Coffee Table Declarations
Monday, January 03, 2005
Is it just me or is New Year's Eve not such a big deal anymore? I don't know if it lost it's importance after the millennium or what. People seem to feel all this pressure to go out and do something special, most likely involving alcohol and staying up until midnight to watch the ball drop on tv and say "yay, it's a new year!" even though it won't be a new year in some areas for another couple hours.
What's so fun about going out on a cold night when every place is crowded with drunk people? And where is there to go? A bar? A party where you have to make small talk with strangers? Those things just aren't that important to me. I'm just as happy to stay in my cozy apartment with some champagne and the television. I've spent far too many New Year's Eves trying to meet some vague expectations which somehow involve the implication that the way you spend New Year's Eve is a precursor to the year ahead and what it will bring. That just isn't true. Believe me, my New Year's Eves have never had much affect on my subsequent year.
I'm also not sure I buy into the whole significance of the changing of calendar years. I find myself much more reflective on my birthday. The year suddenly changing isn't infused with deeper meaning for me, nor does it compell me to want to set impossible goals for myself. I guess I sound like the grinch who stole New Year's but I wasn't always this way.
I think it was NYE 1994 that I went to an Aerosmith concert. The very next year I was in a car full of people at the stroke of midnight, driving around looking for something to do. One year during high school, I went to First Night in Boston. It was cold and crowded. We were wearing layers of clothes so we wouldn't have to wear coats. On top of my layers I had on a black sweater. I was happily eating fried dough with powdered sugar on top but it was really windy - do you see where this is going? At midnight as the fireworks were going off I ended up kissing some guy. I don't think I ever caught his name.
In 96 or 97 I went to a party where I had to listen to some doomsday fanatic talking about how we only had a couple years left. It got to the point where I would dread New Year's Eve because it was that much closer to the end. It sounds silly now. But so does the whole Y2K panic. I spent NYE 2000 at my parents' house because I was so terrified that all technology and life as we know it was going to come to a grinding halt. Now that was a momentous New Year's.
In 2001 I was deathly ill with asthmatic bronchitis. I fell asleep on the couch and my roommate woke me up to see the ball drop and I passed right out again. For NYE 2002 I went to another party where I didn't know more than a couple people. And at midnight everyone was hugging each other like old friends. In 2003, falling into the trap of feeling like I had to do something because it was New Year's Eve, I went out with a friend to a local dive bar where we got hit on by some extremely drunk guys. I came home that night to find my roommate watching tv. She hadn't gone out at all and had a swell time just relaxing by herself. I've taken a cue from her ever since. How did you spend New Year's Eve?
What's so fun about going out on a cold night when every place is crowded with drunk people? And where is there to go? A bar? A party where you have to make small talk with strangers? Those things just aren't that important to me. I'm just as happy to stay in my cozy apartment with some champagne and the television. I've spent far too many New Year's Eves trying to meet some vague expectations which somehow involve the implication that the way you spend New Year's Eve is a precursor to the year ahead and what it will bring. That just isn't true. Believe me, my New Year's Eves have never had much affect on my subsequent year.
I'm also not sure I buy into the whole significance of the changing of calendar years. I find myself much more reflective on my birthday. The year suddenly changing isn't infused with deeper meaning for me, nor does it compell me to want to set impossible goals for myself. I guess I sound like the grinch who stole New Year's but I wasn't always this way.
I think it was NYE 1994 that I went to an Aerosmith concert. The very next year I was in a car full of people at the stroke of midnight, driving around looking for something to do. One year during high school, I went to First Night in Boston. It was cold and crowded. We were wearing layers of clothes so we wouldn't have to wear coats. On top of my layers I had on a black sweater. I was happily eating fried dough with powdered sugar on top but it was really windy - do you see where this is going? At midnight as the fireworks were going off I ended up kissing some guy. I don't think I ever caught his name.
In 96 or 97 I went to a party where I had to listen to some doomsday fanatic talking about how we only had a couple years left. It got to the point where I would dread New Year's Eve because it was that much closer to the end. It sounds silly now. But so does the whole Y2K panic. I spent NYE 2000 at my parents' house because I was so terrified that all technology and life as we know it was going to come to a grinding halt. Now that was a momentous New Year's.
In 2001 I was deathly ill with asthmatic bronchitis. I fell asleep on the couch and my roommate woke me up to see the ball drop and I passed right out again. For NYE 2002 I went to another party where I didn't know more than a couple people. And at midnight everyone was hugging each other like old friends. In 2003, falling into the trap of feeling like I had to do something because it was New Year's Eve, I went out with a friend to a local dive bar where we got hit on by some extremely drunk guys. I came home that night to find my roommate watching tv. She hadn't gone out at all and had a swell time just relaxing by herself. I've taken a cue from her ever since. How did you spend New Year's Eve?
