how i spent my new year's eve, and other depressing stories

A wise sage once said: "the amount of fun you have never meets the expectation for fun you feel you should have [on New Year's Eve]." I couldn't agree more. New Year's Eve seems like such a hassle. No one wants to drive anywhere, no one has any fun ideas, and you never have as much fun as you think you should have.

I haven't always felt this way about New Year's Eve. In fact, for a while, many of my fondest childhood memories involved New Year's Eve at my grandparent's house.

My parents would always farm us off to my grandparents so they could go out and do adult things (which, strangely always ended with my mom coming down with the flu the next day ... hmm...). My brother, sister and I (and sometimes my cousin) would spend the day with my grandparents, and boy did they now how to show us a night on the town!

One year we went into downtown Pittsburgh to the Pointe and saw their fireworks display. Most years we would go to a local police station and see their train display, then head off to the Ground Round restaurant where they would hold an hourly countdown, complete with ginger ale in plastic champagne glasses.

After our fine-dining experience at the Ground Round, we would head back to my grandparents house. We would usually watch either The Wizard of Oz or The Sound of Music until 11:30 or so, and then tune into every one's favorite, Rockin' New Year's Eve with Dick Clark. At midnight we would watch the ball drop, blow noise makers, run around the house banging pots and pans and revel it up with the grandparents! After our celebrations, the three kids would snuggle down on the living room floor, under the Christmas tree, in sleeping bags and drift off to sleep. Oh to be young!

This year, much like the past few years, left something to be desired. The most viable offer I had for NYE celebrations was a dinner at my sister's with my dad and her in-laws. [I ended up getting this offer after I had asked my sister if she needed a sitter for Maseman -- that was my attempt to avoid having to make any plans] I also had other tentative plans to make it to a party on the East side (although it really wasn't my scene, it was far, and I wasn't totally sold on it).

Dinner ended up being a bit of a calamity. My sister's mother in law it a bit of a handful, and she thought it would be fun to bring her other two grandkids, aged 5 and 3. This would have been fine and wonderful if the kids were well behaved, but their just shy of monsters. Neither has had any discipline, ever, and Mason ended up with at least a half dozen new scrapes, bruises and scratches over the course of the night.

Another disaster involved me and the shrimp appetizer. Shrimp, why do you hate me so? My run-in with the shrimp managed to destroy any hopes of making it to the East side.

My dad and brother in law were busy watching football, my sister fell asleep on the couch at 10:30, and I went home. (I did, however, get to feel my sister's baby kick -- which was both freaky and exciting at the same time).

So here I am, with 3 minutes left in 2009, watching Dick Clark, by myself.

I wish you and yours a happy 2010!