1-1-09

A steak dinner, fireworks, and Dick Clark; what are you doing for New Years Eve?

New Year’s Eve. A time to make changes in your life, look back on your previous year and let loose for one night.
I am not a big party person. I don’t enjoy large gatherings unless I know most of the people attending. However, I think that New Year’s Eve parties are an exception to my skewed way of thinking.
This is a time that we are not expected to be 100% on our best behavior. We can have an extra drink, eat what we want and shoot fireworks off at midnight. Nothing says fun like fireworks at midnight after a night of partying!
It has been a long time since Leigh and I have gone to a good New Year’s party. Lately, by the time the 31st rolled around, we were so tired from the holiday festivities that we’ve just wanted to sit at home and listen to Dick Clark slur in the New Year.
Being tired is no excuse for not having fun. Being in our mid-thirties and being tired is no excuse either.
When we were childless and living in Boston, we went to some nice parties.
The city was always decorated and lit really nice. Christmas was still everywhere you looked. There was normally snow on the ground, the subway (called the “T”) ran into the wee hours of the morning and we could walk everywhere.
There were usually a few people that we knew that were throwing a New Year’s Eve party on that evening. We would go to The Capital Grill and eat a real nice steak dinner and have a couple of drinks at the bar. Figuring out which party to attend first, we were off. Either in a cab, on the “T” or by foot, we made our way to the first party.
Most of our friends were like us, they lived in small fourth floor walk ups and depending on where they lived and to which side of the city their windows faced, you might be able to see a beautiful city skyline lit up for the holidays from one end to the other.
A good game plan that we tried to employ was to schedule our stops so that at midnight, we were at someone’s house that had roof access. Having the ability to walk up a few flights of stairs and emerge onto the rubber coated roof at midnight was key to a memorable evening.
Boston and surrounding towns would always set off fireworks at the turn of the year. If you could get up high enough, fireworks could normally be seen in all directions and for miles around.
Back to large crowds.
I was always pleasantly surprised at the people that I met. Some of my good friends were found at these events. Once in, conversation was good, spirits were always high and everyone always seemed to be just a little easier to get along with.
My favorite was when we went from 1999 to 2000. I’m sure everyone remembers where they were that night. It was a milestone New Year’s.
The party that we attended was huge. The building was a three story brownstone in a rough part of Boston called Jamaica Plain. Known to locals as J.P.
The building was inhabited by three sets of friends that lived on all three floors. Basically the entire building was a large party. Food on the second floor, music on one and two and friendly people on all three.
I only knew a handful of people that were helping to keep the party alive. I was a little bit nervous about going and being around so many people that I didn’t know, but I figured that there were some other people just like me attending the soiree.
Everyone there had a great time. There was great conversation, interesting people and everyone was there with the sole purpose to have a good time.
When Dick Clark was counting down from ten, everyone was as quiet as a study group in a library. When we all reached “One!” the building erupted in cheering, hugging and general jubilation.
I think part of the excitement was because everyone was expecting the world to blow up and planes to fall from the sky because of “Y2K,” and it didn’t happen, but mostly because we had all, throughout the night, become friends and surprisingly had a wonderful time together.
It just goes to show, you never know when you’re going to have the time of your life. Unless you let yourself do different and unfamiliar things, you won’t ever know.
Bryan Pinkey can be reached at bpinkey@nccox.com.