Sunday, January 01, 2006

Happy New Year!!

Well, all I have to say is: it’s a good thing I am not terribly superstitious. Otherwise, I’d be kinda concerned. Let me tell you about my New Year’s Eve and the first few hours of New Year’s Day.

Now….first I should explain that New Year’s is my favorite holiday. I love new beginnings…no matter what they are….and what is more of a new beginning than the first day of a brand new year?

I have this little tradition that I’ve been doing for a number of years, and frankly, I like it. I look forward to it. I have a really nice dinner on New Year’s Eve. Something fancy. Beef Wellington. Salmon in Phyllo Pastry. Nice wine. A nice dessert. Then about 10PM, I break out the snacks. At 11:30 or so, out comes the champagne, and the TV gets flipped to Dick Clark and the big ball in Times Square.

This year’s New Year’s Eve feast was Lobster Cakes with a field green salad. Had been looking forward to those Lobster Cakes for weeks. Got them all prepared…and they were awful! Just dreadful! Horrid. Wretched. Okay…you get the idea. They were dastardly. They were so bad, they made me feel sick. To the point where I was really in no mood for snacks at 10PM…or 10:30…or 11. Didn’t even want the champagne.

But that was okay. I can be flexible when forced into it! I’d just drink my bottled water and toast Dick Clark and the Waterford Crystal Ball at midnight with a bit of Crysal Geyser! How healthful!

Now…the other thing that most people know about me is that I am practically paranoid to the point of obsessive about fires. They are my worst nightmare… And I have many occasions to worry about them living in Fire Country….

So…back to my story!

At precisely 11:54PM, while I am happily watching Dick Clark and trying not to feel badly that his stroke was so devastating, suddenly gunshots go off in my neighborhood and firecrackers begin crackling away. One of them hits the side of my house. Now that makes a person feel really good! I check out the window (carefully so I don’t get my head shot off! Hey! I ain’t no dope!). No signs of fire. Thank heavens it rained earlier (and to think, since the drainage is NOT fixed, I wasn’t happy about the rain…man, how things can change on a dime!)

I return…not quite so happy…to Dick Clark. Of course, with my heart thundering at 500 beats a minute, I can hardly concentrate on the ball dropping… I believe I saw it. I believe I wished Year 2005 good-by. I think I wished a happy welcome to Year 2006.

The neighborhood remained quiet. My heart slowed down.

At 12:20, I hear a whooshing, a crackle and see another firecracker come into my yard and skitter along my patio. It too went out…harmlessly.

Heart beat increases dramatically. Calmness is shot to hell.

At 12:40…a repeat of the above.

The clock moves to 1:01…another one plummets into my yard.

Seems my normally very quiet neighbors next door have moved their party outside to their patio, and are drinking up a storm…among other things. A small fight ensued but reconciliation came quickly.

Now it is 1:30…and you got it! Another firecracker whistles into my yard.

This continued until 3:31AM.

Needless to say…On January 1st…I was very, very tired. Oh…and the lobster cakes were still letting me know they didn’t love me.

Ah well. I guess a lot of people feel tired and puny on this day. Hee, hee…just never thought I’d be one of them!

Happy New Year! And ho, ho, ho….Bah Humbug!

3 comments:

What idiots!!! So sorry your New Year's Eve was so tragic.

Send those tails back!!

It's only the first day of the New Year. It has to improve.

Huggs and Kisses. p

Aww, that sucks Brooke! (((hugs)))

I know you were so looking forward to those lobster cakes, and I can just imagine how horrified you were with those fireworks. Some people's kids, huh?

I hope the rest of your year goes much more smoothly. Hey, maybe Father Time just figured he'd get some of the crappy stuff out of the way for you at the turn of the year, and is saving the good stuff for the rest of 2006!

omigosh! That's TERRIBLE...those people should be, er, sternly talked to (it's dangerous to piss off your neighbors too much by reporting them to the police--after all, they're known to possess illegal pyrotechnics!). I dunno...sometimes the BEST new years come out of the worst New Years. Get it? LOL