The Ghost of New Year's Eves Past
When I was growing up my family actually put some effort into celebrating New Year's Eve. I can't honestly remember what age bracket I fell into or how many times we did it, but for a several year stretch of my childhood we would have a lobster dinner at home on New Year's Eve. I don't recall if we stayed up until midnight, or even until midnight on the East coast, but we would buy a live lobster, some shrimp and a number of other delicacies and have a delicious dinner together.
Every since then, I've put somewhat more effort into New Year's Eve than I do any of the other second tier holidays. Sure, Thanksgiving/Black Friday is always first in my heart, and I do love Passover seder, but most years I make a strong effort to do something for New Year's Eve. Here's a partial list.
December 31, 1999 - My high school classmates Randy, Aaron, Pat and Mike had an apartment together in Anoka, Minnesota, so a bunch of us gathered there for Y2K. Y2K was a bust, but we played a lot of video games, drank a lot of booze, and after midnight decided that we should go skinny dipping in the Mississippi River. I was either drunk enough or sober enough to pass on that idea, but I did observe as Ryan and others jumped off the dock near the apartment into the river and out again in a very big hurry. As Ryan said, "I swear baby, it's just cold out!" Also, another classmate got upset when his (very nice) girlfriend told us that she'd worked at the strip club that operated in our hometown for a hot minute. I sincerely hoped she dumped his sorry ass like it was on fire.
December 31, 2000 - I covered a radio show up until midnight. Naturally, I played Also Sprach Zarathustra. Then I went to party that Ken and Harold were hosting at their apartment. Harold had graduated by that point. While traveling for work, he invited an attractive flight attendant over. She actually turned up. I recall us all being shocked by that.
December 31, 2003 - sparklie_lady and the Don had a party at their old place in Cleveland Heights. I drank with Alex and listened to his stories about his rock & roll youth.
December 31, 2004 - tigerlily_blue and I, together with our parents were at the Falls Festival in Lorne, Australia. The Black Keys closed out the year and the festival as the ball dropped.
December 31, 2006 - My ex, tigerlily_blue, Beth, Ryan & Elisa and I got dressed up and went to Nighttown to watch Dominick Farinacci perform. Ryan paid me back for his tickets by buying an expensive bottle of champagne. What a great night. How did we cram six people in a car? I have no idea.
December 31, 2009 - I'm pretty sure I was at theferrett's house. (EDIT 2022: Yep)Or maybe it was the year before or after. We went several years in a row, that I recall.
December 31, 2011 - Party at rshruti's in the afternoon. pussygalore66 and Barbara and I got dressed up caught Dominick Farinacci's early set at Nighttown, followed by a party at their friend's house for midnight.
December 31, 2012 - tigerlily_blue and I were in Seattle. We ate delicious food with Ryan & Elisa.
December 31, 2014 - I was down in Dayton with Ryan & Elisa. After their sons were in bed, we had a quiet night involving homemade tamales. Also, we made a shot with the water from tamales that Ryan dubbed "Eduardo's Folly." That might have been a mistake.
December 31, 2015 - Party at rshruti's in the afternoon. Home in the evening.
December 31, 2016 - Party at rshruti's followed by Walleye Drop.
Feel free to fill in the gaps.
On a side note, it's somewhat staggering to me that despite having Facebook since 2009, LJ since 2003, and a huge pile of my physical paper calendars, I can't actually identify what I did for a major easily searchable date for 7 of the last 18 years. And you wonder why historians can't be positive about much. Heck, I wonder how they can be positive about much of anything, given the vagaries of memory and the frequent lack of written records.
EDIT: Found the 12/31/2003 date in an old LJ post and added it on 5/21/2017.
EDIT: I'm pretty sure 12/31/2002 was at Mikhail's apartment in downtown Cleveland.
Every since then, I've put somewhat more effort into New Year's Eve than I do any of the other second tier holidays. Sure, Thanksgiving/Black Friday is always first in my heart, and I do love Passover seder, but most years I make a strong effort to do something for New Year's Eve. Here's a partial list.
December 31, 1999 - My high school classmates Randy, Aaron, Pat and Mike had an apartment together in Anoka, Minnesota, so a bunch of us gathered there for Y2K. Y2K was a bust, but we played a lot of video games, drank a lot of booze, and after midnight decided that we should go skinny dipping in the Mississippi River. I was either drunk enough or sober enough to pass on that idea, but I did observe as Ryan and others jumped off the dock near the apartment into the river and out again in a very big hurry. As Ryan said, "I swear baby, it's just cold out!" Also, another classmate got upset when his (very nice) girlfriend told us that she'd worked at the strip club that operated in our hometown for a hot minute. I sincerely hoped she dumped his sorry ass like it was on fire.
December 31, 2000 - I covered a radio show up until midnight. Naturally, I played Also Sprach Zarathustra. Then I went to party that Ken and Harold were hosting at their apartment. Harold had graduated by that point. While traveling for work, he invited an attractive flight attendant over. She actually turned up. I recall us all being shocked by that.
December 31, 2003 - sparklie_lady and the Don had a party at their old place in Cleveland Heights. I drank with Alex and listened to his stories about his rock & roll youth.
December 31, 2004 - tigerlily_blue and I, together with our parents were at the Falls Festival in Lorne, Australia. The Black Keys closed out the year and the festival as the ball dropped.
December 31, 2006 - My ex, tigerlily_blue, Beth, Ryan & Elisa and I got dressed up and went to Nighttown to watch Dominick Farinacci perform. Ryan paid me back for his tickets by buying an expensive bottle of champagne. What a great night. How did we cram six people in a car? I have no idea.
December 31, 2009 - I'm pretty sure I was at theferrett's house. (EDIT 2022: Yep)Or maybe it was the year before or after. We went several years in a row, that I recall.
December 31, 2011 - Party at rshruti's in the afternoon. pussygalore66 and Barbara and I got dressed up caught Dominick Farinacci's early set at Nighttown, followed by a party at their friend's house for midnight.
December 31, 2012 - tigerlily_blue and I were in Seattle. We ate delicious food with Ryan & Elisa.
December 31, 2014 - I was down in Dayton with Ryan & Elisa. After their sons were in bed, we had a quiet night involving homemade tamales. Also, we made a shot with the water from tamales that Ryan dubbed "Eduardo's Folly." That might have been a mistake.
December 31, 2015 - Party at rshruti's in the afternoon. Home in the evening.
December 31, 2016 - Party at rshruti's followed by Walleye Drop.
Feel free to fill in the gaps.
On a side note, it's somewhat staggering to me that despite having Facebook since 2009, LJ since 2003, and a huge pile of my physical paper calendars, I can't actually identify what I did for a major easily searchable date for 7 of the last 18 years. And you wonder why historians can't be positive about much. Heck, I wonder how they can be positive about much of anything, given the vagaries of memory and the frequent lack of written records.
EDIT: Found the 12/31/2003 date in an old LJ post and added it on 5/21/2017.
EDIT: I'm pretty sure 12/31/2002 was at Mikhail's apartment in downtown Cleveland.