A New Year

I hope everyone had a great New Years eve. Gareth and I stocked up on food and drink and stayed home by ourselves to ring in the new year. We played some video games, a few games of chess and watched a few movies. We even got out the camera and took a few photos of each other in various stages of undress for when we're apart.

One of the gifts we got for Christmas from one of Gareth's cousins was a stocking full of body paint. When I first saw it as he held it up and showed me the day we all exchanged gifts I thought to myself why did she buy us finger paints? I know she gives one gag-gift, but finger paints for two adult men? I mentioned this to Gareth later and he laughed and said they're not finger paints, they're body paints. So around 10pm I found a left over piece of plastic tarp we didn't use last spring on the plants when it frosted and brought it in to bedroom and laid it down. I got undressed and got the paints and called him into the room.

Now you know how men are when they are called from another room, we never get up. Of course he starts "what do you want" and "bring it here and show me" when I tried to tell him I needed to show him something. While waiting for him to come I'm thinking how should I pose. I tried a few different ones but they all seemed stupid. As I heard his footsteps I panicked and just stuck my hands on my hips like I was feckin Superman and smiled. Finally he comes in to the room and sees me standing there naked on a plastic sheet with the paint at my feet. Now most people could figure out what this all meant, but of course he asks "What are you doing?"

After a quick "Are you kidding me" shrug of my shoulders and head while pointing to the body paints I could almost hear the mouse running up the stairs and turning on the light bulb in his brain as I saw a smile slowly form at the corner of his mouth and turn into a naughty grin. He quickly shed his clothes and we spent some time decorating each other and it was more of a good laugh for us than anything sexual.

We took a nice warm shower together and it was much easier for me to get the paint off since I'm almost hairless compared to Gareth who is furry. We both had a couple days stubble and decided to give each other a shave before getting out of the shower. Now clean and freshly shaved we wrapped towels around us and went to the bedroom. I turned on the television in the bedroom as Gareth popped a bottle of champagne we had been chilling for a few hours. The cats climbed on the bottom of the bed as we snuggled on the bed together watching the New Years eve celebrations. Guinness had a nice fireworks moment and other fireworks were set off around the country.

As we kissed to welcome in the New Year I couldn't help but wonder what the year would bring. The only thing guaranteed to happen is there will be change. Change happens in our lives everyday. Sometimes drastic, most times very slow. I have a list of simple things I want to accomplish this year and will work towards achieving. Gareth and I have a trip to South Africa planned and he will be staying on for a few months to continue with the hospital there. When I return to the island I'll continue my job at sea. Those are the things I know.

What I don't know is if we'll be able to continue to make this work or will life take us in different directions? What new opportunities will arise? Who will be lost? How many days will be filled with laughter, tears, or grief? Of course there's no way to know what the future holds. You can only plan so much and control so little. You just have to live each day, fight for what you believe in, work hard for what you want to achieve, and show love to those around you. May we all have a happy, healthy, and loving new year.