Entry 5: New Year's Reflections
Summary: Angela catches up on the events of the old and new year.
The restful spirit of the holiday has followed me into the New Year. How quickly 1988 sneaked up on me but didn't bring any fireworks, for which I should probably be thankful. The New Year has always seemed to be as much a time for reflection as for planning. Maybe you have to purge the old before moving on with the new. Everyone seems to be able to do that but me.
Tony let Sam and Jesse off the hook a bit early after their joy ride through Fairfield. He said there's no sense in starting a new year off with that kind of baggage from the previous year, and Sam was hardly inclined to disagree. But I doubt she'll be taking the wheel again so much as five seconds before that driver's license is in her hand.
Likewise, Mother didn't hold Max's initial insecurities against him, and they rang in the New Year on his boat with Catherine Ann. I'm sure it was a bit chilly, but neither seemed to complain.
Jonathan has settled into seventh grade without any kind of an incident in months. As predicted, the so-called frog chopping apparently scored him some points with other students as he was able to point out various parts and spout enough amphibious factoids to impress even the teacher.
Even Mrs. Rossini was able to let go of some of the devastation of her husband leaving. I know from experience how long it takes to recover from a lost marriage, but my "on again, off again" decade with Michael is a far cry from the three decades of dedication she gave to Joe. But somehow, when she called on New Year's Eve, there was an unmistakable hint of positive determination in her voice. I think the coming year, and many to follow, will be good to her.
My life has been uneventful when compared to the goings-on in others' lives, with the exception of work, which has been mind-boggling leading up to the holidays. There's no better time of the year to introduce new products, improve old ones, and come up with new ways to sell them than when everyone's attention is on shopping. In eight weeks, we put out twenty-four new commercials, more than a hundred print ads in thousands of publications across the country, and enough radio spots to fill a year's worth of airtime. But through it all, I didn't lose one client, and in fact, gained six new ones with a few more on the horizon.
I can't count how many times I came home to find dinner hot and waiting on the table, hours after the kids and mother had eaten theirs. More than once Tony drove into the city to spare me the train ride home after one of the many twelve-hour days I put in. I know I've said it before, but I so sincerely don't know what I'd have done without him. Besides his usual duties, which are nothing less than lifesavers, there are a thousand other little, selfless considerations that make life not only manageable, but enjoyable. There wasn't one time he wasn't there for me, even if all I needed was a sounding board.
It was nothing less than a purely exhausting holiday season, but the revenue will guarantee that The Bower Agency operates in the black until at least June. Which is a good thing since January is notoriously the slowest time of the year for advertising. With the sole exception of that barbaric ritual known as the Super Bowl – which to my merriment seems to become more about the ads and less about the game every year – I'll be lucky to write one good jingle between now and Easter.
But at home, things have been quiet for me. Our household runs like the well-oiled machine Tony promised all those years ago. But I don't want to speak too soon: The Micellis are coming again. And I don't mean the Micellis from Brooklyn; I mean the Micellis from Italy. All of them. Including the infamously indominable Aunt Rosa. And if the stories and photographs are half-true, then this should be an interesting – though enjoyable, I'm sure – visit. Tony is looking so forward to seeing his relatives, and really, there was no question that we would host them during their visit. After all, we're a family, and that's what families do.
