Day 133: What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

I work at a nursing home as a music therapist, and one of the songs that I had to learn this year was "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Well, I didn't have to learn it, but figured it would be a good one since only that one and Auld Lang Syne are two of the only New Year's songs. It got me to thinking about past new year's eves, and how every year has been slightly different. I thought about where I was with y2K, my NYE in the roman coliseum, and the year that the we lost power, only to get it back five minutes before midnight.

This year I was invited to a party at my brother's, which was about a month ago. Him and his wife usually have good parties, so I thought why not. And they are all night owls like me, at least on New Year's Eve they are. Before leaving work, I was making plans to go to the gym with a friend, but realized at the last second that the gym closed at seven, so asked her if she wanted to grab a bite to eat instead. I had a Groupon that I had been meaning to use, so I called up the restaurant to make a reservation. They said they couldn't fit me in until 8:30pm. I asked my friend if that was ok, and she said yes, so we showed up around eight and got seated right away. I guess they either had a lot of cancellations or weren't as busy as they thought they would be.

Right after sitting down and looking at the menu, I got a text from a couple more friends. They asked if I wanted to come over and join in the festivities at their place. I told them no, I had already made plans. I could have gone to more than one party, but I figured New Year's is one of those holidays where the parties pretty much fade after midnight. It also didn't help that it took an hour to get our appetizers, and another half hour to get our actual food. Talk about slow service! My brother texted me to see if I was still coming, which I assured him I was, and that I would be there before midnight.

I left the restaurant around ten, with leftovers of course because I had filled up on appetizers, and headed to my brother's. I made it, of course, and enjoyed the rest of the evening with friends and family. One thing that I always rely on for a good NYE is to be around people I care about, people that I can be proud of to call my friends and family. I was able to see a lot of people yesterday, not just at the party, but also got to see my friend at dinner, and that's all that matters. This was pretty much how I spent last NYE too, just chilling at my brother's house, this time I was too far to walk home, so I had to drive. It was fun just relaxing until 3 in the morning, not a care in the world because people didn't have to be at work the next day, or at least they were going in later so weren't too worried about sleep.

I also have started a tradition. Below is a jar full of slips of paper. From January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 I wrote down all the good things that happened to me. I read through them earlier and I was very surprised by some of them. Some I had forgotten about and they made me happier, some made me sad. There were some, though, that I looked at and couldn't figure out why I put it in there. In hindsight some of them seemed very trivial. Overall, though, they all made me realize I had a very good year. This is a good way to look back and not be too negative about the year that has passed, and look forward to what the new year will bring.