I am trying to conquer Iceland by clicking on a little game image. Help me out, won't you?

I can't kick a rock in this town without uncovering bits of high school. This is fine when it's just swapping gossip about unlikely people converting to Islam, unlikely people getting a job as Herky the Hawk and driving a converted school bus to Florida, unlikely people in unlikely relationships, and the like. It gets weirder when I hit the circle of people I spent time with, but never really knew—ex-boyfriend's friends and friends of friends—and they react to me exactly as they did four years ago.

But then, New Year's Eve always makes me melancholy. I expect there to be some year in my life where I participate in the kind of raucous party you hear in the background on alterna-pop radio (growing up, I didn't get many images of the sparkly cocktail gowns and the sparklier champagne and the sparkliest exchange of upper-class wit that other people are wistful for) yet I'm not a raucous party person, so my expectations are doomed to hideous failure. So. Last year was a shitty year, here's to this one being full of joy for all the world.