December daily: New Year's Eve

[resonant]

laurenthemself prompts: What is your favourite memory of New Year's Eve?

New Year's Eve is the most extroverted of all extrovert holidays, isn't it? And I'm so not an extrovert. I remember one year that I went with the spouse to a party at one of his work friends' house and spent much of the evening trying to avoid a dolt with a camcorder who was buttonholing people and filming them talking about their resolutions, and one year when I was a teenager and the local AOR radio station was playing the top ten albums of the year in their entirety and I spent tne evening recording them off the radio with my little tape recorder.

Oh, wait, I do have a good memory of New Year's Eve! One year the spouse and I were spending the Christmas holiday with my parents, and my hometown, after I moved away, launched a lovely thing called First Night, where there were pushcarts and live music downtown, and there was a reggae band and we wandered around eating some delicious thing which I can't remember clearly except that it made me very thirsty, and when we were done, we walked home.

When the kidlet was small, we used to celebrate by jumping up and down on bubble wrap, which makes just the right amount of indoor noise. We'd do this, and then go to bed early. It was perfect.

Tonight? We've got about six inches of brand-new snow, and it's still coming down, but I wasn't planning on leaving the house anyway. The spouse is working on a paper; the kidlet is watching something on the phone and giggling, and has been doing so for some hours; and I'm about to settle in to write some smut. Could be much worse.

Now New Year's Day I love, and I always try to celebrate appropriately.

2013 has been hard for me. You know how you can go along for years without any real visceral awareness of the life cycle and your place in it, and then something happens that forcibly opens your eyes to the fact that your time here on earth is limited? Maybe it's just me; maybe other people are aware of that all the time. I couldn't bear it.

So I'm hoping, in 2014, to stop worrying about the years and look for ways to live in the minutes, which is where real life happens.

I wish for each of you to be either set in motion or settled in stillness, whichever you need this year. Take care of yourselves!

Comments

[majoline]

2013 has been hard for me. You know how you can go along for years without any real visceral awareness of the life cycle and your place in it, and then something happens that forcibly opens your eyes to the fact that your time here on earth is limited? Maybe it's just me; maybe other people are aware of that all the time. I couldn't bear it.

So I'm hoping, in 2014, to stop worrying about the years and look for ways to live in the minutes, which is where real life happens.

Here, here. My anxiety keeps latching on to this at night when I'm trying to sleep, and ugh, I thought I was conscious of it before, but it has been utterly REAL all of the sudden and blah.

I am trying to minimize the terror as best as I can, and just try to live life and obtain a better quality of life and do fun things and good work.

Here's to our 2014. *raises glass*

[resonant]

I'm not normally prone to anxiety -- my besetting weakness is more in the area of laziness -- and so I don't have good coping skills yet. The night brooding is new to me, and I don't like it one bit.

Let's have a better year.

[majoline]

I have had some luck with being careful with caffeine and taking supplemental magnesium as well as having soothing music and shows to sleep by, but those aren't necessarily cure-alls. Not letting myself brood over something for a long time and posting about it helps me too. *offers hugs*

Here, here. A better year!

[jesse_the_k]

What a lovely blessing.

I remember my first First Night in Boston, and I've been to one here in Madison. The determined folly of outdoor celebrations in the coldest part of winter makes me grin. And now that my position on the lifecycle means it's simply not possible to join I'm sliding your "live the minutes" into a pocket in my heart for warmth through the year.

And Sherlock in less than 24 hours!

[resonant]

Oh, up here in the north it's a crazy time of year to leave the house for any reason, frankly.

[laurenthemself]

The bubble wrap sounds superb, to be honest.

I am honestly not the best at NYE myself; at eight minutes to midnight I was grumbling that my husband had better be out of the bathroom by midnight, and once the fireworks (literal, not kissing related) were over I really wanted to sleep but other people were playing Cards Against Humanity very loudly and sleep was not an option. I got through work today on a litre of Coke and some No-Doz.

I approve of the smut-writing too! I think a nice evening in sounds lovely. I don't think every NYE nice memory has to be a loud outside one.

[resonant]

I'm way past the age where staying up late has any intrinsic appeal!

I saw ads here for sunrise yoga on New Year's Day, which is the sort of thing that interests me, except that they all said, "On the golf course," and I couldn't imagine how you could be on the golf course and yet out of the subzero windchill. Maybe I should have called and asked.

[jedusaur]

The year after my cousin died, my aunt told me she was at a junk store with my brother (who would have been a preteen then) and she found him staring at a digital novelty clock intently. She asked what he was doing, and he shushed her very seriously and continued staring at the clock until it turned, at which point he threw his hands in the air and said, "HAPPY NEW MINUTE!" And something about that just clicked in her brain, and really helped her focus on the moments and start taking joy in small things again.

[resonant]

Oh, that is a beautiful story. It actually made me tear up a little bit.

[china_shop]

we used to celebrate by jumping up and down on bubble wrap, which makes just the right amount of indoor noise.

Hee! I want to try that now.

May your 2014 be infused with peace and laughter. <3

[resonant]

The bubble wrap thing is especially fun for little kids, who are sometimes not so fond of fireworks.

Thanks for the blessing. So far I cautiously approve of 2014.