Ya gotta choose your fights, people, and this is not an important one.
We actually stayed up until midnight to ring in the New Year – I’m surprised our staying up so late didn’t cause widespread looting and random shootings – as did the spud. There was a "Friday the 13th" marathon on one of the movie channels, which the spud watched, and Fred watched periodically between making popcorn on the stove in a pot (damn, it was good. so much better than the stuff we make in the popcorn popper!) and talking on IRC. I spent most of the evening reading magazines, then eventually came downstairs to check my email and stats, reading journal archives, and chatting on IRC. Yes, I know, how pathetic that we spent a good deal of the last few hours of 1999 chatting online. We’re lame dorks and you just can’t change us. We were, in fact, still in front of our respective computers when it turned midnight in New York City. I turned the TV on, and we turned from our computers to watch the event. I have to admit I was disappointed that we didn’t hear "Three! Two! One! ::static::" We were impressed with the fireworks and the confetti, though.
"Damn," Fred said. "Those New Yorkers sure know how to celebrate!" Yes, indeed.
We both went back upstairs at 11:30ish, Fred to sit in front of the TV with the spud to watch more Jason, and me to put on my nightgown and lay in bed and read. People outside in the neighborhood were setting off fireworks, which was making the kitten crazier than usual. She spent the last two hours of 1999 running back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. At twenty ’til midnight, Fred called "Twenty minutes!" I replied "Let me know when it’s ten!" He came into the bedroom and said, grinning, "So, you’re saying you’d rather spend the last few minutes of the millennium alone in the bedroom instead of with your family?" "I’m near my family," I responded. "Isn’t that good enough?"
I went out to the living room at ten ’til, and Fred flipped through channels until he found the Chicago countdown. We mutely watched the countdown and listened to the neighbors setting off fireworks, then kissed and the spud toddled off to her room and we to ours. We talked for ten or fifteen minutes, then went to sleep.
This is the first New Year’s I’ve stayed up for in, probably, five years. Last time I was up at midnight at New Year’s, it was because Debbie and Liz dragged me to a bar, and it sucked. I was married to the ex at the time, and he was stationed in South Carolina while the spud and I were living in Maine with Debbie and Brian. I was missing the ex, and watching people with their significant others’ and desperate people hooking up was not the most enjoyable evening. I’ve never enjoyed the whole bar experience, and thank god Fred feels the same.
Which reminds me, I forgot to drink the pina colada frozen mix packets I put in the freezer for New Year’s last year. We sure know how to party, eh?
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