Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Weekend Assignment: What I Was Doing New Year's

Weekend Assignment # 351: What Are You Doing New Year's?
Where do you typically spend New Year's Eve? What are you usually doing when the big moment arrives? Will this year be as usual, or are you doing something different?

Extra Credit: To the best of your recollection, have you ever managed to keep a New Year's resolution for more than a week?

I'm trying to post this from an email, because Blogger won't load my New Post window properly!

Every year, pretty much, John and I do the same thing. We do our separate activities, usually in our respective offices, until nearly midnight. Then I bring out some kind of fake bubbly (this year it was sparkling apple juice with pomegranate,), and John has...whatever, the same thing or beer or brandy. We turn on the tv, watch the ball drop on tape because it happened two hours before, kiss, talk about Dick Clark, and go back to what we were doing before. Exciting, huh?

The fireworks plan fizzled.

This year was no exception. I did try to vary it a little, but to little avail. John bought me some low-risk fireworks for Christmas, which have only recently hit store shelves in Tucson, having been banned except for professional use since before we moved here. It turns out, though, that it's legal to BUY them in Tucson, but it's not legal to USE them in Tucson. We live in the city limits, and besides, it was cold outside. So they're still sitting on the end table in the den. Darn it.

Similarly, I wanted to find some other decent tv choice for ringing in the new year. After all, midnight happens all over the world, and midnight in NYC is a rerun by the time we see it in Tucson. Can we not see New Year's celebrations from somewhere else? Phoenix? Denver? Aspen? Disneyland?  Disneyland is an hour behind us in winter, but still. But no, tv offered poor old Dick Clark, or NBC's version of the New York celebration, or a few other choices involving musicians of approximately zero interest to us. Okay, NBC then. John noticed that the camera work was better on NBC, but still insisted on our getting a peek at Dick Clark to see how his health is holding up. We wish him well, but I find it very sad to watch him now.

The only really big exception to our usual pattern, in all the years we've been married, was the midnight that turned 1999 into 2000, the fake millennium celebration that predated the real one by a year because we all like round numbers. We spent it at Disneyland. It was extremely crowded, but we got free hats and glow sticks and there was a great Son et lumière show on the Castle and other buildings before the fireworks, plus a giant clock and repeated playing of a rather fun Disney CD of stars including Time Curry singing Disney songs. John hates crowds, and had a miserable 20 minutes trapped in the middle of a mass of humanity while trying to get a good picture of the Castle; but otherwise it was a great night.

I'm not sure about the resolutions question. I think we managed to Atkins together for about a month once. John is doing the same now. As soon as I use up some stuff in the fridge, I hope to join him in this endeavor in 2011.


Karen


--
Karen Funk Blocher
Accountant, Blogger, Writer
(not necessarily in that order)

P.S. Firefox still won't load this edit window, but Chrome will. Hmmm....

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