I think I have finally recovered from whatever ailed me last week. It was brutal. Even yesterday my stomach was unsettled, but today has been much better. So the blogging wasn’t a priority this holiday season, but all in all, it was a low-key season anyway with very little happening.
But for New Year’s Eve, I went to Kansas City with some friends, and had a nice time. As I was driving to KC, I thought about New Year’s Eve, and all the emotions that get wrapped up in making sure it is a fun and magical evening. There have been several lousy New Year’s Eves…ones where boyfriends moved or decided it was a nice night to re-evaluate life plans that (eventually) no longer involved me, and I was straining to recall if I’ve ever had a fun and magical New Year’s Eve.
Well dear readers, I have had fun and magical New Year’s Eves in my lifetime, so I’m posting minor details about them here. So if you plan on being jealous, just stop reading now, and go back to your Cave of Bitterness and…and…be bitter. My top three New Year’s Eves:
3. Just last year, NYE 2007. I flew back to Bowling Green to celebrate the holiday with my fab friends there, and even though my flights were delayed many, many times, I arrived unscathed (although I did take a nap around 10 PM) and rang in 2008 with my Ohio peeps.
2. NYE 2000. The “true” end of the millennium. I lived in Salt Lake, near Trolley Square. A roommate had her fiance over, and my friend Matt came down from Logan. We played Trivial Pursuit (Matt and I ALWAYS played whenever we had spare time) and some other games, listened to Diana Krall and Harry Connick, Jr., and welcomed 2001 with sparking cider and snow.
1. NYE 1986. The newly-formed Plattsmouth Ward decided to allow ALL the youth to attend a NYE dance. Even the lowly 12-13 year olds. Normally, one must be 14 to attend a church dance, so this was super-special, as I was a lowly 13 year-old. We had a phenomenal youth group at church; I don’t remember any cliques, all I remember is loving going to church and other activities.
At the dance, I danced with my two huge crushes, Paul and Steven, and my tortured 13 year-old heart wrangled over which heart I’d end up breaking (Paul was impervious…Steven was the eventual casualty). After 1987 had been appropriately ushered in–with Sprite, I’m sure–my two BFFs and I had a sleepover at my house. It was a fab New Year’s Eve.
And I consider it a sign of a charmed childhood that my favorite New Year’s Eve, to this day, remains from when I was 13 years old. Not at all a sign that as I age, it becomes less magical.
