New Year's Eves of Yesteryear...

After writing about our celebrations this year for the 31st in the previous two posts, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic around New Year's Eve. As a non-drinker I'm not swayed solely by crazy drink specials and free champagne at midnight when it comes to making a decision for how I want to spend New Year's. I'm also not one who thinks it is of the utmost importance to do something insane, but I like to at least do something, and stay up until twelve doing that something. Like many people, I have spent a few New Year's Eves at various house parties. Many were fun but one in particular stands out. My sophomore year of college we drove about an hour away from Dallas to a friend of a friend's party in the middle of the country. I was stuck on a porch swing while the people around me drank copious amounts of beer, ate BBQ, and sang karaoke. By the end of the night the host pulled a shotgun on someone. The friend who brought us passed out drunk, and was unable to give us directions on how to leave. We slept on the floor, and left at 6 a.m. on New Year's Day. We ate a grateful breakfast at Whataburger and made lots of hillbilly jokes. Another New Year's Eve that comes to mind is when I was 14, and my dad, my uncle, and my cousins all descended upon Deep Ellum and West End in Dallas and spent the night walking from music venue to music venue, concert hopping, before ringing in the New Year at a huge pub. I'm sure you can imagine it was *so cool* to my fourteen year old self to be roaming about downtown Dallas with the grownups. The year I lived in Japan I celebrated in Tokyo with my friend and her sister and another friend. We were on our way to a club in Roppongi and it was about to strike midnight, so in between trains we had our own mini-celebration. I think I have a picture... oh yes! Here it is-

(I'm second from left)

There are a few years here and there where I spent the night at a concert in a local venue. The year I returned home from Japan I rang in 2007 at a fantastic funk concert with two of my best friends. There was lots of dancing and singing and we made friends with pretty much everyone in the bar I think. And then there were a few- maybe 3?- New Year's Eves when I babysat. That's how I spent last year in fact. Me, Bobby, and 3 of our friends babysat my little step-brothers while my parents went out. We made pizza and cookies, the kids played X-Box, and all of the adults hung out on the back patio and drank coffee while we talked and reminisced on the past year and made resolutions for the new one. I have some pictures from that night too-

(our glasses were filled with sparkling cider like responsible babysitters)

Honestly I resent New Year's Eve a *tiny* bit in much the same way I resent Valentine's Day. Both days have silly expectations of embodying the best night out (NYE)/most romantic day of the year(V Day). You might have a fabulous social life, but decide to stay in on NYE, and for some inane reason that's considered some kind of entertainment tragedy. I like to celebrate because I like to celebrate things, but I was just as happy babysitting last year as I was concert hopping or dancing all night or riding trains in Tokyo. I think the trick with enjoying most things is not placing too many expectations on it. If I assumed every NYE would be an out of control night out I would have been disappointed a lot. Instead, I was able to enjoy whatever came my way. I hope whatever came your way this December 31st was enjoyable as well :)