case.
No matter whether you celebrated the western New Year on January 1st, or the Chinese New Year on January 23rd, a very Happy New Year to you.