This past New Year's Eve, I took a drive along Spadina Crescent before heading home.

I had just bought the new Sarah McLachlan album Wintersong, where she did a remake of "River" by Joni Mitchell. I have always loved this song and wondered if Joni got her inspiration for it from growing up in Saskatchewan.

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
But it don't snow here
It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly

Sometimes a girl just likes to drive down by the river at 2 AM, listen to sad music and re-evaluate her life. Is that so wrong? In the immortal words of Lesley Gore, "You'd cry too if it happened to you".

The next thing I knew, there were red and blue lights in my rear view mirror. I figured I must have been speeding, although 5 to 10 kilometres at the most. The officer asked if I had been drinking, but I thought nothing of it. It was New Year's Eve, so I figured they probably ask everyone that question. I wasn't worried because I hadn't had any drinks that night anyway.

Not so. The officer stared at me really hard for a few seconds, then said, "I noticed you weaving a bit back there".

I was a bit embarassed to be stopped anyway, because I had been crying ... much less stopped because I had been crying hard enough to appear drunk.

I said, "I was just thinking ... about the year that's gone by ...*sigh* ... and the year coming up".

The officer replied, "It just started. How bad could it be?".

I said, "Well, it's only two hours in, and I got stopped by you. You tell me how bad it's going to be".

No ticket resulted.