Thank you! And many happy returns to you and all the other New Year’s babies in this thread!
It’s not a big deal. We do watch the ball drop, but it’s 9:00 PM on the West Coast.
New Year’s Day, though, I make black-eyed peas with bacon and greens. That’s fun! This year I’ve got mustard greens and collard greens, and some nice, thick, uncured bacon (to substitute for fatback, which is just a bit over the top even for a celebration).
I’ve been to some great NYE parties and been to some lousy NYE parties. Also spent NYE alone, sometimes by choice and sometimes not. I’d prefer a handful of good friends and a halfway decent amount of drinking over a quiet evening but yeah - overall, I do like New Year’s Eve.
I liked it when I was younger and more into partying and the like. For many years now, whatever I’ve done has involved not driving anywhere that night. Sometimes just staying home with my family, sometimes having friends stay over, sometimes staying over with friends. Last year my daughter was here with my grandson so that was great. This year, not so much. Will likely be very quiet. My teenager will be sleeping over a friend’s and my youngest will likely be home with me unless he gets a better offer, of course! The man will be plowing snow tomorrow, so I have no idea what time that will end, but he won’t be up for much when he’s done. It’s not that big a deal to me any more and while I can’t particularly say I enjoy it any more, I don’t dislike it either.
Me too.
As long as my neighbours aren’t noisy all night, I don’t care. It’s just another meaningless day designed to make lonely people feel miserable.
As I have new neighbours this year, who have proven themselves to be very noisy a lot of the time, I fear I’m in for a bumpy night. Hopefully they’ll be celebrating elsewhere.
Even if you don’t enjoy it, why do you have to be actively miserable? Just treat it like any other day. It’s not like Christmas or Halloween where it’s blatantly obvious that you should be “enjoying” such a “festive” holiday. Why not just enjoy the day off and do whatever you want to do without dwelling on how “lonely” and “miserable” you are. Even if that’s how you really feel, what’s one more day of feeling like this? Yeah, I’m not the happiest right now, but New Year’s doesn’t make me feel any worse. Whatever…
You must be awfully specially if the New Year comes along just to make you feel like shit. I’m pretty sure that the New Year comes along without anyone designing it. Cheers!
That sounds ideal! Maybe with some delicious snack foods pre-January 1 diet.
I don’t think anyone really has a wonderful, glamorous New Year’s Eve like they do in the movies or the ads.
I like to clean the house, myself. It feels good. That’s my ritual.
((((tumbledown)))), I’ve been there. I spent NYE with friends on the Mediterranean once. At midnight, as everyone started to kiss their significant others, it became painfully obvious to me that I was alone. I slipped out to the beach and cried for the first 15 minutes or so of 1999. There were a couple of other NYE’s like that, and I pretty much stopped celebrating.
Now that I’m married, my husband and I will stay at home. He has been on-call for his job 4 of the 5 New Years since we’ve met, so we are usually in bed at our normal 10:30. I kind of like to get up early and go for a walk if the weather is good, or stay home make cinnamon rolls if it is inclement. Yay, it’s looking to be inclement this year! 
Well, I don’t generally feel miserable. But as it’s a night designed for social activity, with a rather huge emphasis on that fact, the people who celebrate alone are looked on as not participating, as if they’re letting the side down somehow.
It’s Armin Only for me. 9 hour DJ set!
I love NYE and NYD, but as with Christmas, I prefer being alone when it happens. Christmas for me has heaps of baggage attached which isn’t all that wonderful, but a New Year just seems more – hopeful, somehow.
I’ll be seeing it in (in less than half an hour) with a glass or two of sparkling grape juice, and hanging up a new calendar. No end to the excitement here in my den!
Dang girl, sorry to hear that. Hopefully you’re not too serious and that is just the booze talking (getting an early start on the festivities). You’re a few time zones away but you can come hang out with us. Better leave now; it is a long drive.
Seattle had the distinction of being the only city in the entire world that cancelled their Y2K festivities because of terrorism fears. Between WTO and that, it was a bad year for Seattle.
I like New Year’s because it is an excuse to hang out with my friends and have a good time. We usually just head to the neighborhood pub where most everyone knows each other and have a few drinks, listen to the band, etc. Sometimes I make it to midnight, sometimes I don’t.
I do agree it can be amateur hour though which is why I stay away from the downtown bars and clubs.
I’d be astonished if I am awake to hear the clock strike 10:00.
I do hate the idea of dressing in clothes that aren’t quite warm enough and shoes that aren’t really comfortable to cram myself into someplace crowded with people I don’t actually know to eat food that isn’t really special, for which I’ve paid too much money.
Fortunately that’s not our tradition. Our tradition is cocktail party food without the cocktails. We play games. In the past it’s been Monopoly, but this year I think the Wii we got for Christmas '07 will be involved. We have some festive hats, and streamers.
When my son was very little we started tossing streamers every hour on the hour in case he didn’t make it 'til midnight. We still do that but I’m the one least likely to be awake when the ball drops.
This year it sucks wookie.
If it is an excuse, like this year, to get together with friends at their place and simply drink eat, converse and have a fun time…like dozens of other times during the year, then yes, it is enjoyable.
If it is a “thing” at a bar or a restaurant, then count me out.
For the past few years, I’ve had friends over for a NYE brunch. It’s much more relaxed… we can focus on chatting with friends about everyone’s resolutions for the year, getting tipsy on mimosas and enjoying a leisurely meal. This year it was just my cousin and her pugs who were able to come, but we all had a nice time.
I used to go out to clubs and the like when I was in my early 20s, and by 11:30 you could practically taste the desperation from all the people dashing around madly to find someone to kiss by midnight. Totally not my scene… the tickets were just way too expensive, the music was usually crap, and cheap champagne just makes me nauseous.
This year I’m having my own party. Last year we had a handful of friends over, and three of us met another couple at the local dive, which is not a “party” type bar, and I toasted the bartenders, all of which I’d do any random Tuesday. Most of the big to-dos are gonna be in the Marina or downtown, or in the Irish bars.
The best experiences we’ve had have been low key handfuls of friends at home. One year we went to a house party near the Wharf, then down Embarcadero and at the Ferry Building, which has the big fireworks show. It sucked. And don’t even get me started on the house “party” with one bottle of Smirnoff Ice and a gay guy trying to seduce a straight guy with the help of a female fluffer. Or the one before that when we left at 12:01 because our friend’s cousin was creepy and we ended of at out friend’s dad’s house at 12:15 and he laughed at us. Suffice it to say, I’ve learned my lesson.
Also, barring something unforeseen, I’ll be kissing someone tonight, but it sure does suck when you don’t, which is something I do have plenty of experience with.
It was more enjoyable last night than in previous years. The crowds were quite a bit smaller, so there was much less crap to clean up this morning.