The 15 is ready.
Are we?
The New Year’s Eve “15” numerals stand lit on the sidewalk after they were unloaded from a truck in Times Square in New York, December 16, 2014. The giant seven-foot-tall numerals will be installed atop One Times Square where they will be lit at midnight on New Year’s eve at the completion of the Times Square 2015 ball drop celebration. REUTERS/Mike Segar
There have been a lot of folks ‘down’ on New Years lately—people are taking the approach that staying in is better than going out. And I completely get that. The notion of sharing a night with amateurs who pronounce Filet Mignon as “fill it mig nun” isn’t too appealing.
From shirts and ties, tuxedos and top hats, to the more modern attire at the affair, just being a part of Times Square in New York is cool. Sure there may be no place to urinate, except the street you’re standing.. and yes it’s cold and you get hungry.. and of course on TEE VEE you can see Ryan Seacrest up close, but he is wearing too much makeup anyway.
Being apart of New York on New Years is being a part of history, raising the glass to times gone and singing Auld Lang Syne to a new time, one that hopefully brings with it good moments and profits of the wallet and spirit.
Do what you want to on new years eve.. but do it because you want to, not because talking heads without brains tell you what to do..
Maybe your local watering hole.. a church.. a library. Do they have libraries in 2015?? Or maybe a casino.. I don’t know.
Maybe watch the Twilight Zone marathon.
Heck, maybe Times Square.
Either way raise the cup of cheer and sing in a new year..
Welcome to the final minutes of the year 2012. Yes. Already. It was so looked forward to, and it is ending so quickly…
It’s minus Dick Clark this year, though. And that is notable. Fergie is showering ABC viewers tonight in the pre-game with Dick Clark related footage. Donna Summers is playing while the Doors are swaying. Yes, it’s a stroll down amnesia lane in the fast lane. Dick Clarkless 2013. No countdown with the master of Times Square this year.
The show goes on, of course. With Ryan Seacrest to help. Before Seacrest will be ‘out’ there will be a number of events that occur. A massive ball will drop in Times Square. Revelers will kiss their hearts out.. then race for port-a-potties and their hotel rooms. Maybe stop by a pub and have a cup of cheer..
All around the world, the events are taking place. Some places on Earth are already 2013. The Pope will have a homily about how peace could be achieved. Fireworks will fly high into the night sky.. People will embrace and raise their glasses of chosen adult or child beverage. And we will all be one (in a number of different time zones, of course.)
This is, after all, New Year’s Eve. It is a special kind of night.
Recall your fondest new years memories… I know you have them. It may be eating too much turkey in a bar somewhere in the deep dark mines of the Coal Region (the turkey was good. I swear).. or maybe it’s a quiet time in your own home with the people you love. Or maybe it’s working.. Hotels, bars, restaurants.. they are all open tonight. It’s a big night for the service industry… And depending on what services you’re looking for, and what services are being offered, maybe you’re even being serviced, I hope you’re all having a blast.
It seems like yesterday that 2000 hit us like a wrecking ball. Remember those days? People were worried computers would shut down. They stockpiled water and food. Sounds similar to the doomsayers of December 21, 2012, doesn’t it? The only difference is, back then, we partied like it was 1999. This go around we’ll be lamenting the late 90s and wishing they could come back all over again. Gas at a buck a gallon.. milk around 2.. life happy. But was it?
I don’t know.
After all, think of another fond saying people have on New Year’s Eve: “Out with the old, in with the new!” “This year will be better than the last!”
Is any year better?
Is any year new?
It’s all relative, in a way.
It’s only a calender that tells us we’ve swung from one set of 365 to the next. But the events of the day are still stagnant. Reality doesn’t tell time well. We simply measure our existence in the boundaries of it..
But what is time? What are hours, and minutes.. and days and years? I don’t know much about what they are besides what I grew up knowing. And the earth, as it rotates into infinity, allows us to make certain that time is told.
Time is a magazine.
And it’s an enemy.
So often.
And now, like we’ve done countless times before, we’re going to hold our lovers close, call the parents, and hope to keep a couple friends in the process. We have been down this road before. It seems very familiar to me, and I am sure to you.
As the clock ticks down the final minutes of 2012 here on the East Coast of the planet earth, let’s truly hope that 2013 is one that brings all those things we’ve wished for since we began wishing around this time of year: World peace, love across the continents, economy stability, good news, no storms, laughter, and memories to be fond of.
What we may find, as we herald in 2014, is that ‘13 was a mixture of good and bad, positive, and negative. We’ll look back on 12 months of war and hate. It will be peppered with stories of humanity and love, perseverance and kindness. And that’s just life as we know it. Living in America. And at the beginning of the millennium… (2013 still somewhat counts as a beginning, no?)
Since we’ve been down the road before of resolutions and hopes, let’s just calm ourselves down this go around and take it in stride. Don’t put too much pressure on a calender change to change your life. But certainly don’t give up trying to make it.
So happy new year. Raise a glass. Toast the past. Love always. Love deeply. Love actually.
Here’s hoping your cup is full and 2011 brings joy and peace.
Fingers crossed.
Just got a message from co-Tumblr user I often talk to from New York City, who is one of many in a crowd just below the giant ball in New York City, waiting for 11:59 pm when he is able to count down to a new year and kiss his girlfriend. Of course until then he’s drinking few liquids, as the bathrooms potentials besides streets and snow piles are rare…
But he is having fun. And hopefully you are too.
And hopefully 2010 will turn to 2011 and we will all be able to breath a sigh of relief. We made it. Another year over. A new one just begun..
Of course in Australia, last year’s problems are already this year’s. And soon here it will be, too.
Here’s hoping your cup is full and 2011 brings joy and peace.
Fingers crossed.
Looking at video of the “cleanup” in the city that never sleeps is brutal.. cleanup workers smashing into parked cars.. streets still not plowed. A mess is predicted to be coming this weekend, just in time for the Times Square celebration. It may be likely that the ball will drop in a mass of sludge rather than a cold mass of people. Temperatures are predicted to dramatically warm up — and rain will be falling. The maze of snow throughout the city will be left to turn into junk, mixed in with mud and grime of city buses.
