A blue moon is rare enough, but a blue moon on New Year's Eve has to be cause for some mystical, or at least misty, thinking.

I always have admired the moon's tug on earth - lunar cycles, tides, insanity - and this time I feel the tug, tug, tug away from a pretty bad year.

Mine ended with a whallop, as most of you know. But I felt like I was sludging through most of this year - and, really, most of this decade - in my la la la land in my brain.

One of the things that has made a difference is joining OS. OK - this place has been the focus of my attention in many strange and extraordinary ways. I don't advise anyone to follow my example.

That first post - seeing my words magically come into light - that feeling remains every time I press "publish".

It is magic. I would have lost my mind, or done a lot of bad drunk dialing, this year if I had not landed on planet OS. I observed the flora and fauna, decided I should set up camp and observe the natives. And then, of course, I went native. Whoo-hoo~!

So, now the snow is covering my blue moon, although I saw it last night and cried. For the fact of seeing it, because not seeing things is my personal obsession right now, and I kick myself for not seeing.

My Mother died, and I wrote about it, and this community came to me so quickly that, by the time I logged back in, I was overwhelmed. I can't imagine what it would have been like without OS. So, you changed it. You made it different. Better, yes. But somehow both more and less of an event. It's hard to describe.

I would not have had a place to put my grief and my words if I had not joined up here. I would have been a wreck. You can't imagine how important this place is until someone dies. ( It's also a great tactic for EP's and front page, although killing one's Mother is definitely a personal choice.)

I am looking forward to tomorrow. I have huge journies to take, and you can all climb aboard whenever it suits you. I need a clean slate, a new day, a stupid number game to make me feel like moving forward.

I can FEEL that moon tugging and tugging. I should go drink early champagne with my friends at our favorite Italian restaurant down the street, and revel in banter and the glow of people who also want 2009 to be incinerated.

I toast to you, all of you - all of our experiences are different, of course, but I hope that my experience can serve as an indicator of how deep and rich and loving Open Salon is.

Thanks to everyone - you are amazing. Let's rock the next year and the next decade.

With Love, Alison